The K-State Chemical Engineering Department hosted this year’s annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers Mid-America Regional Student conference Apr. 1-3, 2016, on the K-State campus. Chemical Engineering students from across the Midwest descended upon Manhattan to socialize at the student mixer; tour the K-State campus and the Engineering Complex; and compete in research poster and paper, ChemE Jeopardy, and the regional ChemE Car competitions. Student design teams from attending universities spent most of the academic year designing and building small cars about 2 feet long powered and stopped by chemical reactions for the ChemE Car competition, in which the teams compete to stop their cars closest to a predetermined line a certain distance away while carrying a certain weight of water, both of which are not announced until the competition. The K-State pressure car team took first for the second year in a row, again sending them to the national competition this coming fall. Iowa State took second, and the K-State battery car team took third. K-State also won the ChemE Car poster presentation for the fifth year in a row.
