{"id":233322,"date":"2017-04-14T10:44:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T14:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=233322"},"modified":"2017-04-14T10:44:40","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T14:44:40","slug":"chem-e-car-team-shows-its-spirit-at-regional-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/chem-e-car-team-shows-its-spirit-at-regional-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Chem-E-Car team shows its spirit at regional competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the fledgling Chem-E-Car team at the URochester went head to head against powerhouse teams from Cornell and McGill at their first-ever regional competition last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, just getting to the competition and passing the safety component\u2014we were ecstatic,\u201d says Elizabeth Mauser \u201917, who, with fellow senior Reyna Juarez Martinez, began organizing the team in earnest just last school year.<\/p>\n

Safety is paramount\u2014and stringently enforced\u2014at the competitions<\/a> sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The events feature vehicles students build from scratch, powered by chemical reactions. Teams are given two attempts to deliver a load of water as close as possible to a distance determined an hour before the competition begins.<\/p>\n

The chemical engineering students, all members of the University\u2019s AIChE student chapter, finished tied for 11th place among 13 qualifying teams in the March 26 event at Worchester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\"overheadThe Rochester vehicle was powered by a reaction of aluminum and oxygen. \u201cBasically we used aluminum foil with activated carbon, which has pockets of air,\u201d explains team member Alexander Lamothe \u201917. \u201cWe just rolled it up into small burrito-like cells (16 in all, in two separate compartments) with salt solution as the conductive medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming up with that part of the design \u201ctook the longest amount of time to figure out,\u201d Lamothe says. \u201cEven towards the end we weren\u2019t really sure we would get the right amount of power, and had to switch out the design of the batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was ultimately the team\u2019s undoing when the competition got under way.<\/p>\n

The Rochester students were the first to the start line. Alas, they couldn\u2019t get their vehicle to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just needed a little more power . . . Just a few extra cells and it would have started moving,\u201d Lamothe says.<\/p>\n

The students are taking the setback in stride. \u201cAs I said, we tied for 11th,\u201d Mauser says, laughing good-naturedly. \u201cSo two other cars didn\u2019t move either.\u201d<\/p>\n

They recognize that the competition was part of a learning curve that began just over a year ago, when Mauser and Juarez Martinez were the team\u2019s only members, struggling to master car design and safety procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project was all about learning as we went,\u201d Juarez Martinez says. \u201cTrying to recruit and retain members, that was the hardest part. This year we had a core group that kept coming back, and that encouraged us to keep going with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s spirit showed. Unlike some of the other teams, they didn\u2019t have big corporate sponsors or funding. But the judges \u201csaid we were most enthusiastic team,\u201d says Melissa Becker \u201917.<\/p>\n

Team members say they\u2019re grateful for the advice and support they received from faculty and staff within the Department of Chemical Engineering. Next year, they\u2019ll encourage students from other departments such as mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering to lend their expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you never fail, it means you haven\u2019t been pushing yourself hard enough,\u201d Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences tells incoming students. \u201cWhat you do next\u2014how you learn from failure and move forward so you don\u2019t repeat mistakes\u2014that is what really counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the 11 members who coalesced this year, all six non-graduating students plan to continue the team in fall 2017.<\/p>\n

Next year, they have no intentions of being stuck at the starting line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the fledgling Chem-E-Car team went head to head against powerhouse teams from Cornell and McGill at their first-ever regional competition last month. 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