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Chemical engineering graduate Maria Mignogna ‘03 (Pittsburgh, Pa.) has achieved her goal of helping the environment by building a solar-powered, scale-model car during an intensive year-long research project. The car will be raced at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Competition this fall.
Mignogna, who will pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Penn State this fall, graduated cum laude last Saturday with membership in Phi Beta Kappa; Sigma Xi, the international honors society for scientific and engineering research; and Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society.
“I’m just really excited that it works,” she says. “The car that we originally built didn’t have enough power. We purchased additional solar panels and determined the best configuration.”
She conducted her experiments under the guidance of James Ferri, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and Javad Tavakoli, associate professor and head of chemical engineering.
“Maria worked in an area of growing importance to the chemical engineering profession,” says Ferri. “By researching matters of an interdisciplinary nature, she gained valuable experience.”
“We wired three panels electrically in a series and three in parallel. We have two sets of two wired in parallel and connected in a series,” says Mignogna, who explains that a series is like a daisy chain and parallel means the positives and negatives are linked together. “For the competition it has to carry up to 500 ml of water. That was too heavy for the vehicle.”
Since the race occurs inside a building, the solar panels are powered by an antique calcium carbide mining lamp. Mignogna determined the optimum conditions — how much carbide and water – for obtaining the maximum amount of light.
Mignogna, who is very interested in environmental protection, conducted research on “green” chemistry and environmentally benign solvents at University of Pittsburgh last summer. She says that her solar car project increased her engineering knowledge “tremendously” and that both professors were very helpful.
“Lafayette has a great academic environment for projects like this,” she says. “The chemical engineering professors are very interested in the students and I felt very comfortable talking to any of them about academic or other problems.”
When the car races in the fall, it will be the first time Lafayette’s chemical engineering department will have fielded one in the competition, which involves predicting the performance of a vehicle with a designated load.
Mignogna served as treasurer of the student chapter of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, co-president of Association for Lafayette Women, and business manager and disk jockey for WJRH, the student radio station. She also was an environmental volunteer and a tutor.