Engineering and industrial software company Aveva announced the winners of its first ever competition for senior year chemical engineering students in North America.
The competition involved 56 students from 20 universities in North America remotely using Aveva's industrial simulation software platform, SimCentral, to design, optimize and operate a process to produce dimethyl ether—a gas that can be used as automotive fuel—for electric power generation and in domestic applications such as heating and cooking.
Aveva created the challenge in collaboration with Dr. Richard Turton, author and chemical process simulation expert. Its purpose was to introduce students to new skills and techniques in preparation for careers that increasingly rely on Industry 4.0 and the use of modern applications for engineering process design, simulation and optimization. Students were encouraged to be as innovative and creative as possible in their approach.
The results, as judged by AVEVA technical experts were as follows:
Advanced group – First place and $3,000 cash prize – West Virginia University: Saeed Kuzmar, Ronald Alexander, Zachary Kilwein and Dennis Loevlie
Beginners group – First place and $3,000 cash prize – University of Cincinnati: Ryan Muir
Beginners group – Runner-up and $1,500 cash prize – University of California, Riverside: Jason Kuo, Aaron Chi, Benjamin Rammelsberg and James de Graw
Participating universities included: University of Mississippi; Texas A&M University; Kansas State University; Cornell University; University of Texas; West Virginia University; University of California, Riverside; Lamar University; California Polytechnic University Pomona; Rice University; Case Western Reserve University; Cal State Long Beach; University of Cincinnati; University of Nevada; American River College; University of Nebraska; University of Tennessee; University of Waterloo; Southern Alberta Institute of Tech; University of Alberta.
