The VT Chem-E-Car team designs, builds, and tests a shoe-box sized car powered and controlled using chemical reactions and competes in national and regional competitions hosted by AIChE.
In addition to competing, the team actively volunteers through the VT Chemical Engineering Department, AIChE, and in the New River Valley community with the goal of advancing chemical engineering and promoting STEM involvement.
This spring, the team competed at the Regional competition in Richmond, VA. The team ran two cars once again, Carmeleon and Preston. The team places 2nd and 4th, qualifying for the National competition in Minneapolis, MN this fall!
In spring 2025, the team competed at the regional competition held at Lehigh University with two cars for the first time ever. The pressure car, which was nearly developed over the last year, placed 2nd. The traditional car placed 4th. Both cars qualified for the national competition in Boston, MA!
In Fall 2025, the team headed to Boston, MA to compete at the National Chem-E-Car competition with their 2nd place regional finish car, Preston. After encountering some technical difficulties 10 minutes before their slotted run time, Preston was able to reach 0.8m shy of the distance on the first run. For the second run, it was 0.7m shy. The team finished 5th nationally, and 11th internationally.
