艾可直播

Blog Post written by Charlie Tonelli, Chemistry '27

From November 2 to November 6, 2025, the Brace Lab attended the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) annual meeting in 艾可直播, Massachusetts! All undergraduate research fellows, Dr. Brace, and Dr. Sarvada (postdoctoral researcher), attended the conference. Luke Baxter, Melanie (Mel) Cotta, Isabella (Bella) Doyle, William (Will) Rice, Claire Richter, and Charlotte (Charlie) Tonelli participated in the undergraduate poster presentations and competition. Will鈥檚 poster, 鈥淧rocess Design and Techno-Economic Analysis of Sustainable Xylitol Production Using BioSTEAM,鈥� won 2nd place in the Computing & Process Control Division! Mel鈥檚 poster, 鈥淧roduction of Xylitol through Fermentation: A Summer Project with High School Students through STEAM Ahead,鈥� won 3rd place in the Education & General Papers Division! Dr. Sarvada also participated in a poster session for food and bioprocess engineering. Dr. Brace gave a talk summarizing all of our work for sustainable xylitol production from biomass in a session focused on high-value and platform chemicals from renewable resources and waste. Charlie also gave a talk summarizing our research in the undergraduate research presentations session. All members of Brace Lab enjoyed attending sessions covering a variety of topics such as synthetic biology, pharmaceutical discoveries, integrated biorefineries, and many more!听 Following the conclusion of the conference, Dr. Brace encouraged us to reflect on our experiences at the conference. Here are some of the highlights from the conference:

Q1: What was your favorite session or talk at AIChE?

Bella Doyle (BD): I really enjoyed Session 73, Engineered Biomimetic Models, on Monday, in particular the presentation by Jacob Doon-Ralls from Ohio State University. His presentation was on neutrophils and NETosis, a neutrophil specific type of cell death. I liked this presentation because I was able to pick up on a lot of concepts that we are talking about in Molecules & Cells right now鈥� histones, chromatin, mitochondrial DNA, etc. A lot of the specifics and jargon went over my head but he was really enthusiastic about his work. My favorite part of this presentation was the videos that he showed of NETosis happening. They were super cool fluorescent videos of the cells self-imploding and shooting out their genetic material.

Claire Richter (CR): I greatly enjoyed hearing the other students present during the Undergraduate Research session. All of the students who gave a presentation were incredibly well-spoken, and showed a genuine curiosity and engagement for the work that they have done. It was neat to see how passionate other undergraduates are about the research that they do.

Will Rice (WR): My favorite session was 423, 鈥淚ntegrated Biorefineries: Technologies and TEA/LCA.鈥� I enjoyed it because I could clearly connect other researchers鈥� work to our own. Although none of them used BioSTEAM specifically for TEA, there were many similarities in their approaches to biomass conversion strategies, process optimization, and scale-up design. One presentation that stood out was by Stephen Fitzpatrick, who offered an industry perspective rather than an academic one. He is the founder of Biofine Technology LLC, which has developed a patented, carbon-negative refining process that converts lignocellulosic wastes to high-value products. While many other presentations focused on theoretical or early-stage research, his talk was particularly interesting to me because Biorefine has brought this technology out of the lab and to the point of commercialization. They already have a pilot plant in operation, and agreements have been reached for its first commercial biorefinery, which is a significant milestone for the emerging bioeconomy.

Q2: Did you receive any useful feedback or interesting questions about your work/our work, either at the poster session or during other conversations?

WR: I thought that it was very helpful to hear other perspectives on approaches to TEA. While presenting in my poster session, I was very grateful to have the opportunity to talk to one of the major creators of BioSTEAM, the software that we use in our work. Other researchers also gave me their input on other TEA softwares that they use.

Q3: What was your favorite part about participating in the conference?

BD: My favorite part of the conference was getting to present and watch talks from our group. I really enjoyed talking to people about our work and seeing what questions they had. I was a little nervous about being judged while presenting too, but the judges were very nice. Once I had presented a few times I was a lot less nervous and started to enjoy presenting. I also really enjoyed hearing the talks from Dr. Brace and Charlie. It was really cool to see all of our work laid out in one presentation and see how far we have come. It was interesting to hear the questions that people asked in these sessions too.

MC: My favorite part about participating in the conference was visiting posters during Dr. Sarvada鈥檚 poster session. I feel like it's very interesting to directly talk with people about their research, and you can ask them questions in the moment. I talked to multiple presenters who had posters on microplastics and the presence of microplastics in the environment and water sources. Microplastics have greatly infiltrated the water system, even in groundwater sources, and there were presenters researching the level and type of microplastic infiltration in groundwater and other sources. It was really interesting and somewhat disturbing to learn about how ubiquitous microplastics have become when we don't know the effect that they can have on humans or the environment yet. I appreciated the opportunity to engage with people who are very knowledgeable on their subjects and the ability to ask them questions about their research.听

WR: My favorite part about participating in AIChE was seeing how much our lab鈥檚 work has developed since my last conference that I attended two years ago as part of the Brace Lab, the Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals. It was definitely motivating to see other researchers working on similar projects and to receive feedback and general encouragement from others in the field!

Q4: What would you say was the most valuable part of attending the conference?

BD: I would say the most valuable part of attending the conference was getting to present a poster. It forced me out of the comfort zone a little bit but helped me to develop my public speaking skills. I also got practice answering difficult questions and explaining our work, which I think will translate to interviews and other presentations. It was also incredibly valuable to see what is currently going on in the field of chemical engineering and explore what a career might look like for me.听

CT: Presentation practice and confidence. Before going into this conference, I was really worried about how my presentation of our research would be perceived. However, everyone I spoke to was kind and very receptive to my explanations of the work we've done. I'm sure it helps that they know we are undergraduates, but it was still a little unexpected. I think doing the oral presentation showed me that I could do a presentation and not completely die of anxiety. Once I started presenting I didn't even look at my speaker notes once which was surprising because I thought I was going to have to heavily rely on those.

WR: I would say that the most valuable part of attending the conference was getting the chance to learn about new findings, research trends, and emerging technologies both in the realm of our specific research focus and beyond.听

Q5: What advice would you give to an undergraduate student attending a research conference for the first time?听

CR: I would advise another undergraduate student to not be afraid to ask questions. No one should expect you to know everything, so asking for clarification while it can seem intimidating is very important.

CT: The one thing everyone kept telling me was that "you are the expert" and it's true. No one at the conference (except for your PI, post-doc, and lab mates) knows this research and this material better than you. Also, it's okay to say you don't know things.听

MC: I would advise them to practice their poster a lot in advance, so they know their spiel well. And I would advise them to engage with all the other posters if they can, there's so much to learn from other presenters!听

Overall, the AIChE annual meeting was a great opportunity for the undergraduate research fellows to practice their presentation skills and to share everything they have been working on for the past year and a half. It was also great to gain inspiration for future research projects and career goals from the other presenters.听

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