The CHEES Research team under Dr. Landaverde-Alvarado tabled at UT’s Girl’s Day event on February 22nd, 2025. This event provides hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math experiences to elementary or middle school students and their families.

Our demonstration included a sustainable design mini extruder, injection molder, and a polarizing microscope. Attendees were encouraged to start at the injection molder or extruder section to learn more about how plastics are processed and provide a hands-on process by turning the extruder’s handle to process polypropylene pellets. We made miniature combs using the injection molder. After, they would head towards the polarizing microscope side to hear more about the analysis process where attendees were encouraged to adjust the microscope’s fine tuner knob to focus on a lab-made sample.

Three members of the CHEES Research Team, Emily Mellen, Finnegan McGoldrick, and Elliot Bolden, presented their research findings at the chemical engineering undergraduate research poster presentation event on December 4th, 2024.

Their poster focused on three main segments of our research to develop a circular economy for single-use plastic waste on UT campus: 3D printing, injection molding, and tensile testing.

From left to right: Emily Mellen, Finnegan McGoldrick, and Elliot Bolden

The CHEES Research team under Dr. Landaverde-Alvarado was invited to table at the World of Engineering on November 2nd, an event dedicated to showcasing various topics of STEM to K-12 students.

Our demonstration included a sustainable design mini extruder and a polarizing microscope. Attendees were encouraged to start at the mini extruder section to learn more about the lab’s hands on process and were able to assist in turning the extruder’s handle to melt the pellets into a longhorn mold. After, they would head towards the polarizing microscope side to hear more about the analysis process where attendees were encouraged to adjust the microscope’s fine tuner knob to focus on a lab made sample.

From left to right: Antoine Chamoun-Farah, Amanda Nguyen, Emily Mellen, Elliot Bolden, Zane Johnson, and William Cho