Undergraduate students from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM) demonstrated outstanding performance at the 2026 AIChE Student Conference, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earning recognition in both the undergraduate research poster competitions and the ChemE Cube Competition.
This year, both recipients of the AIChE UPRM Student Chapter Travel Award earned awards in their respective research poster competition divisions.
Lorena Pérez Rovira, who conducts research at UPRM under the mentorship of Dr. Yomaira Pagán, earned third place in the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division. Her poster highlighted research conducted during her Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in Dr. Krishna’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Meanwhile, Anelisse Torres Santiago, a member of Dr. Paola Baldaguez Medina’s research group at UPRM, received second place in the Environmental Division. Her poster showcased her research on the development of electrochemical sensors for arsenic detection in water, highlighting innovative approaches for monitoring water contaminants.
Additionally, the UPRM ChemE Cube team achieved eighth place overall in the competition, earning the highest score in the Safety evaluation and recording the sixth-best experimental run. These accomplishments highlight the team’s dedication, technical expertise, and commitment to excellence throughout the design, development, and operation of their experimental system.
The Department of Chemical Engineering congratulates all participating students on their outstanding achievements and for proudly representing the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez at this national event. Their success reflects the department’s commitment to academic excellence, undergraduate research, innovation, and hands-on engineering education.