Chem-E-Car team heads to nationals
The U-M Chem-E-Car team placed third and fourth at the North-Central Student Regional Conference in April. This October, the team will be heading to San Diego to compete nationally.
After securing both third and fourth place in the American Institute of Chemical Engineer’s (AIChE) regional competition, the U-M Chem-E-Car team will compete on a national level at the Annual AIChE Student conference in San Diego, CA this October.
What is Chem-E-Car?
The AIChE Chem-E-Car Competition® challenges students to design and construct small, shoebox-sized cars powered entirely by a chemical energy source that will run a specified distance and then stop. The competition, which involves multiple regional competitions and a final national competition, aims to raise awareness of chemical engineering among students, educators, and industry leaders, showcasing ingenuity in design, chemical engineering principles, and teamwork.
In this year’s regional competition, U-M’s Chem-E-Car team submitted a pressure-powered car, “Double Trouble”, which placed in third, and a battery-powered car, “Trouble Double”, which came in fourth.
“The last regional competition was the first time our team was able to submit both our pressure and battery cars that have been in development for multiple years,” said club vice president and ChE undergraduate student Rebecca So. “It was very exciting, as we were the only team of 14 schools to be able to submit two cars! We really wanted our names to highlight the dynamic duo. We have now renamed our battery car ‘Big Battery Car’ to avoid confusion.”
Preparing for nationals
After considering general accuracy, travel considerations, and promising preliminary data from a new stopping reaction, the team has selected “Big Battery Car” to move on to nationals. The car will need to undergo further refinements before it is ready to perform on a national stage.
“At regionals, our battery car was very successful,” said the team’s chief engineer Jayden Elliott, a ChE undergraduate student. “But the national competition is always a step up in competition, and we have a lot of room for improvement. At this point we are mainly focused on refining the car design that we took to regionals and are looking to switch to a different, more predictable reaction in order to increase our performance.”
The team had initially used a stopping reaction that posed consistency challenges, limiting the car’s potential. To address this, they plan to adopt an iodine clock reaction, known for its reliability. Additionally, they plan to redesign the car’s chassis electronics to streamline the start-up process and improve overall reliability.
Beyond working on technical improvements, the team has been working to coordinate travel arrangements and secure travel funding, with support from corporate sponsors BASF, ExxonMobil, and Wacker, as well as additional backing from the University’s Department of Chemical Engineering and College of Engineering.
Looking forward
“The support from the department, faculty and students has been overwhelming and we are so excited to compete at nationals. I’m trying not to get my hopes up but I think we have a really strong team and car and have the potential to do very well,” said So. “I specifically want to thank Dr. Barr, who oversees the DOW labs. Without him, moving into the DOW labs and subsequent ability for our team to expand would not be possible. He is a voice of reason and support for our team and we are eternally grateful.”
For many senior team members, preparing for nationals has been a bittersweet experience. “We have been together on the team since our freshman year and were fortunate enough to make it to nationals every year since,” said president and ChE undergraduate student Sophia Lee. “It has been so exciting to see our newer leadership and members rise to the occasion to allow us to showcase not one, but two high-performing cars. The team has grown so much just in the past couple of years, and we have no plans of slowing down!”
At the national competition, the team will be competing for the H. Scott Fogler First Place Prize, which was named to honor the legacy of long-time U-M Chemical Engineering professor, H. Scott Fogler. Fogler, who passed away in August 2021, founded the undergraduate student chapter Chem-E-Car competition over thirty years ago and served for more than 10 years as U-M’s AIChE Student Faculty Advisor. In 2017, colleagues, friends and former students established an endowment through AIChE to honor his legacy and commitment to the education of students and the practice of chemical engineering. The title of the first place award has held his name ever since.