AIChE Outreach
UF AIChE is excited to announce that we are now sister chapters with Bandung Institute of Technology in Bandung, Indonesia, officiated by National AIChE as of August 2020! We had the first meeting with many of their members on Saturday, February 13th at 9:00 PM to discuss chemical engineering in Indonesia, differences in Indonesia vs American culture, and get to know them as partners to our chapter in the coming future!
We were previously sister chapters with the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil. We participated in many fun events with them, including meeting them at an AIChE conference, exchanging t-shirts, and welcome videos to celebrate our sisterhood! They have won Outstanding Student Chapter for 3 years in a row and we know they will continue to do great things in the future!
Every year AIChE holds the K-12 STEM Outreach Competition which invites student chapters from across the nation to present a discussion, experiment, or demonstration to promote youth involvement in STEM-related fields. Our chapter has had the honor of competing in 2019 with “Thinking Like a ChemE: Building a Humanitarian Filter”, and again in 2020 with “Saving Lives with Centrifugation”.
Students are tasked with building a water filter using common objects. Students must think critically while using very basic separation principles to analyze how a water filter can be made from common everyday objects. As background, we ask students to think about the real-life application of this exercise: the example we give the students is the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico who may need a cost-efficient water filter from materials they already have.
Images to the right. Saving Lives with Centrifugation (2020) Students are tasked with building a centrifuge using only cardboard and cotton twine. They will investigate the medical, physics, and engineering concepts behind blood processing by creating and centrifuging their own “blood” solution. The purpose of this experiment is to raise awareness for and encourage blood donations, especially during the shortage we have experienced from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Won Best Module in the 9-12 category!!
Images to the left
K-12 Events: E-Fair
The Engineering Fair is a tabling event, where k-12 students from multiple schools have the opportunity to do hands-on experiments. This event takes place during the Spring, and AIChE has had the opportunity to showcase many experiments such as:
Ferrofluid: First 2 images
Nitrogen Ice Cream: 3rd image
Sodium Polyacrylate: Last 2 images
