WESTERN SARNIA-LAMBTON RESEARCH PARK
Research Park Hosts 18th Annual Capstone Competition and Go CODE Girl

Two events featuring Western Engineering were held at the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park, on Friday, April 5, and Saturday, April 6, 2024.

The Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park hosted the 18th annual Capstone Design Project Competition as an in-person event on Friday, April 5, 2024 for 40 students from the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, at Western University.

Panels of judges, comprised of local community and industry leaders, presented first and second place awards in the categories of Biomass Conversion to Chemicals, and Waste Valourization and Carbon Dioxide Utilization.

Biomass Conversion to Chemicals
First Place: Production of Biodiesel and Biohydrogen from Microalgae
Project Engineers: Pierre-Christof Ascherl, Savana Bosco, Maxine Brown, Manaswini Dias

Second Place: Conversion of Biomass to Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Project Engineers: Natalie Connors, Kaitlyn Burghardt, Tayte Bowron, Sara Wiwatowsk

Waste Valourization and Carbon Dioxide Utilization

First Place: Circular Process for Disposal of Polyethylene Waste Plastic Films Through Pyrolysis
Project Engineers: Katherine O'Hare, Abby Maves, Samantha Goertz, Alida Teodorescu

Second Place: Carbon Capture and Utilization - Production of Dimethyl Carbonate
Project Engineers: Blake Cole, Masaharu Ono, Mustafa Osman, Fernanda Pereira

Sponsorships totaling $7,500 were generously donated by: Arlanxeo, Bluewater Power, CF Industries, Generate Upcycle, Kent, Montrose Environmental Group, Western Research Parks and Worley.

Capstone was followed by Sarnia-Lambton's first Go CODE Girl event on Saturday, April 6, 2024, to inspire girls and non-binary youth in grades 7 to 10 to continue their STEM education to pursue a career in technology, computing and engineering. Go CODE Girl, organized by Western Engineering Outreach, included hands on coding activities as well as exposure to robotics and various coding applications during a tech rotation.

"The Research Park was excited to host these unique events in Sarnia-Lambton," says Dr. Katherine Albion, Executive Director of the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park. "The graduating Chemical and Biochemical Engineering students enthusiastically presented their innovative design projects to our local industry leaders, as potential technologies for our region's future. We were thrilled that Western Engineering Outreach offered new coding activities to Sarnia-Lambton youth, to encourage diversity in the engineering field, and to provide exposure to this quickly growing technology sector."

The Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park was created in November 2003 with the inception of the County of Lambton Community Development Corporation, owned by the County of Lambton. The Research Park manages and operates the property owned by the CLCDC. It boasts 270,000 square feet of leasable area. In addition to its labs and research space, it is home to a number of high profile tenants including Nova Chemicals, Enbridge and the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership.