LSU Student Chapter of AIChE Wins at Regional Conference
April 6, 2010
The LSU Student Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) entered two cars in the 2008 Southern Regional Conference of AIChE’s Chem-E car competition. The LSU entries, “Take it to the Limit” and “Black Box Project,” both placed at this year’s competition, held April 4-6 and hosted by Auburn University.
The “Take it to the Limit” car, brainchild of principal designer Matthew Stephens and undergraduate teammates Blake Kliebert, Josh Wiggins, David Orth, Long Huynh, Kirk Rollins, and Matthew Daniel, was awarded third place overall and Most Creative Vehicle Design. This year was its second and final competition, as the chapter generally retires a car after two showings in the regional competition. The “Take it to the Limit” team will automatically proceed to the national competition to be held at the Annual Meeting November 2008 in Philadelphia.
“Limit” has an excellent track record. It won second place overall, as well as Most Creative Car Design and Most Spirited, at the 2007 Southern Regional Conference in South Carolina. It went on to earn LSU more awards than any other university at the 2007 Annual AIChE Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. “Limit” also won the Golden Tire Award, as well as Most Creative Drive System, Most Consistent Performance, Inherent Safety in Design, and Fourth Overall One-Run Accuracy. Matthew Stephens led the 2007 team, working alongside team members Charlton Combs, Tracie Ferguson, Timmy Leblanc, Zachary Scheibel, Stephanie Peterson, Whitney Amato, and Omkar Namjoshi. You can watch a video of “Limit’s” award-winning 2007 performance on YouTube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4HVI0KbZhE.
The “Black Box Project” car team of Long Huynh, Brendan Flynn, Arpan Seth and lead Charlton Combs, won fourth place overall at the Southern Regional Conference. “Black Box” will also proceed to the national competition in Philadelphia. Combs and his team plan to continue improving the car in hopes of an even stronger performance at the Philadelphia conference, and a shot at stardom in 2009.
Article by Melanie McCandless, College of Engineering, 225-578-3242, mmonce@lsu.edu
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