The first-ever AIChE Latin American Regional Chem-E-Car Competition® took place as part of the 2016 Congreso Latinoamericano de Estudiantes de Ingeniería Química (COLAEIQ). COLAEIQ is a five-day chemical engineering student conference that brings together students from all over Latin America (students traveled from as far north as Mexico and from as far south as Argentina). The Chem-E-Car Competition took place outside the Hotel Intercontinental Medellín in Medellín, Colombia on Friday, July 15, 2016. The competition featured Chem-E-Car teams from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, and Universidad de los Andes.
The competition began with the poster presentation and safety inspection. Each team had to give a presentation on its car design before a panel of judges. The judges also performed a safety inspection on each car to make sure that each was safe to operate.
After all teams passed the safety inspection, the performance competition began. The target distance given was 17 meters and the water weight for each car was 200 grams. The winner of the performance competition was Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, with a distance of 18.88 m, 1.88 m away from the target distance. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, also won first place in the poster competition. By winning this regional competition, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Bogotá, secured a spot to compete in the Chem-E-Car Competition at the 2016 Annual Student Conference in San Francisco in November.
Undergraduate students can join AIChE and participate in its programs and benefits at no cost thanks to sponsorship funding. For more information on AIChE Student Programs, click here.