The UConn student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) was successful in its competitive bid to bring the 2014 AIChE Northeast Regional Student Conference to UConn in spring 2014.  The regional conference is a venue where undergraduate chemical engineering students from throughout the Northeast may share their research experiences, attend workshops, and network with other students and sponsoring companies.

Highlights of the 2014 conference will include undergraduate paper and poster competitions, and the highly anticipated Chem-E-Car competition. Regional winners will earn the opportunity to compete on the national stage at the annual professional meeting, to be held in Atlanta, GA in fall 2014. The student executive board will begin planning for the event immediately.  UConn’s AIChE student chapter is led by senior Breanne Muratori and co-advised by Drs. Jeffrey McCutcheon and Daniel Burkey.

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Two Civil Engineering students have received generous scholarships from The MOLES, an association of professionals engaged in heavy construction based in Woodcliff Lake, NJ. Ashley Kocsis received the Moles Scholarship, which confers a $10,000 award, and Eric Moldvay was awarded the Moles Student Award of $1,000 along with a certificate for outstanding effort in working toward a career in construction engineering and management. The MOLES scholarships are reserved for students who demonstrate academic excellence and a desire to pursue careers in construction engineering and management.

A senior, Ashley is Chief Financial Officer of Chi Epsilon and the UConn chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE); she is also a New England Scholar and recipient of the 2012 School of Engineering Scholarship & Fellowship.  Ashley interned with Skanska in New York City during summer 2012.

Eric, also a senior and a New England Scholar, is an undergraduate research assistant with the Advanced Cementitious Materials and Composites research group. Eric was a highway design intern with the Connecticut Department of Transportation last summer. He is a member of the UConn chapter of ASCE and Chi Epsilon.

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Three doctoral students advised by Dr. Kay Wille, assistant professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, have received an educational scholarship award from the Northeast Transportation Training and Certification Program (NETTCP). The students, who are conducting research in Dr. Kay’s Advanced Cementitious Materials & Composites (ACMC) Laboratory, are Manish Roy, who was awarded the Jack Stephens Memorial Scholarship and whose thesis topic is on bond behavior between Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete (UHP-FRC) and reinforced bar; Rui Zhong, whose thesis research involves high-performance pervious concrete, and Man Xu, whose thesis focuses on UHP-FRC under impact. Rui and Man each received a Robert Barton Scholarship. The awards will be officially presented during a December 18 ceremony.