Driven to win: CU Boulder qualifies again for national Chem-E-Car competition

Susan Glairon — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:47:24 +0000

Driven to win: CU Boulder qualifies again for national Chem-E-Car competition Susan Glairon Wed, 04/29/2026 - 11:47

Susan Glairon

Izzy Culver starts her team's zinc battery car, the Stinkinator, at the Rocky Mountain regional competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah from April 10-11.

James Hempfling, Mizuki Green, Alex Tibbits and Izzy Culver hold their First-Place Poster Presentation and Second-Place Performance awards for their car, Stinkinator, which is powered by a zinc–alkaline battery system.

A little car named "Stinkinator" placed second in the Chem-E-Car car performance competition, qualifying CU Boulder for the national American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Chem-E-Car competition next fall.

This marks the second consecutive year that CU Boulder has advanced to the nationals, which will take place in November in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This year, CU Boulder sent two teams to the Rocky Mountain regional competition held in Salt Lake City, Utah from April 10-11. Teams are composed of students representing chemical and biological engineering, mechanical engineering and various other engineering disciplines.

“Qualifying for the national competition again is both exciting and intimidating,” said Captain Mizuki Green, a sophomore in chemical engineering whose car, Stinkinator, qualified for the national competition. “We are proud to continue CU Boulder’s legacy in this event and recognize the high standard set by previous senior teams. At the same time, we’re eager for the opportunity to learn, grow and build new connections within the chemical engineering community.”

The competition's goal is to design a shoebox-sized car powered by chemical reactions— such as a battery or an internal combustion engine — that stops at a specified distance using a time-dependent chemical reaction. The target distance is revealed just before the competition, and the team whose car stops closest to that distance wins.

Stinkinator placed second in the car performance competition and took first place in the poster presentation. The second-place win for car performance secured CU Boulder a spot at the national AIChE competition.

The second car, a pressure car named “Pushin' P,” took second place in the poster presentation and fourth in car distance.

“We have never done this before, so it was difficult figuring out how to build an operating pressure car in general,” said Captain Katya Jassem, a junior in chemical engineering. Unlike the first team, the second team was made up entirely of chemical and biological engineering students.

Ethan Blair, Katya Jansem and Sergio Morales with their second-place Poster Presentation award, for their car, Pushin' P. Pushin' P is powered by an acid–base reaction between citric acid and sodium bicarbonate to produce carbon dioxide gas. The buildup of gas creates pressure, which powers a pneumatic motor to drive the car

Stinkinator is powered by a zinc–alkaline battery system using pure zinc anodes and a potassium hydroxide electrolyte separator. The cathode is a copper–manganese dioxide paste with activated carbon, which serves as the primary energy source. To stop the car, aqueous hydrochloric acid is released into a sodium thiosulfate solution, triggering a reaction that produces solid sulfur—hence the name, Stinkinator.

Pushin’ P uses an acid–base reaction between citric acid and sodium bicarbonate to produce carbon dioxide gas. The buildup of gas creates pressure, which powered a pneumatic motor to drive the car. After the reaction, the gas was directed through steel tubing from the reaction chamber to the motor, where it turned the system and propelled the car.

To control when the car stopped, the team used a calibration curve relating system pressure to travel distance, allowing them to calculate the correct reactant amounts in advance.

Throughout the year, CU Boulder students designed, built and tested their car ideas in the chemical engineering undergraduate teaching lab, supported by Assistant Teaching Professor Ehsan Keyvani.

"These competitions involve an intensive, year-long process of iteration and refinement to master their craft.” Keyvani said.

The first semester is typically focused on brainstorming and initial engineering/testing. Once the second semester begins, activity ramps up. The first half is dedicated to testing, solidifying the car design and preparing the required competition documentation. In the second half of the spring semester, the team meets multiple times per week for extended sessions to ensure everything is competition-ready.

CU Boulder's Chem-E-Car club is supported by funding from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and has received Engineering Excellence Fund support in the past. Students interested in joining CU Boulder's Chem-E-Club can send an email to chemecar@colorado.edu. The club can also be followed on Instagram at @boulderchemecar.

A little car named "Stinkinator" placed second in the Chem-E-Car car performance competition, paving the way for CU Boulder to compete in the national competition next fall. The competition's goal is to design a shoebox-sized car powered by chemical reactions— such as a battery or an internal combustion engine — that stops at a specified distance using a time-dependent chemical reaction.

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Keyvani to bring innovative online lab instruction to department

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 15:42:45 +0000

Keyvani to bring innovative online lab instruction to department Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/06/2021 - 09:42

Jonathan Raab

Ehsan Keyvani

This fall, Ehsan Keyvani will join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering as an instructor.

As a chemical engineer, Keyvani has an interest in organic solar cells, transparent conductive electrodes, graphene, self-assembly and device manufacturing. As an instructor, he specializes in unit operation and simulated engineering labs through his Labsence platform.

“When the pandemic hit, I recognized the limitations of distance learning in regards to hands-on lab activities,” Keyvani said. “I reached out to well-developed start-ups that were creating content for science laboratories.”

He discovered that many of those companies were unable to support the development of new programs because they were focused on weathering the economic uncertainty created by the pandemic.

“I decided not to wait around,” he said. “I developed a Unity-based engineering lab simulation—Labsence—that enables the user to download the program on their local device to perform chemical engineering experiments. With this model, there’s no need for a consistent connection to high-speed internet.”

The Labsence mission “is to replicate the engineering laboratories as both stand-alone and complementary tools to be integrated into either hybrid or fully online programs.” Keyvani hopes to integrate it into the department’s award-winning LearnChemE platform.

“This would be a great add-on to the resources we have here at CU Boulder, and would be beneficial for recruiting future students,” he said.

A screenshot from the Labsense online engineering laboratory

Keyvani is looking forward to mentoring students as they begin their chemical and biological engineering careers.

“I try to let students learn from their mistakes and give them room for trial and error,” he said. “I believe if you involve chemical and biological engineering students in problem solving, they will learn better. As Benjamin Franklin said: ‘Tell me and I forget, teach me and I might remember, involve me and I learn.’ That is why I am more interested in teaching labs where I get to witness my students grow in both technical and soft skills.”

With the department’s close ties and proximity to NREL—and his background in organic solar cell fabrication—he is also considering developing courses and mini-labs related to photovoltaics.

Keyvani brings a global perspective to the department. He was born in a Turkish-speaking minority community in northwest Iran and lived in Japan before moving to the United States seven years ago. He graduated with a BS in polymer engineering from the �Թ�� of Tehran in 2013, and earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the Northeastern �Թ�� of Boston in 2019, where he also received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Teaching.

“I am looking forward to meeting the faculty and student body, and engaging in outdoor activities such as bouldering and exploring the beautiful nature of Colorado,” he said.

This fall, Ehsan Keyvani will join the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering as an instructor.

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