MISSOURI S&T

Encouraging words from the department chair

The AIChE Recruitment

Team was busy at work this

semester. As Dr. Muthanna

Al-Dahhan, chairman of the

Missouri S&T chemical engi-

neering department, phrased

it, “departmental recruitment

would be very tough without

the help of our AIChE Stu-

dent Chapter.”

Read page 2 to learn more

about AIChE’s work with the

department this semester and

the dedication of James. E.

Bertelsmeyer Hall!

In this issue

Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication: AIChE Recruit-ment Team at work (p.2-3)

Update on Annual Student Conference (p.4)

Chapter funds and donations; Community outreach (p.5)

Fall 2014 speaker series (p.6-7)

A new chapter for the Chem-E-Car team (p.8-9)

Officer election meeting updates (p.10)

Fall 2014: A fresh start for

“Chem-E” at Missouri S&T With the long-awaited opening of James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall, this semester was a very exciting time for both the AIChE student chap-ter and the chemical engineering department. The chapter wel-comed this transition by helping with the dedication of the new building and by once again assisting the department with visitor tours. On behalf of the chapter, I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make this building happen. This semester the chapter continued to host many amazing indus-try speakers to talk about chemical engineering during general meetings. In addition, the Chem-E-Car team and many other chap-ter members made the ten-hour trip down to Atlanta, Georgia to attend the AIChE Annual Student Conference and compete in the national Chem-E-Car competition. All in all it was a very busy, very eventful semester. It has been an honor to serve as president of this great organization, and I can’t wait to see how it grows.

- Amanda Sebelski, President

Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

11/17/2014. Missouri S&T AIChE and Chem-E-Car team members join to celebrate the team’s second place finish in the national Chem-E-Car poster competition.

AICHE SEMESTER NEWSLETTER

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication -Scott Marchetti, Recruitment Officer Missouri University of Science and Technology welcomed many exciting

changes during the Fall 2014 semester such as the completion of the

campus-wide geothermal heat and energy system as well as the enroll-

ment of the largest freshman class in over a decade. However, the most

notable change for the chemical engineering department was the opening

of the 68,500 sqf learning and research facility, James E. Bertelsmeyer

Hall. Mr. Bertelsmeyer (BS ChE’66 – University of Missouri-Rolla) donat-

ed the first $5 million for the building and soon many other alumni contrib-

uted to finance the construction of the much needed facility. Over one

year after groundbreaking in April 2013, the long-awaited building was

opened for classes at the start of the Fall 2014 semester.

AIChE Recruitment Team at work The dedication of James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall was held on October 17,

2014. The dedication was attended by Mr. Bertelsmeyer and his family as

well as many other alumni donors, academy members, and Missouri S&T

faculty and students. After dedication speeches were given by Chancellor

Schrader and Mr. Bertelsmeyer, the AIChE Recruitment Team led 15 mi-

nute tours throughout the building. The tours showcased the Frank H.

Conrad Unit Operations Laboratory (featuring the Emerson Process Man-

agement Control space and a three-level high bay area), the Kielhorn La-

boratory Suite, the Shelton Cell Culture Research Laboratory, the Dennis

R. Parker Biochemical/Protein Engineering Research Laboratory, the Bob

and Ginny Pahl Student Lounge (featuring an interactive work area and

two separate student study rooms), and the ExxonMobil Lecture Hall.

— Story continued on next page.

“We now have one of the best teaching and research facilities in chemical and bio-chemical engineering at any university in the country. I am thrilled to see the enthusiasm in the students and faculty, who are using this facility now.” - James E. Bertelsmeyer

10/17/2014. James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication.

10/17/2014. James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

10/17/2014. Mr. Bertelsmeyer at the James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication.

Bertelsmeyer Hall Dedication (cont.) -Scott Marchetti, Recruitment Officer Visitors were also offered the option to view the second floor and basement areas featuring the Guy Mace Multi-Phase Research Lab and the Jeff and Pat Sheets Lecture Hall, respectively. Upon finishing the tour, a dinner was held to celebrate the dedication followed by dessert, champagne, and fire-works outside the new facility. With the opening of a new building, the AIChE Recruitment Team worked diligently to create quality presentations for department visits and tours throughout the building. Many hours were spent reading articles and inter-viewing faculty about building features, donor information, and laboratory research. Working with the chemical engineering department, the Recruit-ment Team was able to continue the AIChE chapter’s tradition this semes-ter in promoting the chemical engineering program with numerous tours given during department visits, two open houses, and roughly 10 Miner Days events. In addition, the recruitment team provided tours for Freshmen Engineering students in order to present the learning and career possibili-ties available to students in chemical engineering.

It is a great time to be a “Chem-E” at Missouri S&T. Having a building sole-ly for the Department of Chemical Engineering has provided new and more accommodative space for learning and research at Missouri S&T. James E. Bertelsmeyer Hall will certainly be a milestone in the success of the “new” chemical engineering department.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

Update on Annual Student Conference in Atlanta, Georgia -Michael Clemons, National Liaison The Annual Student Conference for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers was held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in November this year. Nineteen chapter members made the long ten-hour car ride for the exciting chance to listen to industry speakers, to network with students and other professionals, and to support the Chem-E-Car team. The weekend opened with a welcome mixer on Friday evening. The con-ference revved up on Saturday with a speech by the keynote speaker, John Brock, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises. Following the speech, multi-ple career and academic planning workshops were held throughout the day. Later in the day, the Chem-E-Car floor team began the preliminary inspections for the competition by presenting their car to safety inspectors and a closed group of chemical engineering industry and academia pro-fessionals. In the evening, the group joined back together to check out the Student Bash. On Sunday, chapter members went to support the Chem-E-Car team dur-ing the national Chem-E-Car competition held at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Missouri S&T team placed 16th overall out of 36 com-peting teams and took second place in the poster competition. There were people coming to compete from as far away as Qatar, South Korea, and Malaysia. On Monday, the AIChE Annual Meeting started for graduate students and professional chemical engineers. By listening to the research experiments discussed, many members were able to learn more about the technical aspects of chemical engineering. This compact weekend went by incredibly fast and many great experienc-es were gained from it. From networking with others from all over the globe to learning from workshops, we are grateful for being able to attend.

Chapter consti-tution revised -Nathan Breshears, External Activities Coordinator This semester, the chapter ratified new amendments to the constitu-tion. The previous constitution had been lost in a recent server crash and no other copies could be found. An electronic copy from a couple years past was recovered from a previous EAC. This copy was put up for review by the AIChE general member body and several updates were made in regards to refining officer position descrip-tions. Copies of the updated consti-tution can be found on the AIChE website, as well as in the chemical engineering department office. An-yone wishing to submit amend-ments to the constitution or bylaws should bring proposals in writing to the EAC.

11/15/2014. AIChE Student Bash.

11/15/2014. Missouri S&T AIChE Annual Student Conference attendees gather together before attending keynote speech by Coca-Cola Enterprises CEO.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

"The majority of the

boy scouts were really

amazed by the science

behind our Chem-E-

Car, which was very

pleasing to see from

them at a very young

age. I enjoyed the ex-

perience and would do

it again if the opportuni-

ty arises."

-Folabomi Opakunle

Chapter funds and donations -Kristian Branscum, Vice President-Internal -Thomas Wesselmann, Treasurer On behalf of the chapter, we thank all of the companies for their generous donations to the chapter. Aside from donations this semester, the chapter held two successful pancake break-fasts and a car wash. Thanks to the many students that volunteered to help with the fundraisers and the car wash, the chapter was able to raise over $300 this semester.

Community outreach -Shayan Sazdar, Secretary

Since the end of last semester, some AIChE members have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to reach out to the community multiple times. In May 2014, Folabomi Opakunle and Kenneth Mucalo from the Chem-E-Car team set off to the Scouting 500 event in Kansas City, MO to showcase the team’s chem-e-car to middle and high school students from across the country (see side bar). In addition, AIChE members once again

helped keep the chapter’s adopted portion of interstate 44 clean during the two semester cleanup events. Many members volunteered in the highway cleanups this semester which helped make the events both productive and fun!

9/20/2014. Highway cleanup crew on west end of adopted segment of I-44.

9/21/2014. AIChE Carwash.

5/17/2014. Folabomi Opakunle at Scouting 500. Kansas City, MO.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

An important update on OrgSync “I encourage the members

of our chapter to sign in for

events through OrgSync be-

fore they take place. Having

this knowledge would be

helpful to future treasurers

as they are in charge of fig-

uring out how much food to

order for general meetings.”

- Luca Clemons, Historian

11/13/2014. Hot chocolate social in Bob and Ginny Pahl Student Lounge.

11/6/2014. Dustin Olson from LyondellBasell speaks to a group of freshman students about working in the oil and gas industry as a chemical engineer.

Fall 2014 speaker series -Daksh Desai, Vice President-External This semester, the AIChE student chapter moved out from Schrenk Hall G-3 and began holding general meetings in Bertelsmeyer Hall. As always, chapter members had the privilege to hear from various alumni and repre-sentatives from a number of companies. However this semester, the AIChE executive board decided to increase the number of general meet-ings. In addition to this change, the AIChE executive board also came together and voted to host a hot chocolate social for the chemical engineering de-partment. This event was a great opportunity for students to learn more about AIChE and to socialize with other students in the department. As done in the past, AIChE also hosted a corporate mixer event the even-ing before the Missouri S&T Fall 2014 career fair in September. The chap-ter was graced with the support of Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, Exx-onMobil, and The Clorox Company, at this event. Employers discussed the career opportunities at their companies and shared advice about working in the professional world. The corporate mixer was a great oppor-tunity for students to network and mingle with representatives from the companies in attendance. The Missouri S&T chapter was also fortunate to join the St. Louis section of AIChE along with a few other local universities for a plant tour of Dr. Pepper and Snapple in Overland, MO. This plant visit was a great oppor-tunity for students to see the daily operations of Dr. Pepper and Snapple’s manufacturing plant while mingling with professionals in the St Louis area, as well as students from the other universities. Please refer to the next page to learn about the Fall 2014 guest speakers.

—Story continued on next page.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

10/30/2014. Scott Clodfelter of Archer Daniels Midland speaks to a crowd of students about his career experiences.

Fall 2014 speaker series (cont.) -Daksh Desai, Vice President-External

Industry guest speakers

September 3, Larry Barringer and Catherine Bohanon, Phillips 66. To start off the semester, Larry and Catherine from Phillips 66’s Wood River, IL refinery visited the chapter to discuss refinery operations and internship experiences at Phillips 66.

September 17, Steve Miller and Greg Hanlin, The Clorox Company. Joining again from the Belle, MO Kingsford Charcoal Plant, Steve and Greg discussed the start-to-finish plant processes for making charcoal.

October 1, Dave Sextro and Todd Jaco, MYNAH Technologies. Dave and Todd discussed the importance of process controls and sim-ulations in chemical engineering and presented a demonstration of MY-NAH simulation products.

October 15, John Miller, DuPont. In addition to speaking about DuPont, John reflected on his personal career endeavors in chemical engineering and shared great advice on how to succeed in the profes-sional world .

October 23, Godson Onwubiko and Brock Jacobs, ICL Perfor-mance Products. Godson and Brock reflected on their exciting co -op experiences at ICL Performance Products.

October 29, Scott Clodfelter, Archer Daniels Midland. Scott re-flected on his work experiences as an engineer and discussed the in-ternship and new-hire programs at ADM.

November 11, Dustin Olson and Danniger Smith, LyondellBasell. Dustin and Danniger discussed the importance of the oil & gas industry in the United States and they highlighted ways chemical engineers can make an impact in the industry.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

A new chapter for the Chem-E-Car team -Kenneth Mucalo, Chem-E-Car President

As the Fall 2014 semester and my time as Chem-E-Car president comes to an end, it is time to reflect and see how far the team has come since last semester. Though we did not achieve the same success during the national competition as we had during the Mid-America Regional competi-tion (where we took first place), this semester marks a new beginning for the Chem-E-Car team. During nationals, the team placed 16

th overall out of the 36 teams from

across the world and received second place in the poster competition. Our car, “The Hour Strikes Twelve”, ran on a homemade 6-cell lead-acid battery and was timed via the chemiluminescence of luminol. Aside from competition, this semester the team presented to the Missouri S&T Retiree Association to showcase “The Hour Strikes Twelve.” On be-half of the team, I would like to thank the Missouri S&T Retiree Associa-tion and their host, David Dearth for their generous donation to the team.

New laboratory and tools in use Thanks to the generous donations of James E. Bertelsmeyer and Fred Kielhorn and the kindness the Chemical Engineering Faculty, the team now shares workspace in the new Anderson Research Laboratory. The new lab furnished with brand new safety equipment and a dedicated workshop space has enabled the team to utilize tools in a more accom-modative space. Apart from the new lab, the team began utilizing new technologies at Mis-souri S&T. This semester, the team made use of 3-D printing to construct the gear box for “The Hour Strikes Twelve.” This new gear box solved some mechanical problems we experienced last semester.

—Story continued on next page.

The Missouri S&T Chem-E-Car Team

11/16/2014. Missouri S&T Chem-E-Car Floor Team, Photo Credit: AIChE

Back row: Michael Clemons, Christopher Palmer**, Jonathan Colaric**, Greg McDaniels Jr, Austin Scheer, Landon Brand, Sean Loreaux. Middle row: Folabomi Opakunle (Deputy Solution Officer)**, Yae Lin Lee, Valerie Teson, Jacob Tuia (Deputy Safety Officer), Ryler Evans, Michael McMahon, Mathias Whitworth (Deputy Safety Officer), Kristian Branscum** (Build Officer). Front row: Kenneth Mucalo (President), Amy Snyder** (Safety Officer), Melissa Vidal (Research Officer), Shayan Sazdar** (Solution Officer). ** Floor team member.

“The Hour Strikes Twelve,” Missouri S&T Chem-E- Car 2014

11/12/2014. “The Hour Strikes Twelve” charging for practice tests.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

11/16/2014. Missouri S&T Chem-E-Car team receiving second place poster competition award at the AIChE Annual Student Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Photo Credit: AIChE

A new chapter for the Chem-E-Car team (cont.) -Kenneth Mucalo, Chem-E-Car President

Reorganization and future outlook

However, the biggest change the team is undergoing is reorganization. Since Fall 2013, there has been a steady increase in people interested in joining the Chem-E-Car team. In less than a year, from a team of 8 mem-bers, the number has jumped to over 20. Combined with the departure of many veteran members, this situation challenges the current organizational system. Therefore, there is a need to reorganize and transform the Chem-E-Car team from a small project team into a student design organization Looking towards next semester’s car, the team is currently working on de-signing a thermoelectric battery to convert a temperature difference to elec-trical power through the peltier effect. The timing mechanism of the new car will be based on the degradation of hydrogen peroxide catalyzed with po-tassium iodide. The hope is to use the generated pressure from the reaction to move a column of water or to induce some other mechanical change that can be used to trigger a switch that will turn off the car. The Chem-E-Car team’s long term performance goal is to improve consist-ently. Hopefully with reorganization, we can improve our standing next time with the ultimate goal of taking first place and consistently holding it for se-mesters to come.

Acknowledgments This newsletter was pre-pared by Shayan Sazdar (newsletter coordinator), the newsletter committee, and AIChE chapter advi-sor, Dr. Daniel Forciniti.

Fall 2014 Officers Amanda Sebelski President

Daksh Desai Vice President-External

Kristian Branscum Vice President-Internal

Shayan Sazdar Secretary

Thomas Wesselmann Treasurer Scott Marchetti Recruitment Officer

Kenneth Mucalo Chem-E-Car President Michael Clemons National Liaison

Nathan Breshears External Activities Coordinator

Luca Clemons Historian

Contact Us

Missouri S&T AIChE Bertelsmeyer Hall 1101 N. State Street Rolla, MO 65409 aiche@mst.edu

Missouri University of Science and Technology: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (Rolla, MO) December 2014

Stay up to date with AIChE online! We are currently in transition of moving our current website

(www.mstaiche.com) to Google Sites! Luca Clemons, AIChE historian

says, “switching to Google Sites for our chapter’s website will allow for a

more user friendly experience for future historians and will help increase

its usefulness in the long run. I plan on becoming part of the web commit-

tee next semester to see that this move is carried out with as much con-

sistency as possible.” In the meantime, be sure to:

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Request an invite on OrgSync Also, as always, we encourage members to register as a national member

for all of the latest updates from AIChE. Visit http://www.aiche.org/

community/students/student-membership to register. National member-

ship is free for students!

Officer election meeting updates Congratulations to those who will be leading the AIChE student chapter next semester! Below is a list of the chapter officers for next semester. In addition to the officer elections that were held during the December 3rd general meeting, chemical engineering department chairman, Dr. Muthanna Al-Dahhan spoke with the chapter about the initiation of a department student advisory council. The council will offer students in the chemical engineering department as well as chemical engineering student organizations, such as the AIChE student chapter, the opportunity to meet directly with Dr. Al-Dahhan to discuss the concerns and needs of students in the department.

Spring 2015 Missouri S&T AIChE Officers Kenneth Mucalo, President

Jacob Tuia, Vice President-External

Richard Woods, Vice President-Internal

Aaron Latal, Secretary

Ehab Dabbagh, Treasurer

Michael Niehoff, Recruitment Officer

Gregg McDaniels, Jr., Chem-E-Car President

Mason Young, National Liaison

Nathan Breshears, External Activities Coordinator

Yae Lin Lee, Historian

William Cowley, Student Advisory Council Representative (new position)