Cornell ChemE Car Team wins 2021 AIChE Northeast Regional Competition

ChemE Car Team wins AICHE Northeast Regional competition with two nearly perfect runs!

The ChemE Car Competition is a biannual design challenge in which engineering students must design a small car, powered by a novel power source, that is stopped by a separate chemical reaction at a chosen distance from a start point. The car that can consistently get closest to this chosen distance wins!

For the 2021 Northeast Regionals, Cornell opted to use "Fully Charged," an acrylic based design with a large motor and internal containment. The power source was a 10-cell, custom designed zinc alkaline battery, stacked in series. The stopping mechanism was an iodine clock reaction, in which a photoresistor detects the solution color change, and cuts off current to the motor, stopping the car. This car also contains multiple electronic circuits, including a motor controller to regulate our speed to maintain consistency. 

This win qualifies the team to compete in the National competition this fall. The ChemE Car captains would like to recognize the entire team for helping with battery construction, troubleshooting and data collection this semester!  Specifically, the following members who were absolutely critical in the competition effort: Judson Freidl (pictured), Shreya Vaidya (pictured), Julia Radzio, Matthew Simon, George Taylor (pictured), Jonathon Su (pictured), Rafaella Bruzual (pictured), Noah Grenert (pictured), Leon Lee (pictured), Pietro Perez (pictured), and Christine Lambert (pictured).

Click here to read more about the ChemE Car Competition sponsored by the AIChE.