Last November, chemical engineering students Matt Grattan ChE’21, Derek Ni ChE’18, MChE’20, Jason Sherman ChE’20, Peter Zhao ChE’20, and Dave Chun ChE’19, MChE’21, faculty, and Cooper alumnus Chae Jeong-Potter ChE’16, MChE’17, attended and presented at the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Conference in Orlando, FL.

Professors of chemical engineering Ben Davis, Amanda Simson, Jennifer Weiser, and Daniel Lepek ChE’04 presented their research work and organized meeting sessions at the conference. Professor Lepek presented a talk in the Young Faculty Forum entitled, “Reflections from Ten Years at the Lectern: Insights on Teaching, Scholarship, and Service from an Educational-Focused Perspective.” He also served as Vice-Chair of the Education Division of AIChE, organizing programming and contributing to the division Plenary Session.

Professor Simson chaired the Young Faculty Forum and co-chaired a session on Effective Communication Skills for ChE. Professor Davis presented “Scientific Computing for Chemical Engineers in Python” in the session Steal this Course!: Electives and Novel Course Offerings. He also served as Programming Chair of the Education Division of AlChE and co-chaired a session on Experiences in Teaching Process Safety. 

 

Peter Zhao presented “Miscanthus Sacchariflorus Bioenergy Production,” a chemical process research design on an alternative Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in collaboration with Dave Chun and Professors Simson and Davis.  

Derek Ni also successfully presented “Kinetic Studies on the CO2 Gasification of Biochar for Use with SOFCs as a BECCS Process” in collaboration with Professor Simson.

Lastly, Chae Jeong-Potter presented “Dual Functional Material for the Capture and Catalytic Conversion of CO2 to Fuel from an O2-Containing Flue Gas” based on her Ph.D. work at Columbia University in the session Thermochemical CO2 Reduction I: C1 Products.