Author: Michael Regula

Request for TAs for the Fall 2018 semester

The ChE Department has released their list of classes where graduate teaching assistants are needed for the Fall 2018 semester. If you are interested in serving as a TA in the fall, please send an email to Cathy Krause by Friday, April 27 with the following information:

1) Your preferred courses
2) The name of your faculty advisor
3) Whether you have served as a TA previously
4) Whether you are doing the TA to fulfill the PhD degree requirement or for some other reason (to help with funding, because of interest in teaching, etc.)

A typical TA assignment (1/4-time) carries with it an expectation of about 10 hr/wk of effort, on average, with the precise responsibilities determined by the course instructor.

The following courses require TAs for the Fall 2018 semester:

ChE 210 – Material Balances
ChE 220 – Intro to Thermo
ChE 230 – Computational Tools

ChE 320 – Phase & Chemical Equilibria
ChE 330 – Fluid Mechanics
ChE 340 – Biomolecular Engineering
ChE 350 – Heat Transfer

ChE 410 – Mass Transfer
ChE 430 – Reaction Engineering
ChE 452 – Process Safety
ChE 470 – Process Design (including Process Simulation)
ChE 480 – ChE Lab

Dates and locations for the graduate student unionization vote

The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) has announced the dates and locations for the graduate student unionization vote.

The ChE GSA will escort people from Greenberg at 1 pm on both Wednesday (April 11) and Friday (April 13) to walk over to the polling places. Voters must bring their Penn State Student ID card to the polling locations.

If you are unable to make it with the ChE GSA groups, please see the following list of dates, times, and locations for the unionization vote.

April 10

Voting times: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Bennett Pierce Living Center (110 Henderson Building)

April 11

Voting times: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Location: Charles W. Mann, Jr. Assembly Room (103 Paterno Library)

April 12

Voting times: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Location: Charles W. Mann, Jr. Assembly Room (103 Paterno Library)

April 13

Voting times: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Location: Millennium Science Complex (Rooms W203 and W202)

Lego Grad Student coming to Penn State on April 27

The Chemistry GSA is hosting a seminar by Lego Grad Student on April 27, 2018 in Freeman Auditorium (HUB). All Penn State graduate and undergraduate students are welcome to attend.

The seminar, entitled “Why am I Here?”, will discuss his experiences as a graduate student and how to overcome the challenges and stresses of graduate school. Light refreshments will be provided.

More information about the event can be found on Facebook.

Registration now open for 2018 Grad Cup

The ChE GSA will be sponsoring a team for Grad Cup. Grad Cup is a fun day of outdoor games and food where graduate students compete against other departments for prizes.

Grad Cup will be held April 14 from 9 am to 6 pm. The deadline to register is April 1.

If you are interested, please fill out the following two forms:

1) ChE GSA Registration Form
2) GPSA Registration Form – Put “Chemical Engineering” when asked for a “Team Name.”

More information about Grad Cup is available through the GPSA on Facebook.

Weekly ChE Coffee Hour starting April 2

The ChE department will begin holding a weekly coffee hour on Mondays from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm in Greenberg. The first one will be held on April 2. Coffee and snacks will be served.

To maintain the coffee hours, a volunteer will be needed every week to make the coffee. Please send Dan Cetnar the week(s) you are available to help.

Beaver Stadium Run during Blue and White Weekend will be the Spring 2018 ChE Department 5k

The 2018 Spring ChE Department 5k will be held in conjuction with the Beaver Stadium Run during Penn State’s annual Blue and White Weekend. The race will be held on Sunday, April 22 starting at 11 am.

To successfully signup for the race, please complete both registration forms below:

1) Beaver Stadium Run – Registration Form
2) ChE Department – Registration Form

From the Beaver Stadium Run website,

The Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run for Special Olympics Pennsylvania (SOPA), presented by the Sheetz family, will return to Penn State on Blue White Weekend for a ninth consecutive year. More than 3,000 runners and walkers of all ages and abilities will participate in a 5K run or 2 mile family fun walk on Sunday, April 22, 2018. The Run will begin in the vicinity of the Bryce Jordan Center on Curtin Road, move through Penn State’s scenic campus, and conclude with runners racing through the Beaver Stadium Tunnel and onto the Nittany Lions’ home turf to “finish at the fifty!”

Proceeds from the Run benefit Special Olympics Pennsylvania and nearly 20,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Every fundraising achievement will help us send more athletes to Summer Games! Make a commitment today and change a life forever!

Graduate student recruiting at the AIChE conference

Penn State’s chemical engineering department will be meeting prospective students at a recruiting fair Sunday, October 29 at the AIChE conference in Minneapolis, MN. The recruitment fair will run from 9am to 5pm. If you are available for an hour to talk to prospective students about the department at the department’s booth, please email Kristen Fichthorn (fichthron[at]psu.edu) with your availability.

Call for abstracts for the 15th annual College of Engineering Symposium

The Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC) will be hosting a “Call for Abstracts” in the Kunkle Lounge on Monday, November 6, 5:30 to 7:30pm. In addition to learning about the upcoming College of Engineering Research Symposium (CERS 2018), students can also benefit from the presentation from Professor Michael Alley titled: “Making Presentations and Delivering a Poster” at the start of the event. Refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP using the Google Form.

At CERS, students can showcase their research to a diverse audience of Penn State engineering/science faculty, students, and industry representatives and obtain valuable feedback on your writing and presentation skills. Students also compete for research/travel grants (totaling $5,000) for the Best Graduate/Undergraduate Paper/Poster, and Best Art in Science competition.

The timeline for CERS 2018 is as follows:

December 8, 2017 – Submit an abstract (maximum 150 words) for a paper and/or poster via the target=”_blank”>CERS 2018 website.
February 1, 2018 – Submit your paper.
March 14, 2018 – Submit your poster.
March 27, 2018 – Submit your Art in Science.
April 10, 2018 – Present your research in CERS 2018 at The Nittany Lion Inn.