UConn Material Advantage Members Impress With “DomesDay” Design

By Giorgina Paiella

ASM International hosted its first “DomesDay” Geodesic Dome Design Competition at the 2014 Materials Science and Technology (MS&T) conference in Pittsburgh, PA this October. The competition invited Material Advantage student teams to design a twelve-inch scale model of a geodesic dome that could potentially be used to provide efficient shelter for individuals living in third world nations.

MSE seniors Luke McCarthy, James Kos, and Nick Poulos represented UConn at the competition. Their modified geodesic design, comprised of welded A36 structural steel, maxed out the compression tester at over 11,000 lbs. It doubled the load of the nearest competitor and set the team apart as the only dome design that did not fail during testing. UConn placed second behind Virginia Tech’s cast aluminum dome, largely because UConn’s design exceeded the maximum force allowed to factor into the judges’ final decision.

Although McCarthy, Kos, and Poulos will graduate in the spring, members of UConn Material Advantage look forward to participating in the competition again next fall.

CBE Undergraduates Win AIChE Poster Prizes

Students of the CBE department excelled at AIChE’s Undergraduate Poster Competition this November. Despite fierce competition among more than 300 student presenters, six UConn Chemical Engineers took home prizes.

The 2014 AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Annual Meeting was held in Atlanta, Georgia this year. It is the premier forum for chemical engineers, and academic and industry experts presented developments on a wide range of topics relevant to cutting-edge research, new technologies, and emerging growth areas in chemical engineering.

Over the years, the Undergraduate Poster Session has become one of the highlights of the conference. Competing students each prepared a poster detailing progress and contributions on their independent research projects. During the conference, the students presented their work to individual judges. Over 80 judges were in attendance, all of whom were senior AIChE members from academia or industry.

The research categories included: Catalysis and Reaction Engineering; Sustainability; Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology; Separations; Environmental; Education; Fuels, Petrochemicals and Energy; Computing and Process Control; and Materials Engineering and Sciences. Awards were presented to the top posters in each division.

We’re pleased to announce that the following UConn CBE undergraduates won in their divisions:

• Gabriella Frey – 1st Place in Separations
  “Formulating Draw Solution Mixtures for Forward Osmosis
• Gianna Credaroli – 2nd Place in Separations
  “A New Thin Film Composite Membrane”
• Oscar Nordness – 2nd place in energy fuels and petrochemicals
  “Incorporation of High Pressure CLC into IGCC systems”
• Abbey Wangstrom – 2nd place in Reaction and Catalysis Engineering
  “High Activity, High Stability Pt/ITO Fuel Cell Catalysts”
• Clarke Palmer – 3rd Place in Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy
  “Reactor Design and Analysis of a Simulated moving Bed Reactor for Chemical-Looping Combustion”
• Ari Fischer – 3rd Place in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
  “Thermochemical CO2 and H2O Splitting Via Chemical-Looping with Cerium and Cobalt Mixed Oxides for Oxygen Generation”