Written by: Renata Ashapatov ChE ‘23 and Sanjoon Lee ChE’23
Hi alumni! I am pleased to have the opportunity to share some AIChE club updates with you.
This semester we have had some really fun events. We kicked off the semester with an oobleck event, where students had the opportunity to learn about non-Newtonian fluids and made oobleck from cornstarch and water. We then had a site visit to Cresilon, a biotechnology company based in Brooklyn. They let us tour their facility and we were able to see what it was like to work in a sterile manufacturing environment.
This semester we hosted a professor meet and greet where Professor Davis, Professor Simson, Professor Weiser, and Professor Okorafor all shared their backgrounds. We then had some lunch and group discussions, so groups of students had the opportunity to chat with our amazing faculty in a more personal setting. We hosted a ChemE Costume Picnic Party in Prospect Park on Halloween weekend,
where students were encouraged to dress up in their Halloween costumes and enjoy some food
and cake at the park. This was a great event that allowed everyone to destress after midterms and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and views at the park.
Finally, the Annual AIChE Conference took place in Phoenix, AZ. The Cooper Union was able to send about 18 undergrad and grad students! This was a really fulfilling event, as we had many students present posters about their research, and even had some oral presentations take place.
We are so proud of all the hard work our ChE’s have put into their research. We were even able to have a wonderful meal with Professor Davis, Professor Weiser, and alumni Jeffery Xu (ChE ’15) and Chae Jeong-Potter (ChE ’16 and M.Eng in ChE ’18). We would like to thank the Engineering Dean’s Office and the Career Center for making this trip possible for so many students.
We would also like to give a very big thank you to our Chemical Engineering Department. Professor Davis, Professor Weiser, Professor Simson, Professor Okorafor, and Professor Lepek are always there to support anything we set out to achieve, and we are so grateful to have them as our faculty.
The Cooper Union AlChE student chapter is a proud co-host of Cooper Union’s first Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) in the Rose Auditorium and LL101 on November 29, 2022. The symposium attracted 20 oral and poster presenters across diverse majors and minors.
We would like to express our gratitude towards Dean Ruben Savizky (ChE’98) and Professor Ben Davis for serving not only as our faculty judges but also for their early support in our vision. The event would not be possible without our sponsors, including the Albert Nerken School of Engineering through the 2022 Educational Innovation Grant program, AIChE Metro New York Local Section, and Cooper Union JAC. Lastly, we would like to personally thank Mary Lynch (ChE’82) and Professor Naphtali A. O’Connor (Co-Chair of ACS New York Student Activities Committee) for their advice and welcome speeches.
As a professional organization, we are always looking for ways to benefit the Cooper ChemE Community and one of the ways to do that is by interacting with all of you. We are hoping to host an alumni panel in the spring semester so if you are interested in coming back to Cooper to share about your experiences post graduation, we would be very happy to have you. We are also always looking for opportunities to take our club members on site visits and give them some exposure to what life could be like after college.
Please feel free to reach out to our email aiche.cooper@gmail.com if there are any opportunities for a collaboration, or if you would like to come back to Cooper either for an alumni panel or to give a talk! We appreciate your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Renata Ashapatov (ChE ‘23), AIChE President
Sangjoon (Bob) Lee, ChE’23, AlChE Student Treasurer & Founder of CU Undergraduate Research Club