American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Young Professionals Advisory Board

Chicago Section

YPAB kickoff summary:

The YPAB kickoff was a huge success! Reoccurring themes were: networking, enhancing professional skills, and having fun while getting-together with past classmates and co-workers.

Thanks to all those who have supported us thus far - and look forward to future YPAB events!

Second kickoff to make up for the foot and a half snow summary:

Interesting idea/comment to follow up on/consider:

• Mentoring program with AIChE Local Chicago Members: Allow younger professionals to enhance their understanding of more advanced ChE’s roles in other companies, and link YPAB with the Local Section which may enhance their overall support.
• Defining membership (maybe with a email to distribution list asking if they would like their email address to appear on the YPAB-Chicago website in order to have contact information readily available).

First kickoff Summary:

After a brief overview of the handout and future professional/social events, we attempted to gather input from the attendees regarding why they are interested in being a member of the YPAB in addition to what would they like to get out of the YPAB.

The number one overwhelming response was, of course, networking. As a part of networking, people want to learn other industry aspects (technologies, experiences, etc.) and what other Chicagoland Chemical Engineers are doing with their careers.

We also discussed possible professional topics and how we can roll them into future meetings/programs. The following are specific items of interest that was identified:

• Professional/Career development topics
• Effective Meetings/Communication Topics
• Overview of direction of Chemical Industry and job possibilities (e.g. Tina Tullberg CPS presentation)
• Round Table/Forums for specialized topics
• Control System Engineering
• Project Management
• Area Chemical Company Tours
• Manufacturing Facilities (This is something we are already planning on doing.)
• Target various industry sectors (Refinery, Petrochemical, Food and Beverage, etc.)

Overall, it was a good meeting and it appears that there is a lot of interest. The potential is there to build a strong network with great success. Despite the snow storm, we still have a lot of momentum going our way to progress this to the next step.

Kickoff Pictures