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The Conex茫o AIChE Brasil online conference was proposed during the Student Chapter Presidents Meeting at the 2020 Brazil Student Regional Conference, also attended by the ESC's Latin America Regional Liaison at the time. The main goal established at that meeting was to strengthen relationships among Brazilian chapters as well as with the other chapters unable to attend the Conference, in order to create a stronger and closer community.
The chapters asked for a general meeting with all student presidents, and the 12 AIChE Student Chapters unanimously agreed to collaborate on the event. Their plan was to organize and host several virtual keynotes on various subjects, covering both hard and soft skills, in less than one month.
One of the team's objectives was to incorporate not only hot topics in the field but to also include other important topics that wouldn鈥檛 normally be discussed in a chemical engineering course, such as mental health. The conference also had the social goal of helping families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Every student chapter invited a recognized speaker to talk about a subject in which they had particular expertise. All keynotes were presented live on the and remain posted there.
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The event lasted one week, from June 8th to June 13th, 2020. A total of 11 virtual keynotes were held, featuring speakers from different parts of Brazil. In addition, more than 700 people registered for the event, and over 350 donated to the cause. Half of the keynotes covered technical topics and the other half covered social skills topics, and the talks attracted both Brazilian and international students.
Some of the highlights from the online conference included:
- Alexandre Mussumeci, Ph.D. 鈥 Pioneer in Offshore Exploration of Brazilian Oil, from AIChE UFRJ.
- Fernando Pellegrini, Ph.D. 鈥 A Talk About Sustainable Development, from AIChE Santos and AIChE UFRJ.
- Giorgia Brassac 鈥 Student Anxiety in Times of Crisis, from AIChE Curitiba.
- Daniel Vareschini, Ph.D. - Fermentation Processes and the Beverage Industry, from AIChE Maring谩.
Access to the conference was free for everyone, as it was hosted live on YouTube. The organizers offered a certificate of participation to students who donated a minimum of $2 USD and attended a sufficient number of hours. All donations went to the NGO 鈥淎莽茫o da Cidadania,鈥 which delivers food to families affected by the pandemic. Together, the 12 student chapters raised over $800 USD in less than a week.
This project, even with so little time to organize, showed the strength of working together. The event staff, which included 30 students from different chapters, all loved the experience of connecting with new people and working together. Their excellent work led to 97% of post-event survey respondents indicating that they would register for a future event held by Conex茫o AIChE Brasil.
This effort proved to us that through proactivity and a collaborative spirit, we can achieve many great things. This was definitely the first of future events to be held online. Being able to host this kind of event to promote connections among good people and deliver scientific knowledge is yet another great benefit offered by AIChE. It was an honor to have so many people with us during that week, and we hope to be connected again soon.
Comments
Amazing effort by the Brazilian chapters. I am so proud of being part of this and happy that we achieved good results. Now we are aiming further flights, strengthening ChemE and AIChE in Brazilian society!
We worked hard and we were very happy not only with the results obtained, the humanitarian aid we got, the people we managed to reach but also with the strengthening, as stated in the text, of the bonds of the Brazilian chapters. It was an incredible experience, something that will be forever in our history.