Chemical Engineering students receive national recognition
October 30, 2007
Starkville, MS— The Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering’s student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is the 2007-08 “Outstanding Student Chapter of the Year.” This is the seventh consecutive year the MSU student organization has been honored with the prestigious, national award in the 37 years of its existence.
Dr. Bill Elmore, associate professor and Hunter Henry Chair is the group’s advisor, “This honor is awarded to only 10 percent of the 160 chemical engineering programs in the country.” He added, “Since the award’s existence—it started in the 1970s—we’ve won it 17 times.”
The honor is based on student leadership and service for chemical engineering, as well as university, community and state outreach. The Mississippi State AIChE student organization is 173 members strong. In addition to their studies, they spent their time giving back by building homes with Habitat for Humanity, beautifying and maintaining parks and gardens for children’s homes, on top of hosting several professional seminars and recruiting events. The student members went over and above meeting the criteria for this award by coordinating and conducting several K-12 educational outreach programs—teaching grade and high school students the fun aspects of learning math and science.
Caleb Tash, a senior chemical engineering major, is the president of the student AIChE organization. “We spent a lot of time organizing and judging science fairs, which was really important this year because after talking to the teachers we discovered that they were starting to pull students’ time away from math and science to concentrate on English, because students’ English grades are going down.” Tash explained, “Mathematics and Science isn’t something you can just drop and pick-up later and then expect students to perform on a level that is on par or above the national average, these are stepping stone, knowledge building types of courses.”
Another important goal of the AIChE organization is that the senior student officers organize and schedule company sponsored meetings to create a networking pathway for their chemical engineering student members.
“These meetings are popular with both the companies and the students. The companies sponsor 90 percent of the meetings and we launch this yearlong professional networking series with a golf tournament,” said Tash. “This gives students and company representatives a relaxed and casual atmosphere to begin building their relationships before they move into the more professional subjects of interviewing and presentation.”
The agenda of events for this year include the students competing in the regional southeast chemical engineering (ChE) car competition, which involves building a ChE car that starts, runs and stops by a chemical reaction—the distance the car needs to cover is revealed the day of competition. One of the ways students raise money for these events and outreach activities is by fundraising in the form of cookouts on campus. They plan to donate some of the proceeds they earn this year to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
By looking at their schedule, some may say that the student AIChE organization is well on their way to earning their eighth outstanding student chapter of the year award.
News directors and editors: For more information on the Mississippi State student AIChE organization or to arrange interviews please contact Dr. Bill Elmore.