Chemical Engineering Students Win 1st and 3rd at National AIChE Undergraduate Poster Competition
Chemical engineering students Ira Hysi, E’25, and Nethra Iyer, E’24, won 1st and 3rd place, respectively, showcasing their research at the national American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in the Undergraduate Poster Competition. Both students were competing in the education division, and are advised by COE Distinguished Teaching Professor Luke Landherr.
Ira’s poster, “Using Educational Comics to Promote Student Interest in the Breadth and Depth of Chemical Engineering”, described her research in developing a 16-page comic to better explain the full scope of chemical engineering as a professional field. Her comic, developed with Landherr and Northeastern alum Monica Keszler (class of 2017), has gone viral on LinkedIn, is being implemented at universities around the world, and is being translated into several other languages including Portuguese, Korean, and Tamil. Ira’s research highlighted the professional and educational impact of using this comic with first-year engineering students, and the potential for working with K-12 students.
Nethra’s poster, “Creation, Compilation, and Analysis for Educational Chemical Engineering Comics”, detailed both her analytical and artistic research in developing one-page STEM comics aimed at K-12 and first-year engineering students, showing how using comics as visual learning tools can increase interest, confidence, and understanding in students of all learning types. Her comics have been highlighted at the national AIChE K-12 STEM Showcase two years in a row, with direct dissemination to students and parents to help support their interest in pursuing further studies in STEM fields.
Both students had received Northeastern PEAK awards to help support their efforts to present at the conference.