Chemical car propels McMaster to a win

A chemical-powered car propelled a group of McMaster Engineering students into first place at a recent intercollegiate competition.

The McMaster Chem-E-Car team placed first in the North Central Regional Conference, which was hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AlChE).

Teams were tasked with designing a small-scale automobile that operates by chemical means and compete against other post-secondary institutions. The car had to travel from 50 to 100 feet and carry up to 0.5 kg of water in under 2 minutes. Exact distance and load is given to the team one hour before their race.

On April 7-8, the McMaster team, including members Kelly Huyen, Reda Elsawi, Kyle Pearce, Daniel D’Souza and Marwan Murad, competed at the event, which was held at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The team won first place in both the poster competition and the race.

McMaster was the only Canadian institution represented at the competition. The group has been invited to compete in the National Competition at the end of October 2017.