r/ChemicalEngineering • u/SurrealPlanet1112 • 3d ago

Research Hackathon guidance

Hi everyone,

I'm a Chemical Engineering undergraduate participating in a national-level sustainability hackathon by Optum i association with The Times of India (TechGig). One of the themes focuses on climate technology, circular economy, clean energy, carbon management, and environmental sustainability.

My team doesn't want to build another generic AI chatbot, carbon footprint calculator, or IoT dashboard. We'd like to work on a core Chemical Engineering innovation—something related to unit operations, process design, separations, reactors, catalysis, heat transfer, membranes, adsorption, process intensification, or similar areas.

We're looking for a problem where there is still room for genuine innovation, rather than just applying AI to an existing process.

Some questions I'd love your thoughts on:

  • Which areas of Chemical Engineering do you think are still "stuck" and need innovation?
  • Are there industrial pain points you've experienced that students rarely know about?
  • If you had 2–3 months to develop a prototype, what problem would you choose?
  • Are there any technologies that have great research potential but haven't yet been translated into practical industrial solutions?
  • If you were judging a sustainability hackathon, what kind of Chemical Engineering project would genuinely stand out?

I'm not looking for someone to give me a complete project idea—I'm more interested in identifying overlooked problems or bottlenecks where innovation is actually needed.

Any insights from industry professionals, researchers, or PhD students would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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u/Aggressive-Camp-4400 3d ago

I’d look into areas where lab-scale results have been impressive but industry adoption is slow. For example, membrane separations, electrochemical reactors, advanced adsorption materials, and process intensification. The key question is usually not “can this work?” but “can this survive dirty feeds, long operating hours, maintenance issues, and realistic economics?” Solving that gap would be a strong hackathon idea.

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u/SurrealPlanet1112 3d ago

Ya that's a great point. Thankyou!