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Since April 2004, Lucas Landherr’05 (Preston, Conn.) and other chemical engineering majors have been planning the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers Mid-Atlantic Student Regional Conference, to be held at Lafayette for the first time April 8-10.
“We’ve been thinking about hosting for a few years now, and we finally decided that with the completion of the new Acopian Engineering Center, we would have the facilities to do so,” Landherr says.
Their proposal to host the event was submitted two years ago, and they were finally chosen for the 2005 conference.
Javad Tavakoli, associate professor and head of chemical engineering, believes hosting the event, which should bring students from 15 to 20 other colleges from the region to Lafayette, will provide good exposure for the College and its state-of-the-art facilities.
The conference will have two major components over the course of three days. Students involved in yearlong research will give presentations that will be evaluated by peers and judges for selection to advance to the national conference held later in the year.
The second focus of the conference is the Chem-E-Car competition. It requires student groups to design and construct a car that is powered with a chemical energy source and can carry a specified load over a given distance and stop. Winners from the regional conference advance to the national conference as well.
Besides the presentations and competitions, the regional conference offers students a chance to network with other chemical engineering majors and explore possible schools for graduate studies.
“Our main goal is to show other schools that we are a college with a good engineering program,” Landherr says. “Although we are small, we offer great facilities and good professors.”
