AIChE Retains E-Week Title

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) student chapter recently won first place for the second year in a row competing in Engineering Week (E-Week) hosted by the Cockrell School of Engineering.

The event saw engineering student organizations across campus participate in a variety of friendly competitions that emphasized teamwork and engineering processes to win the coveted E-Week Trophy. Teams competed in a total of 43 contests ranging from catapult building to lip-syncing.

The annual event coincides with National Engineers Week which aims to promote engineering education throughout the United States. E-Week events are sponsored by the Student Engineering Council within the Cockrell School of Engineering.

“It’s about starting a tradition of winning within our department,” said Bradley McCoy, vice president external of AIChE in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. “We won the trophy last year, and we feel like we have to defend our title.”

AIChE stayed on top this year by taking first place in 11 events, including a marshmallow toss, a sketch contest and a Hang In There challenge which required teams to engineer a way to suspend a team member on a wall using duct tape.

The win follows AIChE’s monumental 2013 championship that was the first time a student organization other than the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) claimed the E-Week trophy since 2003.

“E-Week is a great break from our standard classroom work, and it offers a fun way to bond with fellow ChE’s and other engineering students across campus,” said James Conger, AIChE president. “The department showed real camaraderie between classmates— and between students and faculty as professors tried to avoid scheduling tests during the week-long event.”

With more than 30 points between AIChE and second place winners the American Society of Civil Engineers, AIChE students are celebrating their hard won victory at their general meeting Friday, February 28 at 3pm in ETC 2.208

“There’s no way we can stop winning now,” said Conger.

Tags: AIChE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, championship, Cockrell School of Engineering, duct tape, E-Week, Engineering Week, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, National Engineers Week, The University of Texas at Austin