Four uOttawa students, Martin Dussault (not shown), Matthew Joseph Hudder, Robert Tyssen, and Ryan Bekeris, earned second place at the SNC-Lavalin Undergraduate Plant Design Competition that took place in Niagara Falls from October 19 to 22 at the annual CSChE conference. The team was selected from a large pool of talented candidates by a panel of 3 judges drawn from industry, government and academia, and received a certificate for their remarkable project entitled “Benzyl Chloride Manufacturing Facility”.
Professor Jules Thibault who currently teaches the Plant Design Project course (CHG 4244) summarized the main aspect of the competition. “Students, in a group of 4, must design a chemical plant to produce a high production volume chemical from zero to a final design of the plant. Their design must include a market analysis, the choice of the reaction pathway, and the complete design of the plant using specialized software, the economic analysis (capital and operating costs) over the intended period of operation of the plant, the choice of location, the physical layout of the plant, an environmental and safety analysis. The student must submit a total of 5 reports for different portions of the chemical plant design including the final report with all the work performed during the semester”.
This competition meant a lot for the team and provided an opportunity to reveal marvellous talents and to apply concepts learned in class.
“The conference was an excellent opportunity for our group to showcase the amount of work and effort we put into our project. It was great to represent our chemical engineering department, especially the professors who have been there to assist us at every opportunity”, confided Matthew Hudder.
“It is a validation of the 4 years of hard work that each of us went through in order to obtain our Bachelors of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering. It further shows the great education that we received through the hard work of all the professors in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering”, revealed Ryan Bekeris.
“The opportunity to compete in the SNC-Lavalin Plant Design competition was a truly incredible experience. My team members and I are honored to have the culmination of our hard work be recognized on a national level by the Canadian chemical engineering community. Of course, this opportunity would not be possible without the tremendous work of each and every professor in providing their students with the tools, expertise, and experience to succeed as engineers”, said Rob Tyssen.
Department Chair David Taylor acclaimed this achievement: “My congratulations to Martin, Ryan, Matthew and Robert for this terrific showing! We are all very proud of you! ”
It was an opportunity to recognize the work of Professor Jules Thibault, also the team’s supervisor. Professor Thibault is the designer of online courses on YouTube as part of his CHG3735 engineering course on Process Control taking teaching in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering to a whole new level.
Professor Taylor acknowledged “the tremendous work of Jules Thibault in directing our capstone design course (CHG4244) and for encouraging this and previous years’ teams to compete. He is tireless in his support and encouragement of our undergraduates both in the classroom and outside of it”.
“A huge THANKS to you Jules for your continued involvement with our students. Our past, present, and upcoming success in regards to students’ participation in prevocational competition such as this one are mostly thanks to you”, recognized Dean Claude Laguë.