College of

Engineering, Architecture and Technology

 

 

Students from the School of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University continue to showcase their prowess nationally. 

 

For the second year in a row, a team of CHE students, Brandi Head, Kenna Lam, Nikole Salas and Blakely Smith, won first place in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Student Design Contest. The problems that students tackle are provided by companies working to address a challenge facing their industry.

 

A team of students also took home first place in another category. The team of Cory Campbell, Margaret Cook, Tylee Kareck, and Keshawn Wallace won the Process Safety Award. It is a fantastic achievement for CHE to have two winning teams this year.

 

Overseen by Drs. Josh Ramsey and Clint Aichele, the Student Design Contest team took on the challenge of designing a process to produce blue hydrogen, a fuel utilized for its low CO₂ emissions. The students will be honored during the AIChE Annual Student Conference in Boston on Nov. 2, 2025.

 

The team had 60 days to complete the design on their own, submitting a comprehensive design that was evaluated by a panel of academic professionals and practicing engineers.  

 

“This award is a collective achievement for our entire school, as the project required the students to apply knowledge from all their courses,” Ramsey said. “Our strong history of success in this competition provides national recognition and external validation of the quality of our program."

 

Dr. Heather Fahlenkamp, CHE school head and professor, said the achievement was not possible without the support from the entire college. CHE students receive tremendous experiences in their core courses, especially their senior design capstone course, for the AIChE contest.

 

"Congratulations to Brandi, Kenna, Nikole and Blakely on your outstanding accomplishment,” Fahlenkamp said. “We know that our students are talented, but it’s nice to have outside confirmation from others, especially at the highest level.”

 

Previous years have seen students work to address vaccine production, plastic recycling, and converting natural gas to gasoline.

  

Students finished first last year with the task of converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen to natural gas. CHE students have now won the contest eight times and finished second three times in 31 years.  

 

CHE students gain experience in solving real-world problems that are facing industry in the present and in the future. By participating in the AIChE Student Design Contest, our students gain invaluable experience that they carry with them for the entirety of their careers.