Mines Students Shine at Regional Chemical Engineering Conference

Students from the Karen M. Swindler Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at South Dakota Mines demonstrated innovation, teamwork and technical excellence at the recent American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Rocky Mountain Regional Conference held at the University of Utah.

Competing against peers from across an eight-state region, Mines students earned top honors in multiple events, including a first-place finish in the highly competitive Chem-E-Car contest.

Twelve students represented Mines at the conference, which brought together universities from Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, North and South Dakota and Wyoming. The event featured technical presentations, poster sessions, outreach showcases and academic competitions designed to test students’ knowledge and creativity in real-world engineering applications.

At the conference, the Mines AIChE student chapter fielded two entries into the Chem-E-Car competition, with one team earning first place. The competition challenges teams to design and build small vehicles powered and stopped entirely by chemical reactions. The winning car, Brickey Style, used a hydrogen fuel cell system.

“The regional conference is always fun for the students,” said Charlie Stocekel, senior chemical engineering major and member of the winning team. “I’ve made some good friends and connections that I can network with in industry. Being able to compete for the first time of the year in Chem-E-Car is always fun, especially when all the effort pays off.”

A second Mines team also competed with a zinc/copper battery-powered car and is already preparing improvements for the next regional event.

In addition to the group’s Chem-E-Car success, Mines students placed second in the Jeopardy competition, missing first place. The fast-paced academic contest testing knowledge across core subjects such as thermodynamics, transport phenomena and reaction engineering.

Students also showcased their commitment to community engagement through the Outreach Showcase. Their “Yummy Fermentation” module, focused on yogurt production, highlighted creative approaches to teaching chemical engineering concepts.

Following their strong performance, the Mines team has qualified to compete at the AIChE Annual Meeting in Minneapolis this November, where they will face teams from around the world.

“The conference was awesome,” said Talan Roberts, a sophomore chemical engineering major. “I got to compete with some spectacular engineers coming from schools with populations as big as 25,000 to those that barely have 2,500. I felt like I belonged among these people, like we shared something. The students were relatable; however, the most important thing that I got from the conference was the words of wisdom the speakers had to share.”