Honorable Mention for the                                                                           2007 AIChE National Student Design Competitions

OSU ChE seniors Jehna Ferster, Lindsey Hall, and David Wiist received an Honorable Mention from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) for their team entry in the 2007 AIChE National Student Design Competition.  They were recognized in the honors ceremony during the fall AIChE meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah; and shown here at breakfast during the meeting.  Lindsey is on the left.

David Wiist is from Edmond, OK.  He writes, “My dad is a retired Fire Marshall and my mom is a self-employed skin care specialist.”  He also attended Edmond Santa Fe High School, where he played baseball and was on the marching band drumline.  He has two younger sisters, one a sophomore at Santa Fe and the other a sophomore at Oklahoma State.  David chose the Biomedical Option within the ChE program, and will also graduate with a Biochemistry minor.  He was the AIChE 1st Vice President in 2006-07 and the Tau Beta Pi Secretary in 2005-06.  “In 2006, I won first place at the AIChE Regional Paper Competition and presented at the National AIChE Conference.  In 2007, I was awarded 2nd place in the R.N. Maddox Chemical Engineering Design award for graduating seniors.  My post graduation plans are to work with Chesapeake in Oklahoma City.” 

Lindsey Hall also grew up in Edmond, OK, and graduated from Edmond Santa Fe High School.  She complemented her ChE major with a minor in Spanish.  She has been active in several organizations, and writes: “In the last few years, I have been AIChE President and Activities Coordinator, a Success Coach for 3 years, a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Middle School Mentor, a Collegiate Role Models for educating Women (CREW) mentor, and a Member at Large for CEAT Student Council.”  She will graduate in December, and has also accepted a job with Chesapeake Energy in Oklahoma City.  

Jehna Ferster was raised in three countries.  “My dad was in the Canadian Air Force, we lived in the US, Canada, and Germany.  High School was in two sections:  9-10 grades at AFCENT International High School (Brunssum, the Netherlands), 11-12 at Edmond Memorial High School (Edmond, OK).”  Jehna graduated in May 2007 with her degree in ChE, and now works as a Development Engineer for SemMaterials, L.P. in Tulsa, OK.  She worked throughout her time at OSU to partially support her education, and was also active in a variety of roles.  These included: Secretary of the AIChE student chapter, founding member and secretary and treasurer of the OSU Shotgun Sports Club, CEAT Student Council Member and CEAT Success Coach for several years each, and a member of the Society of Women Engineers.

Students from Northeastern University received the 2007 1st place award in the team category.  Two teams, OSU and Michigan State, were recognized with the honorable mention. 

The 2007 design problem involved design of a process to recover pyridine from a waste stream in an existing process.  Pyridine is an important chemical intermediate used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, rubber chemicals, adhesives, disinfectants and a variety of other products.   

Jehna, Lindsey and David spent a total of 288 hours over a period of 30 days developing their design and final report.  Jan Wagner, co-instructor in their Design I and II courses, complimented the team by noting that “the team produced an outstanding technical solution to a very complicated problem.  The sophistication of their design was matched by the quality of their documentation.  Everyone associated with our school is proud of their accomplishment.”