Georgia Tech Chemistry Students Place Second in Competitive VIP Poster Contest

Students from the College of Sciences competed in the statewide Vertical Integrated Project (VIP) Innovation competition, hosted by the VIP Consortium this spring. The team, made up of two undergraduate students, Diya Godavarti and Waynell Simbafo, and one chemistry graduate student who served as a mentor, John Pederson, placed second overall in the poster category. Their poster on modeling chemical exposure in the workplace focused on socioeconomic disparities in potentially toxic environments. 

“Placing second speaks volumes for Georgia Tech and the capabilities and abilities of these students,” says Pamela Pollet, faculty with the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Pollet served as the team’s faculty advisor along with Jenny Houlroyd, manager of Occupational Health Services at Georgia Tech. 

Each year, the VIP poster competition challenges undergraduate students from throughout Georgia to use their different majors, mindsets, and abilities to solve a real, universal problem. The goal is to give students experience in a field of study and in working together to solve a seemingly complex problem. Georgia Tech’s team, which was pre-selected by faculty and jury members, was one of approximately 70 teams eligible to participate at the statewide competition held in March. 

Pollet says the student’s poster, which combined chemistry, chemical safety, and social justice, was born from their interest in examining chemical exposure dangers for those who are not equipped to recognize such hazards. 

“There is some social injustice in this context because the people who are most exposed to chemical dangers are often the people who don’t have the education to recognize the hazards and often are the most socioeconomically vulnerable,” Pollet explains. 

Godavarti, a second-year student in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, says the team was proud of the bigger goal of the project — and its alignment with Georgia Tech’s mission. “We wanted to bring awareness about the impact of chemical exposure and what can be done to prevent dangerous levels of exposure. It was interesting to think about this from a business perspective in the idea of how we can apply these models to help people.” 

The VIP chemical equity initiative received a Center for Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Sustainability Education Innovation Grant to continue the research this upcoming academic year, and will welcome both new and returning students.