A Great Reason to get started in AIChE
May 16, 2017
A group of Mississippi State’s AIChE chapter members and Dr. Elmore embarked towards San Francisco, CA on November 11, 2016, to attend the national AIChE conference. The conference was hosted inside of the luxurious Hilton Hotel within the Hilton Union Square. Not only did students have the chance to attend one of chemical engineering’s biggest conventions, but students were also able to compete in various academic events on a national scale.
Erin Wynn and Angelica Meiers accepted the Engineers Without Borders grant on behalf of Mississippi State’s Engineers Without Borders club that finishes life-changing projects within Zambia. In addition, students who are involved in research on campus had a chance to present their research amongst 400 other chemical engineering students. Deonante Frazier, a sophomore, presented his research on Polymer Synthesis from Cottonseed Oil, and Elizabeth Stafford, a senior, presented her research on Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Polyamide Thin Films. Throughout this trip, students could see the glorious skylines and mountainous terrain of San Francisco, while nurturing their minds to become better chemical engineers overall.
In between the National Conventions every year, AIChE also holds regional conventions during the spring. For the 2017 academic year, the Southern Region of AIChE held their conference in Knoxville, TN, during March 29 through April 1, 2017. Here, we competed in the Paper Competition (Anna Taconi), the Poster Competition (Deonante Frazier), and the ChemE Jeopardy competition.
In addition, a freshman chemical engineering student, Kassidy Adams, confidently represented Mississippi State as she presented Mississippi State’s bid to host the 2019 Southern Regional Conference. Kassidy’s hard work paid off as Mississippi State was granted the bid to host the Southern Regional Conference during the 2019 year!
Not only is this a great opportunity for the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering to showcase the great work of our department, but it also a great way for Swalm to garnish more contacts for any esteemed chemical engineering faculty and/or professionals across the southern region of the United States.
In order to go to national and/or regional conference, the elected officials of AIChE determines how many service hours are needed to be eligible to attend. These service hours are tallied from the semester prior to the semester in which the conference takes place. In addition, the students who are eligible must be a national AIChE member, which is free, and they must pay their local dues.