Events

ChemE Car Competition

Teams from schools design and build cars that use chemical engineering principles to compete at this competition.  At the competition, a distance is set, and teams try to get as close to that distance as possible.  The top 3 teams at the regional conference are eligible to compete at nationals in 2012.

Paper Competition

Awards Banquet

Awards for the ChemE Car Competition, Paper Competition, and ChemE Jeopardy are given out.  Karen Swindler (SDSMT Alum and Awards Banquet Keynote Speaker) has enjoyed a career in the chemicals and polymers industry with a diverse background in manufacturing, HSE, and strategic planning.  Starting with the company in 1991, she is currently the Senior Vice President of Manufacturing at LyondellBasell – one of the largest olefin, polyolefin, chemical and refining companies in the world.

Welcome Banquet

The official welcome event for the conference.  Jake Jacobson (SDSMT Alum and Welcome Banquet Keynote Speaker) has held, over the past 30 plus years, a variety of operations management and functional roles, and worked at a variety of locations with Cargill, its Subsidiaries, and also spent some time with a joint venture.  Specific operations experiences include corn milling, maintenance & reliability, lactic acid fermentation, polyols production, and a host of other production lines.  Today, Jake is the Global Reliability Excellence Lead for Cargill’s Animal Protein businesses which include beef, pork, poultry, eggs, as well as operations to add further value to these products.

Workshops

Speakers from a variety of fields will speak about interesting topics relevant to the field of Chemical Engineering.

ChemE Jeopardy

Teams from schools will compete in the format of the popular TV show Jeopardy.  The winning school goes on to compete at nationals.

Poster Competition

Coordinating with the ChemE Car Competition, the Poster Competition gives schools an opportunity to display the design of their cars.