Our Crowdfunding Groups
On Nov. 13th Iowa State’s ChemECar team competed for the first time at the national level in the 2016 Annual Student Conference. Faced with tough competition from 41 other national and international teams they placed 34th, a great achievement. We would like to thank all of our donors who helped make the car a success. Many of the teams at the competition relied heavily on corporate support, and we could not have done this without your generous help!
In light of this recent success Iowa State will be sending two ChemECars to the regional conference this spring. Several ideas have been proposed, and the team is finalizing their plans. Hopefully with the same dedication and perseverance they showed this semester they will make it to nationals again next Fall.
Be sure to check ISU AIChE’s website for upcoming events and more information about the ChemE Car competition http://aiche.cbe.iastate.edu/ . Also check the “Sponsorship” and “ChemECar” tabs to view a list of club and ChemECar Team Sponsors. Sponsors names will also be posted on the Donor Wall in the AIChE Office in Sweeney.
Again AIChE and the Chem E Car team would like to thank you for your support. Building and troubleshooting the car was an incredible learning experience and we had a great time competing at Annual Student Conference.
On Nov. 13th Iowa State’s ChemECar team competed for the first time at the national level in the 2016 Annual Student Conference. Faced with tough competition from 41 other national and international teams they placed 34th, a great achievement. We would like to thank all of our donors who helped make the car a success. Many of the teams at the competition relied heavily on corporate support, and we could not have done this without your generous help!
In light of this recent success Iowa State’s will be sending two ChemECars to the regional conference this spring. Several ideas have been proposed, and the team is finalizing their plans. Hopefully with the same dedication and perseverance they showed this semester they will make it to nationals again next Fall.
Be sure to check ISU AIChE’s website for upcoming events and more information about the ChemE Car competition http://aiche.cbe.iastate.edu/ . Also check the “Sponsorship” and “ChemECar” tabs to view a list of club and ChemECar Team Sponsors. Sponsors names will also be posted on the Donor Wall in the AIChE Office in Sweeney.
Again AIChE and the Chem E Car team would like to thank you for your support. Building and troubleshooting the car was an incredible learning experience and we had a great time competing at Annual Student Conference!
The power mechanism team has one main goal: to make the car go! At the national competition, teams will be given a goal distance of anywhere from 15-30 meters (that’s about 50-100 ft!) that the car must travel in 2 minutes. Our team’s car is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell; hydrogen gas is fed to the fuel cell and reacts with oxygen from the atmosphere to create water and, most importantly, a flow of electrons. The electron flow then powers the motors that then turn the wheels of the car! We use a reaction of sodium hydroxide and solid aluminum foil pieces to produce the hydrogen supply for the car.
One of the biggest challenges for the power mechanism team is speed. Because of the time limit at competition, our small car may need to cover a lot of ground in just 2 minutes. The competition also requires that each car carries a variable amount of water load, which is decided shortly before the competition. The load of the water weight affects the speed of the car. All of these variables mean that testing our reaction and car over and over to determine the average speed with respect to the different load weights is crucial. Our car will be successful if we can accurately predict the speed of our car on competition day.
What do you enjoy about Chem E Car and how has it helped you as an Engineer?
I really enjoying seeing the car work. It’s a great team experience, and you get to do things that you wouldn’t have the opportunity to do otherwise. We’ve learned a lot, and done a lot of troubleshooting. It’s hard and frustrating at times, but it is really rewarding when it comes out right. - Gabi
Would you like to talk a little bit about the regional conference?
It was a really good experience, talking to other people and hearing about the the struggles they’ve gone through with their cars. Everyone was really passionate about ChemECar. I’m looking forward to seeing the other cars this year at nationals. - Jacqui
It was a lot of fun. The gymnasium was about twenty degrees colder than our lab, and that messed up our stopping mechanism. We only had twenty minutes, but we figured it out on the second trial. It was a great opportunity to think on our feet and improvise. - Austin
Chem-E Car was relaunched at Iowa State in 2013 after a period of hiatus. The idea of creating a hydrogen fuel cell car began that year and the car continued to gain momentum and evolve. In 2014 the car got last place at the Regional Competition, and the year after that it placed in 6th. In 2016 the car won 2nd place in both the Chem-E Car and poster competitions, qualifying us for the National Competition. While team members and leadership have changed throughout the years the success of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Chem-E car is thanks to the collaboration of many engineers and their hard work.
Our team uses a iodine clock reaction connected to a led and photosensor to stop the car. We chose this reaction since it is one of the most consistent reactions, and we can easily generate accurate calibration curves. We are able to vary the concentrations of certain chemicals to time the reaction as needed. It can go from zero to about six minutes, but for the competition we only need it for up to two minutes. Other teams use different stopping mechanisms, and some use iodine clock reactions with different chemicals
Thank you for supporting the Iowa State University student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as we prepare for conference.
We really appreciate your support, your name will be listed on the sponsorship wall in the AIChE office.
Thank you for your generosity. Your name will be posted in our list of sponsors on the chapter website (aiche.cbe.iastate.edu) and on our sponsorship wall.
Thanks for all of your help, in addition to having your name posted, you will receive a social media shout out on our Twitter.
Your donation really goes a long way towards bringing us to conference, we really appreciate it! In addition to a social media shoutout your name will be put on the conference T-shirts. (Donations must be made by 10-26-16 to be placed on the conference t-shirt for this semester)
Your donation brings us significantly closer to attending the conference and we really appreciate it! In addition to the benefits above, you will be listed on the website as a Chem E Car Team sponsor.