Our Crowdfunding Groups
Purpose: ChemE Car @ UMD needs help affording travel costs for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers National Competition.
Welcome to ChemE Car @ UMD! We are a student group of chemical engineering students that design and build a car that runs on a chemical reaction. When perfected, the car competes against other university ChemE Car teams in a Regional Competition. The top five placements of the Regional Competition have the opportunity of competing in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) National conference.
Last spring, ChemE Car @ UMD's car, Shelldon, placed 2nd in the AIChE Regional ChemE Car Competition. 2nd place qualified our team for the National Competition being held this November. Unfortunately, the number of members on our team exceeds the available funds we have for travel. We currently have at least 12 active members from ChemE Car that worked tirelessly to make our car successful in the Regional Competition. We have put in many late nights researching and designing our car so we could create a winning machine. In addition, because our car is a complex assembly of parts, all of our members have separated into groups and specialized in designing, building, and understanding one section of the car. While we all understand the functionality of each car component, it will be important to have members that have become experts on their section of the car at the National Competition to tackle unforeseen challenges. Each of these members deserves to see the car compete in the National Competition!
With your help, we also have the opportunity to make adjustments to our car from now until the National Competition. We would like to take full advantage of this liberty in order to better our car to the best of our abilities. The other schools will also undoubtedly be using these next few months to make their own alterations. Since most of our funds will have to go towards travel, we have little money to make purchases for new items for our car; like chemicals for the reaction or bolts for structure. We don’t want to look back and realize money was the reason we were not able to build a winning car!
ChemE Car isn’t just about winning or building a car. It is about forming friendships, communicating with professors, networking with professionals, and learning what it takes to be an engineer in the real world. UMD is providing us with an excellent education, but ChemE Car has given us the chance to test our knowledge on real world applications. At the same time, the AIChE competitions have given us a goal to strive for while also providing us with the opportunity to listen to seminars and meet students from around the nation.
We hope that you can see what this competition means to us and our future and choose to donate to our program!
For more information about our team, please visit our website or email us at chemecar.umd@gmail.com. You can also find us on twitter, facebook, and Instagram (chemecar.umd).
Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents. Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax deductible as allowed by law. Please see your tax advisor for details.
This level would help pay for some of the screws, glue, and other basic items that are needed to assemble the car and make sure it meets safety requirements.
This level would help pay for some of the materials we need to improve our car before the National competition. Donating this much gets: An autographed photo of the team!
This level would help pay for some of our larger structure items such as the perforated board, motors, or wheel system that need to be replaced or refurbished.
This level would help pay for more reaction materials as well as updating the appearance of our 3D printed reaction chamber.
This level would help pay for 1 student to travel to the AIChE conference by providing money for airfare, food, hotel, and conference registration. Donating this amount gives: A meet and greet with the team and a regional competition visit!
This level would help pay for the registration fees for the members going to the national conference.