U of T Engineering student team wins first place at regional Chem-E-Car competition

U of T Engineering student team wins first place at regional Chem-E-Car competition

The University of Toronto Chemical Autos (UTCV) university student team recently gained initial spot at the 2022 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Northeast Regional Chem-E-Vehicle Level of competition

The staff from U of T’s School of Utilized Science & Engineering beat the reigning champion groups from Clarkson University and Cornell University in the April 30 race, which draws multidisciplinary structure groups from throughout North America to exhibit cars driven by chemical power resources.

They will now progress to the Countrywide Championship in November. 

“The level of competition distance was 20 metres and our automobile ran 20.04 metres with our team’s record-breaking error of only 4 centimetres,” says Jinmyung Jang, a U of T Engineering alumnus and co-president of UTCV. “This is an really aggressive end result, presented the typical error for the profitable teams at the national levels of competition due to the fact 2015 was close to 5 centimetres.” 

The UTCV workforce will acquire their Chem-E car layout to Phoenix in November (photo courtesy of UTCV)

 The UTCV team initial competed in the regional competitors in 2018 and positioned ninth out of 21 teams. The next calendar year, they achieved sixth position out of 12 teams. 

Immediately after a two-year absence owing to COVID-19 limitations, the U of T staff returned to opposition with key improvements to their design and style, like: a safe, reproducible 21-volt aluminum-air battery with increased corrosion command methylene blue chemical timer with a produced sensor algorithm to boost precision a moveable magnetic stirrer installed on the car or truck and enhanced quality of development and digital connections. 

Jang says the gain is an amazing accomplishment for the UTCV group and would not have been possible without the means and assist from the office of chemical engineering and used chemistry. 

“We managed to attend the competition soon after only a few months of lab accessibility as in contrast to five months in a normal season,” he states. 

“Being a element of this style challenge lets our students to build their challenge-fixing and management skills, whilst attaining technical exposure to wet chemistry laboratories, battery building and integrating design factors,” says Professor Ramin Farnood, chair of the section of chemical engineering and applied chemistry. “This is an outstanding case in point of experiential mastering possibilities that we would like to see our college students engaged in.”

The 2022 AIChE Annual Chem-E-Vehicle Competition, National Championship, will just take area from November 11-14 in Phoenix, Ariz.