CME Student News

2023 First Year Design Showcase Winners

This year the Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering (CME) entered the annual 2023 NJIT Newark College of Engineering (NCE) First Year Design Showcase, where over 36 teams of freshmen engineering students across various disciplines (mechanical, electrical, biomedical, chemical and materials engineering) pitched their designs and showed their lab scale prototypes completed in fulfillment of the 13-week long course, Fundamentals of Engineering Design. Led by instructors, Dr. Irina Molodetsky and Dr. Kerri-lee Chintersingh, our CME students were introduced to and applied theoretical concepts of physics, fluid flow, material synthesis and characterization, adsorption and absorption principles to design and construct their lab scale prototypes to capture carbon dioxide from air, addressing one of the grand challenges- Global Warming. Other design considerations included cost, product quality control, maintenance and design verification through predicting and measuring pressure drops and overall design efficiency. Throughout the course, students also learnt the importance of teamwork and how to communicate their ideas through technical reports, memos and oral presentations. This year we selected 4 top teams to represent our department with their designs and the NCE Showcase judges awarded the top 3 best design prizes to them.

We are confident that they will be successful engineers because they are critical thinkers, they work hard and they take responsibility for a better tomorrow!

Congratulations to all the participants!

1st place: Melanio Nistal, Yomna Hammouda, Brian Rupram, Ethan Wanko
2nd place: Kenneth Acevedo Roque, Pia Piazza, Melissa Mello
3rd place: Adriana Macris, Sofia Besada
Team 4: Edward Gasca, Julia Sikorski, Alejandro Vargas

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CME Potluck + Movie Spring 2023_.jpg

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CME Scholar of the Month

Leilani J. Garcia, a chemical engineering senior in the Albert Dorman Honors College is September’s Scholar of the Month. Leilani is a proud recipient of the C. Stephen Cordes, ’72 Endowed Scholarship for 2022-2023.

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NAMF Student Award Competition Finalist

Baran Teoman, Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering, and Justin Pace, currently pursuing his undergrade ChE degree, have been selected as two of the three finalists in the NAMF Student Award Competition sponsored by the North American Mixing Forum (NAMF) of AIChE.  They are both working in the Mixing Lab at NJIT and they are advised by Professor Piero Armenante.  As finalists in the competition they would have had all their expenses paid to attend the biennial mixing conference (MIXING XXVII), which was supposed to take place during the week of June 20-23, 2022, in Niagara Falls.  Unfortunately, the actual conference will be conducted virtually because of the pandemic.  At the conference, Baran will deliver a presentation entitled “Determination of the Just-Suspended Speed, Njs, in Stirred Tanks Using Electrical Resistance Tomography” while Justin will give his presentation entitled “Experimental Determination and Computational Prediction of Blend Time in the USP Dissolution Testing Apparatus.”  Congratulations to both of them for their selection for this prestigious competition!

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2022 Kokes Award Recipient

Safa Alzaim, a PhD student in the Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, received the 2022 Kokes Travel Award. This award will provide Safa the opportunity to give a poster presentation titled " A Practical Way to Enhance the Synthesis of N8- from an N3- Precursor" at the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in New York, NY being held on May 22-27, 2022.

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First Year NCE Design Showcase Award Recipients

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The First-Year Newark College of Engineering Design Showcase was held on February 04, 2022. The first-year chemical engineering students John Mullen, Justin Nguyen, Matthew Stickles & Melisa Bilgili (Team #14, bottom photo) won second place, while Madison Cosgrove, Antionio Antonucci, Colton Jones & John Szczepanski (Team #15, top photo) won the Audience Choice Award. These wonderful recognitions would not be possible without the dedication, mentoring and advisement from Professor Irina Molodetsky.

Below are a few words from Professor Molodetsky and team leaders.

Professor Molodetsky expressed "as a teacher, I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the First Year Engineering Showcase, and another opportunity for me to communicate with our curious and creative freshmen.  I enjoy seeing the process of preparation for the Showcase, where the team members have to go deeper in the subject of their presentation, appreciate lessons learned during the semester, and polish their presentation for a wide audience. It really takes time after the final presentation in class to continue learning and improving the skills needed for the NCE Showcase.  It requires dedication and commitment of all team members to extend FED experience beyond the semester but this is what helps our students win.  I specifically want to acknowledge the key role of our team leaders who schedule the discussion sessions, unite, energize team members and follow up with the suggested improvements."  

Madison said "the First Year Showcase was a great opportunity for us to expand our engineering knowledge. The in class assignment had to be one way and cover certain topics, but the showcase gave us more freedom in what we could talk about. In preparation for the showcase we focused more on the bigger picture of our design and were able to learn more about how it would be if we actually implemented our model. We were able to expand our knowledge of the problem we were tackling and how other engineers are approaching it. One of the best parts of this whole process was learning that your knowledge is always growing and every project can be improved over time. The best advice to a group preparing for the showcase is to be open to new ideas and change. The showcase is a great experience to get feedback from people with more experience, and to work as a team to learn and grow as people and engineers. This experience is also a chance to practice your presentation skills that will be used in the workforce. As scary as this all sounds, the showcase is a fun environment where everyone wants you to succeed so don’t stress and learn along the way."

Matthew said "our experiences in working on this project helped to reinforce theory we learned in class with hands-on experience. During the course, we learned the purpose of the parts that we used in designing and constructing our CO2 scrubber, and it was extremely gratifying to see it all come together. Moreover, my group and I felt that, as our project progressed, we became increasingly efficient as a team, which will no doubt help us in our college years and beyond. It was very helpful to construct a model build of something that a chemical engineer may actually build, and gave us insight to roles that a chemical engineer may fulfill in an industrial setting. We would whole-heartedly recommend that anybody who wants to present at the showcase should present, as it gets your name out there within the department, and it’s a great experience for the team."

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AIChE Award Winners

Congratulations to the NJIT AIChE for winning the AIChE - American Institute of Chemical Engineers 2020-2021 Outstanding Student Chapter and Outstanding Sister Chapter Awards! Also congratulations to the student award winners:

Ameera Seetahal - 2020-2021 Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer Scholarship Award (given out to just 15 students across the entire AICHE - $1,000 each)
Darshi Shah - 2020-2021 Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Academic Excellence Award
Nicole Szponar - 2020-2021 Freshman Recognition Award

We are all very proud of you!!

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2021 WIC Travel Award Winner

Ms. Gulenay Guner, a PhD student of Professor Ecevit Bilgili, has received a 2021 Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) Travel Award! The award will cover her registration for the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting, along with an $800 stipend for her travel to the meeting. She will also be provided with complementary membership to AIChE for the 2021 and 2022 calendar years. Congratulations Gulenay!

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2021 MSEE Undergraduate Research Award Recipients

Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers, Rostyslav Shkromiuk and Agata Skura who just received funding for Fall 2021 to continue their efforts for the University Research Alliance for Materials in Extreme Environments! Faculty Advisor: Professor Edward Dreizin

Read more: https://lnkd.in/e3_fmSHx 

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Society of Tribologist and Lubrication Engineers Scholarship Winner

Congratulations to Mehnaz Mursalat, PhD student, advised by Professors Edward Dreizin and Mirko Schoenitz on the 2021 scholarship from Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), Philadelphia. 

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CME Undergrads Awarded MSEE Summer Research Funding

Congrats to CME undergrads receiving external funding for summer research! The Materials Science in Extreme Environments University Research Alliance (MSEE URA https://lnkd.in/e28Marp) awarded Agata Skura to work this summer on “Gas-generating metal-based reactive materials” and Rostyslav Shkromiuk to work this summer on “Reactive materials with chemical combustion products.”

Agata has been an active researcher in the group of Prof. Edward Dreizin starting from Fall 2020. She is currently developing new materials prepared mechanochemically. She is mentored by PhD students Mehnaz Mursalat and Purvam Mehulkumar Gandhi.

Rostyslav Shkromiuk joined Prof. Edward Dreizin's research group in Spring 2021 and is mentored by PhD student Shomik Mukhopadhyay. They are presently focused on collecting cool high-speed videos and processing them to recover combustion characteristics of new materials.

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2021 Salute to Engineering Excellence Award Recipients

Congratulations to the following CME 2021 Salute to Engineering Excellence Award Recipients! 

NCE Outstanding Senior (Overall)
Sydney Sweet, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

NCE Departmental Outstanding Seniors
Sydney Sweet, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

Saul K. Fenster Innovation in Design
Diego Franco, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
Christian Kielbowicz, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

Madame Mau Outstanding Female Engineering Student
Daniela Bushiri, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering 

NCE Excellence in Advising
Gordana Obuskovic, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering 

NCE Outstanding Administrative Staff
Shawn Yetman, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering 

NCE Outstanding Support Staff
Kathy Tomlinson, Otto H. York Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

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Highlander Award Winners

Congratulations to Prof. Roman Voronov for winning the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Student Organization Advisor of the Year; and to NJIT AIChE for winning the Professional Development Program of the Year 2021 Highlander Awards! 

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2021 GSA Annual Research Presentation Competition Award Winners

Congratulations to the 2021 Winners of the GSA's Annual Research Presentation Competition! Mehnaz Mursalat, 4th year PhD student, was the 3rd place winner for her presentation titled " Narrowly Sized, Spherical Powders with Custom Properties by High Energy Milling. Elif İrem Senyurt, 2nd year PhD student, received honorable mention for most effective oral presentation titled "How Hot Are the Burning Metal Particles?" Advisor: Edward Dreizin

Read more

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AIChE Student Chapter Placed 1st and 2nd at the 2021 Mid-Atlantic ChemE Car Regionals 

Congratulations to our AIChE Student Chapter! They placed 1st in the ChemE Car Poster competition and 2nd in the 2021 Mid-Atlantic ChemE Car Regionals that took place on April 9-11, 2021. This qualifies NJIT for the Nationals that will take place in the Fall of 2021. Thank everyone involved for making this happen, especially Roman Voronov, AIChE Student Chapter Adviser, the team and its mentor:

Captain: Christian Kielbowicz
Co-Captain: Sabrina Vasquez
Team: Natalie Wilson, Stephany Cabrejos, Monica McEvoy

Mentor: Anh Tong
Safety Judge: Irina Molodetsky
TA: Nikky Rodriguez
Lab Coordinator: Shawn Yetman

 

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IPEC Graduate Student Award Recipients

Guluzar Gorkem Buyukgoz and Eylul Cetindag, PhD candidates, were awarded this year’s IPEC Foundation Graduate Student Award (Scholarships of $1500 each) for their research accomplishments. This prestigious and highly competitive award by the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC) of the Americas Foundation is given in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). At the Award Ceremony, Guluzar presented her work, titled, “FDM 3D Printing Technology for Pharmaceutical Applications”, and Eylul presented her work, titled, “Towards Quality by Design (QbD) of Pharmaceutical Oral Films Loaded with Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs”. Details of their work may be found in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 591 (2020) 119987, and Carbohydrate Polymers, 250 (2020) 117012, respectively. They are both advised by Prof. Rajesh N. Davé.

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Women In Chemical Engineering Award Recipient

Sangah Kim, a PhD candidate was a recipient of this year’s Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) travel award to participate in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) annual meeting. In addition, she also received a highly competitive Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics (CPFD) Particle Technology Form (PTF) poster award for her research that she presented at the 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting. As a part of her eligibility for these awards, she made an oral presentation, titled, “Impact of dry coating on the agglomeration and dissolution of cohesive, poorly water-soluble drug powders” and presented a poster, titled, “Can you improve the dissolution rate of micronized poorly water-soluble drugs after dry coating with hydrophobic silica?”. These prestigious awards are issued every year to recognize and support the student’s research activities and their values. Sangah is advised by Prof. Rajesh N. Davé.

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1st Place National AIChE Chem-E Car Poster Competition Winner

Congratulations to the Chem-E Car Team for placing 1st place at the National AIChE Chem-E Car Poster Competition! Read article

View poster NJIT Hy-lander: A Fuel Cell-Powered Rover 

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CHEM-E CAR TEAM ADVANCE TO NATIONALS

Congratulations to the NJIT ChemE Car team, the team captain Diego Franco and student supervisor Anh Tong on advancing to the nationals! 

 

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2020 NAMF Finalists

Chadakarn Sirasitthichoke, PhD candidate, was selected as one of the three finalists of the 2020 NAMF Student Award Competition organized by the North American Mixing Forum (NAMF) for her paper titled “Hydrodynamic Characterization of USP Dissolution Apparatus 1 Under Different Basket Mesh Sizes." Unfortunately, due the pandemic the conference was postponed until 2022 and Chadakarn was invited to attend and give her presentation remotely at the AIChE Meeting being held virtually in November 2020. Congratulations Chadakarn! Advisor: Dr. Piero Armenante

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2020 Presidential Leadership Award Recipient

William Ho, PhD student, chemical engineering, recipient of the 2020 Presidential Leadership Award. William serves as a mentor for undergraduate and high school students working in the research lab under the direction of Dr. Xu. Will is the founder and president of the Science and Politics Society dedicated to involving stem students in politics. Congratulations Will on your well deserved recognition!    

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Ogochukwu Enekwizu, PhD candidate, received the Air Pollution Educational and Research Grant (APERG) and a job offer from Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Air Pollution Educational and Research Grant (APERG), Mid-Atlantic States Section of the Air and Waste Management Association (MASS-A&WMA)

This award for doctoral students and post-doctoral scientists provides financial support to pursue research careers in the environmental field, particularly in the areas related to air pollution, air quality, and the atmosphere. The award is $25,000, with two to five awards made per year.

Post-doctoral Researcher Position at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton NY

This highly competitive position is in the Aerosol and Microphysics Group and it is to conduct laboratory experiments to investigate the microphysical, optical, and cloud-nucleating properties of soot aerosols. This research will be a natural extension of the work Ogo has been doing during her doctoral study at NJIT. 

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2020 NAFEMS Award Recipient

Chemical Engineering Senior Vasilios C. Halkias has won the 2020 International Association for the Engineering Modelling, Analysis and Simulation Community (NAFEMS) Americas & engineering.com Student Award!  He received the award for his work on creating the “Tubular Flow Reactor App”, on which he worked under the supervision of Profs. Voronov, Barat and Molodetsky.  

Successful teaching of the fundamental engineering principles is critical to preparing the next generation’s workforce.  However, in today’s uncertain world of the COVID-19 pandemic most experimental laboratories (including those used for academic courses) have been shut down.   The application that Vasilios has created is based on a tubular flow reactor (TFR) in the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) chemical engineering laboratory. TFRs are fundamental to chemical engineering and are used in countless applications in production of chemical products in industry.  It is a part of a larger project the goal of which is to create self-standing executable COMSOL apps, that students / teachers across the world could use “out of the box” in order to learn the science behind basic engineering processes (such as the TFR).  It is lead by Prof. Voronov and funded by the Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) organization. Additionally, Vasilios has mentored a team of his classmates who worked on similar COMSOL apps, as a part of the above-mentioned project.

This student award includes a $1,000 first prize and entry into the NAFEMS global student competition for a chance to attend the 2021 NAFEMS World Congress free of charge to present his work to an international audience.  

Read article

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Chemical Engineering Scholar Accepted In The National Society of Collegiate Scholars

Sara Abdelhamid, chemical engineering sophomore, earns acceptance into The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) is an honors organization that recognizes and elevates high-achieving students. NSCS provides career and graduate school connections, leadership, and service opportunities, and gives out more than $1 million annually in scholarships, awards, and chapter funds. As a member, you’ll be part of a prestigious community with lifetime benefits.

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NJIT 2020 Goldwater Scholar Class Among Largest In US

NJIT undergrads continue to earn the nation’s top academic honors, the latest being a new university record of four students named Goldwater Scholars this year by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is recognized among the country’s most prestigious for STEM undergraduates pursuing research careers. Read more.. 

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New Business Model Competition Winner

(Pictured L to R: Michael Ehrlich, Ahn Tong, Thomas Ungerland, and Owais Aftab)
 

Anh Tong, PhD student, won $3,000 in an elevator pitch New Business Model Competition. Many entrepreneurs submit practical innovative ideas for review by a panel of judges at a chance to win a $3,000 summer fellowship to pay them to work on their idea. Program sponsor Capital One provides Innovation Acceleration Fellowships to winners ($3,000 each). The Fellowships allow winners to work on their business ideas, while they participate in the NJIT Martin Tuchman School of Management Summer Lean Start-up Accelerator. Anh and only three other students received the 3k award out of the 92 initial competitors. Learn more about the competition here: http://centers.njit.edu/njiac/students/challenge/index.php

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GSA Research Day 2019 Best Poster Award Winner  

Daniel Hastings, Ph.D. student, won the Best Poster Award at the Graduate Student Association (GSA) Research Day 2019. Advisor: Edward Dreizin

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Lydia Rodriguez, Ph.D. student, is the recipient of the Minority Affairs Committee Foundation Travel grant. This award supported the 2019 AIChE full conference registration and additional conference related expenses. Lydia also contributed and presented as a panelist at the session titled "Career Paths: perspectives by Minority Professionals in Chemical Engineering." She presented a poster at the poster session and attended other sessions (and future webinars) focused on advancing the careers of minorities in chemical engineering. Advisor: Kam Sirkar

Liang Chen, Ph.D, student, is the recipient of the 2019 Pharmaceutical Discovery, Development and Manufacturing (PD2M) Student Award. The award is sponsored by Pfizer and Dr. Chen will receive a commemorative plaque along with a check for $5,000. The awards ceremony will be held during the 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting on Monday November 11, 2019, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM in the Hyatt Regency Orlando. Advisor: Rajesh Dave 

Faustin Arevalo an undergraduate chemical engineering student is the recipient of the Minority Affairs Committee Foundation Scholarship Grant at the 2019 AIChE Annual Conference. He was awarded $1,700 through the grant to travel to the AIChE Conference. Advisor: Ecevit Bilgili.

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AIChE  ChemE Sports Competition Winners

NJIT's first ever ChemE Sports Team consisting of Ariana Tay, Alexander Olowniuk, and Byeong Chan "Daniel" Son and David Matuszewski placed 2nd in the AICHE's first inaugural ChemEsports Competition! 

ChemEsports is a live ChemEsports competition on optimization and safety, open to academia and industry, using a simulated distillation column provided by Simulation Solutions Inc.  The competitors were given real-life scenarios that could be observed in a plant and an objective to complete within a given timeframe.  Typically, the teams competed head to head by running two simulations simultaneously on laptop computers, with the goal of maximizing profit for the plant. Thanks to the coaches (Irina Molodetsky, Nellone Reid and Bob Barat) who helped prepare them. Congratulations, everyone!

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AIChE 2019 Undergraduate Poster Award Winners

Sara A. Abdelhamid  (Faculty Advisor: Piero Armenante)
Effect of Tank Bottom Shapes on Njs and Power Dissipation in Stirred Vessels Under Different Baffling Configurations​https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/585954 

​Keanu Radgman (Faculty Advisor: Ecevit Bilgili)
Release of Griseofulvin from Spray-Dried Nanocrystal–Amorphous Solid Dispersions (HyNASDs): Impact of Surfactant​https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/587639 

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Recipient of the 2019-2020 AIChE MAC Scholarship Award

Daniela Bushiri, chemical engineering senior and vice president of the NJIT AIChE Student Chapter, is the recipient of the 2019-2020 AIChE Minority Affairs Committee College Scholarship Award.