Posted: November 1, 2007

National Chemical Engineering Conference will include presentations on nanomaterials for energy appl(...)

(Nanowerk News) AIChE's Annual Meeting provides an open forum for professionals from around the world and U.S. college students. An emphasis of the meeting will be globalization, sustainability and the growing diversity of industries the chemical engineering profession serves.
The national Chem-E-Car Competition will feature college teams from across the country racing small cars powered by alternative fuels the students create.
Who: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
What: AIChE's Annual Meeting provides an open forum for professionals from around the world and U.S. college students. An emphasis of the meeting will be globalization, sustainability and the growing diversity of industries the chemical engineering profession serves. The national Chem-E-Car Competition will feature college teams from across the country racing small cars powered by alternative fuels the students create.
Where: Salt Palace Convention Center, 100 S. West Temple St., Salt Lake City, Utah
When: Sunday, November 4 - Friday, November 9, 2007
Highlights: Presentations include the new frontiers of energy research, sustainable biorefineries, nanomaterials for energy applications and pharmaceutical engineering for the 21st Century. The week will include the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Electrophoresis Society (AES).
Sunday, November 4
1:00PM - 3:00PM: Chem-E-Car: University teams race shoebox-size cars powered by alternative fuels -- carefully calculated chemical reactions. The cars must carry a small payload a certain distance. Adding to the tension of the competition, the weight of the payload and distance are not revealed to the competitors until one hour before the contest begins. Teams must quickly make calculations about their fuel use.
4:00PM - 6:00PM: Alternative fuels and new technology: The session will focus on fuel cells.
Monday, November 5
8:30AM - 11:00AM: The Lawrence K. Cecil Award Lecture. Walter J. Weber Jr., Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, is this year's winner who will discuss "Potable Water and Chemical Engineering - Sustaining a Critical Resource."
12:30PM - 3:00PM: Bionanotechnology for Gene and Drug Delivery: Bionanotechnology uses concepts from chemistry, physics, and molecular biology to identify components and processes for the construction of nanomaterials and nanodevices for health care.
3:30PM - 5:30PM: Challenges and Opportunities for Chemical Engineers in a Changing Global Energy Economy: There will be an open discussion of key energy issues - demand, reserves, and costs; feedstocks and technologies, sustainability and global warming by an expert panel.
Tuesday, November 5
8:30AM - 12:00PM: Women and Minorities in Chemical Engineering; Academic and Industrial Perspectives: A look at careers and job search strategies.
11:00AM - 12:30PM: International Benchmarking of Chemical Engineering Research: A look at how well chemical engineering research in the U.S. compares with that of other countries. The National Academies charged a high level panel of academic and industrial leaders to benchmark this issue. Members of the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy will comment on the implications.
Wednesday, November 6
11:15AM - 12:15PM: AIChE Institute Lecture: Nanotechnology and Bioengineering in an Evolving Chemical Engineering World. Professor Nicholas A. Peppas from the University of Texas at Austin will discuss the importance of bioengineering and nanotechnology in a changing chemical engineering world that has always responded to societal needs by providing advanced solutions to important problems.
Thursday, November 7
11:00AM-12:30PM: A workshop based on a report from the U.S. Department of Energy called Basic Research Needs in Catalysis for Energy Applications. The report focuses on identifying the basic research needs and opportunities in catalytic chemistry and materials that underpin energy conversion, with a focus on new, emerging and scientifically challenging areas that have the potential to significantly impact science and technology.
12:30PM - 3:00PM: Food Process Monitoring and Control, to include discussion on a device using neural networks and 'artificial noses' to be used for monitoring wine fermentation.
Friday, November 8
8:30AM - 11:00AM: Responses to the Challenges in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Looking at the challenges of the pharmaceutical industry and Pharmaceutical Engineering as an emerging field.
For more information on all the activities surrounding the AIChE Annual Meeting, please visit www.aiche.org/annual.
About AIChE:
AIChE, celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2008, is a professional society of more than 40,000 chemical engineers in 92 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society.
Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontier of chemical engineering research in such areas as nanotechnology, sustainability, hydrogen fuels, biological and environmental engineering, and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.
Source: AIChE