Colburn Gazette ```` Undergraduate Newsletter

Issue III. Oct. 2010

Contents:

-Undergrad Research

-Internships

-Professor of the

Issue

-Events

Members:

Tracy Powell,

Executive Editor

Joey Kim, Editor in Chief

Jason Coffman

Kameron Conforti

Kate Danner

Leo DeRita

Brad Hoffmann

James Lee

Ron Lewis

Brian McDermott

Mai Nguyen

Eddie Qian

Amy Quach

Bikram Paul

Jaime Santiago

Kevin Tran

Fellow Chemical Engineers (ChemE’s):

Welcome back upperclassmen and Welcome to the class of 2014! This is the third issue of the Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Newsletter at the University of Delaware! What makes this publication special is that it is made by and for you, the ChemE undergrad. In this and the following issues, we present topics relevant to the ChemE Undergrad community with the goal of informing and advising those interested. Nonetheless, the purpose of the newsletter is not only to provide you with useful information, but to serve as a medium for communication between the different graduating classes, to carry the voice and character of the ChemE community outside the department and beyond, and most importantly, to provide everyone an outlet for respectful discussion and expression of ideas and opinions. These goals point to our mission, to disseminate the knowledge of everyone to everyone, thus creating a more informed and cooperative ChemE community.

We invite you to be a part of our mission, to be an active voice of on our department. Feel free to write us your experiences, your thoughts, anything! Tell us what you’ll like to see more of, less of, etc. After all, this publication will only approach ideality when it carries your ideas.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please contact us at ColburnGazette@gmail.com

The Colburn Gazette offers its most sincere gratitude to Dr. Wagner, who

helped coordinate the publication of this newsletter, and to the Society of

Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). For more information about SHPE

please contact: shpe.udel@gmail.com

Congratulations Honors Day Award Recipients

l

“High achievement

always takes place in the

framework of high

expectation.”

-Charles F. Kettering

Over the past summer I received a Summer Scholar to do an

internship in Dr. Wagner’s lab. This was a great opportunity to get a

feel for research and speak with graduate students and post-docs

alike about their experiences. My experience was very positive as I

was able to befriend and network with much of the group, including

some of my TAs and future professors. Though my research was in

its infancy, I was able to make a small breakthrough and may end up

in a publication. The culmination of the summer, the research

symposium, was a final opportunity to first create a poster and then

present it to an audience and answer their questions. I fully

encourage everyone to try undergraduate research for the variety of

opportunities it provides.

– Leo DeRita

This summer I had the

opportunity to research with Dr.

Sullivan. The project was the

treatment of cancer with siRNA. My

part in the project was to study the

cellular uptake of various

(internaization peptide)-PEG

conjugates. It was an excellent

experience and I would recommend

getting involved to anyone

interested.

- Kameron Conforti Dr. Millicent Sullivan:

Research area in

Biomolecular Engineering

(http://www.che.udel.edu/directo

ry/facultyprofile.html?id=22352)

This past summer I participated

in Undergraduate Research involving

block copolymer morphology in thin

films. I learned a great deal about

polymer chemistry in a hands-on

environment, I met many new

undergraduates, graduates, and

faculty, and acquired invaluable lab

experience. I would highly recommend

research in the Department of

Chemical Engineering, simply based

upon what I’ve done so far.

–Ron Lewis

Which well known thermodynamics

contributor later went on to be Lord Kelvin?

(Hint: his name appears somewhere else in

the issue)

First, what do you do? Teach, research, invent, etc... (and for the past few years, and the next two, I have the honor of serving this Department as chair).

What made you decide to be a chemical engineer? My father was a chemist, and I had an excellent High School chemistry professor. So I wanted to do chemistry but with applications in engineering.

Do you have any memorable moments from you undergraduate experience? From my undergraduate years, the 1st day of mass and energy balances when we were told to look left, look right, and that one of those other students (or I) would not survive this course. I also remember the last day of senior design, when we had our equivalent of the senior banquet with the faculty- which was a much more pleasant experience than the first. In my graduate career I remember when I did poorly on my first grad thermo exam and my professor wrote on my exam something to the effect of saying I clearly did not understand thermodynamics. I pretty much aced the rest of the course because of that challenge.

Do you have any advice for the undergraduates at the University of Delaware? Get to know as many of your classmates as you can- they can become your friends for life. Oh, and don’t forget to read ahead in the text before lecture!

How important do you consider undergraduate research and why? It is an excellent opportunity to work with a grad student and or faculty member and is extremely valuable for learning problem solving and critical thinking skills. It is also really valuable for determining if you want to go to grad school, and to help you get into a good grad school.

Why did you decide to come to the University of Delaware? This place has an excellent faculty, excellent undergraduate and grad students, and the senior faculty take great care to help develop a young faculty member’s career.

What’s the inspiration for your research? I enjoy colloid and particle science because of a senior elective I took that got me hooked on the topic. I had an excellent instructor and really enjoy the topic as well as the community of scientists and engineers who work in the area.

Why did you choose to focus on rheology? Rheology rules! Besides, rheologists have more fun... :) What do you hope to achieve in the future? I hope I can teach students well. I also hope that my publications and inventions can lead to useful contributions to society and advance the field. I hope to be doing research and teaching well into my retirement years as it can be very rewarding.

Do you have anything else you would like to say? I really appreciate teaching and working with Chemical Engineering students at UD, you guys are the best!

-By Jason Coffman

Dr. Norman J. Wagner

Colburn Gazette’s Unit Operation of the Issue

Heat exchanger: Heat exchangers are a way to cool or heat flowing streams, typically using steam or chilled

water. They are designed for continuous operations and come in many designs. Four such examples are

Double Pipe, Shell & Tube, Straight Multipass, or U Tubes.

My Time at Delmarva Power I spent my summer working for Delmarva Power in the Gas Engineering department. Gas Engineering is part of

Delmarva Power’s Gas Delivery business. The Gas Delivery business is responsible for ensuring the delivery of natural

gas to customers through pipelines for either commercial or industrial uses. Specifically, the Gas Engineering

department is responsible for the design of new pipelines along with increasing system reliability.

My work at Delmarva Power centered on supporting the Gas Engineering team. My projects included the

design of residential service pipelines and the improvement of gas leak modeling software. Each project was a great

learning experience. They provided me with the opportunity to learn about both design and maintenance aspects.

Despite enjoying both my projects, I thoroughly appreciated the opportunity to work on pipeline designs. The

process was more interesting because it involved more interaction with customers and presented new challenges each

time. Even though every situation was different, we could use a general process to complete each project. For

example, the first step was to meet with the customer to determine his or her needs. These needs could include

providing enough gas to support tequipment in a house or the meeting the timeframe in which the project needed be

completed. Based on the customer needs and our capabilities, we would determine the pipeline route and size. After

developing the appropriate drawings and acquiring approval, a construction crew would built the pipeline.

Overall, I had a good learning experience at Delmarva Power. My internship provided me with opportunities to

learn about the utility industry and gain invaluable industrial experience for the future. I believe the utility industry is a

great industry to gain experience and “get your foot in the door”.

-Brad Hoffmann

Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.reynoldsindia.com/chemequ

ip/images/stories/heatexch/heat-exchanger-

tubes3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.reynoldsindia.com/chemequip/index.php%3Fo

ption%3Dcom_content%26view%3Darticle%26id%3D64&usg=__nu6K4U-98SZf-

vRDOx6OeqyfsiY=&h=434&w=880&sz=134&hl=en&start=0&sig2=tI9p3ghnEcXKz9J

UkUvTyA&zoom=1&tbnid=cvyKR0Wx7SBRKM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=196&ei=MIq7TLm

HLMWclgfDpfTCDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dheat%2Bexchanger%26um%3D1%26h

l%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1085%26bih%3D679%26tbs%3Disch:10,200&um=

1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=652&oei=MIq7TLmHLMWclgfDpfTCDQ&esq=1&page=1&n

dsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&tx=113&ty=0&biw=1085&bih=679_)

My Time at Gore

I interned at Gore for two summers and learned a few things about the company. As a disclaimer,

though, the experience I had there may not be representative of the experiences that anyone else has had

or may have. Regardless, what I learned there was very interesting.

During my first summer I worked with a steam sterilizer in the Biomedical Division at Gore. To be

honest, it wasn’t the most technically challenging job (I read/wrote reports and played with Solidworks), but

I got to know the company and meet some really nice people. The big thing about Gore that not many

people know about is their peculiar infrastructure. They don’t really have bosses to report to. Instead, you

have a “sponsor” which is another associate that helps you find the career path that’s right for you. When

you report, you report to the team (e.g. fuel cells team, Elixir Strings team, etc.), not to a person. This

creates an environment that’s a lot less stressful but a lot less structured… you kind of do either what

people ask of you or what you think will help the company, not what your boss tells you to do. Also, you are

reviewed by your peers, not by your boss. So you have to be nice to everyone, not just a couple of people.

Consequently, there are a lot of people at Gore that are extraordinarily kind!

During my second summer, I was placed with the Fuel Cells and had a great time – they gave me a bunch of

process engineering projects and let me go at it. Since I was with the Industrial Products Division, there

were a lot less reports and a lot more science. Half of the people I worked with were also Chegs from UD,

so that made it pretty fun. Here is where I realized something eerie about Gore: the ridiculous retention

rate. It wasn’t uncommon to find people who started working with Gore after graduating and stayed with it

– people who were there for 15-25 years (or more in a couple of cases). Of course there are always

exceptions and some people leave the company within after a “normal” period of time, but I think Gore’s

retention rate shows that most people are happy with the infrastructure. At the same time, though, I find it

scary to work for only one company for the majority of my career.

Regardless, I think working there really helped give me some focus on my own career goals and helped me

sharpen my technical & communication skills. I’d recommend interning there if you’re given the

opportunity. As for working there full-time, I’m still deciding that myself.

-Kevin Tran

Colburn Gazette’s Word of the Issue:

Isenthalpic: An isenthalpic process is one that has no change in enthalpy (H). One such example of an isenthalpic

process is a Joule-Thomson Expansion.

Broomball: Seniors face

upset; Want a rematch

The ChE senior undergrads suffer a 2 -

3 loss to the ChE non-senior undergrads

at the UD Ice Rink on the morning of

October 6th. A strong turnout resulted in

an eventful game of broomball and an

ice rink covered in ChemE’s. Seniors look

for a rematch to win back the broomball

title.

Unstoppable Undergrads Remain Undefeated

By Joey Kim and Eddie Qian

The Chemical Engineering graduate students were soundly defeated by their undergraduate counterparts in

intramural flag football by a score of 40-7.

The game was decided from the start when a few of the graduate students were afraid to take the field on

time. CHEG341 Fluid Mechanics TA Leigh Quang was so afraid that he didn’t take the field until midway through the

first half, where the undergraduate “Mighty Ducks” had already taken a commanding 13-0 lead.

Led by quarterback Andrew Hall’s 6 total TDs, the Mighty Ducks dominated every aspect of the game. Wide

receivers Joey Kim, Eddie Qian, and Sean Banker were the recipients of Hall’s 3 touchdown passes, and on the

defensive side of the ball Qian and Banker chipped in with 3 interceptions between them.

The graduate students “Horseshoe” team had one stand out play when receiver Nicholas Levy caught a short

pass and ran past three Mighty Duck would-be tacklers on his way to a 65 yard touchdown.

After the game Joey Kim proclaimed to Team Horseshoe, “That’s not good enough.”

This brings the current undergraduate versus graduate rivalry to a 4-0 record in favor of the undergrads; who

also have wins in basketball, indoor soccer, and a modified game of Risk.

The graduate students were represented by Jacob Weiner, Peter, Beltramo, Nick Levy, Leigh Quang, Steven Traylor,

Tim Courtney, Kyle Doolan, and Yannick Kimmel. The undergraduate team consisted of Andrew Hall, Edward Qian,

Joey Kim, Sean Banker, Derek Ahneman, Jemar Guzman, Alex Lespinazze, Anthony Tramontozzi, and Sean Lewis.

Junior Chemical Engineering Undergrads at the UD ice rink after Broomball

Watch out for SHPE

Informational Session later this

month!

By Kate Danner