Brown Engineers Finish First and Second at AIChE Competition

Students in the Brown chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to compete in a student poster competition. For the second consecutive year, a Brown engineer has returned to College Hill with a first place trophy.

Brown's biomedical engineering student, Melissa Tsang '11 brought home the first place trophy. Tsang competed in the materials engineering and sciences category among 46 participants divided into three groups. She conducted her project, entitled "Novel Polyurethane-Carbon Nanofiber Composite for Bladder Cancer Applications," in collaboration with Associate Professor Thomas Webster and Dr. YoungWook Chun, a Ph.D. candidate in Professor Webster's lab.

In the environmental category, Nattie Cooper '12 took home a second place award.

Melissa Tsang '11 at the center, BME 

Brown's other AIChE student poster competitors included: James Saraidaridis '11 (supervisor Professor Tayhas Palmore), Theresa Raimondo '11 (supervisors Associate Professor Anubhav Tripathi and graduate student Stephanie McCalla), Lakshmi Madhavan '11 (supervisor Professor J. M. Calo), David Sonshine '11 (supervisor Professor Robert Hurt), and Daniel Prendergast '11 (supervisors Professor Eric Suuberg and graduate student James Rice).

"Every year the competition gets more and more competitive than I have seen in previous years," said Indrek Kulaots, lecturer in Engineering.

Brown engineer wins top prize at AIChE

Above: First Place winner in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology section, Allison Yorita.
Below: AIChE students (left to right): Andrea Jones, Lakshmi Madhavan, and Allison Yorita.

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) students in the Brown chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers traveled to Nashville, Tenessee to compete in the student poster competition. Professor Joseph Calo reports that "our CBE students have, once again, made a terrific showing against some very strong national competition."

Our AIChE student poster competitors included: in the Environmental category a junior working with Professor Calo, Lakshmi Madhavan; and in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology category two seniors working with Professor Tripathi, Andrea Jones and Allison Yorita.

In the most competitive category "Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology," out of the 71 best posters in the nation, our student Allison Yorita brings home the first place award. Indrek Kulaots reports that "the competition was the most competitive I have seen so far in previous years as long as I have been involved with AIChE."