Her stay in Chicago leads to winning a research contest

The cosmetics and personal care industry is a sector that Monterrey campus student Nicol Olivares Rodríguez is passionate about.

This interest led her to conduct research during her stay at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) on the environmental impact of companies in this sector, which was recognized by that educational institution.

The Chemical Engineering in Sustainable Processes student presented her results at the 2022 UIC Undergraduate Research Forum, where she won first place in the Business, Computer Science, and Mathematics category.

“When they told me I’d won first place, I couldn’t believe it because although I think I did a very good job, I’m a perfectionist and I only had two weeks to analyze the data.

“I felt that two weeks wasn’t enough time to analyze everything I wanted because by then it was April and my research stay was due to end in mid-June,” said the student, who hails from Tamaulipas.

Nicol will continue to stay in Chicago, now as an international exchange student, in order to get more research and academic experience.

“I was very interested in the personal care and cosmetics industry because I’d like to work in it in the future.”- Nicol Olivares

Corporate energy consumption and carbon emissions

The engineering student arrived at the University of Illinois with professor Unsal Ozdogru, from the business department, and Sebastian Martínez Agoitia, from the Tec’s San Luis Potosí campus.

Dr. Ozdogu focuses on sustainability in the area of transportation but allowed students to focus on whatever topic interested them.

“I told her that I was very interested in the personal care and cosmetics industry because I’d like to work in it in the future.

“She gave me the opportunity to focus my research on this industry, always keeping in mind the original objective, which is to analyze carbon emissions,” said the student.

Nicol chose three of the world’s leading companies in this industry to analyze, and it took her six weeks to collect the data.

“Based on the way I think and how I’ve grown up, I think that working in the U.S. would suit me very well.”

One of the difficulties she encountered was gathering the data from the companies, as the information was often inaccurate when compared by year.

Her research was going to be a comparison of carbon emissions and energy and water consumption, but she had to drop the latter due to inconsistent data.

“Not all companies consume their energy in the same way, so I concluded that the way they are going to report it depends on how much they consume or emit.

“Some companies don’t want to disclose the information because they don’t want to tell us whether they’re using renewable energy or not,” she said.

Due to confidentiality terms, the names of the companies cannot be disclosed.

From the information collected and the analysis conducted, Nicol made a poster, which she exhibited in the forum where she was the winner.

Conducting this type of analysis as an engineering student in the field of business was also a challenging experience, said the student.

“I had to analyze all these statistics. I’ve studied statistics and methods used to analyze them and make predictions, but only up to a certain point because my type of engineering focuses on something else.

“I learned a lot by myself, by watching videos on YouTube, and then asking my advisors if I was doing it right,” she said.

Continuing her international experience

During this next stage in Chicago, the young Mexican will look for a job or research stay, along with her studies.

“Research in the United States is very different to Mexico. I feel that personally, professionally, and based on the way I think and how I’ve grown up, working in the U.S. would suit me very well,” she said.

At the Monterrey campus, Nicol also conducted research projects, firstly with Professor Lucy González from the Department of Chemistry, in which she studied the city’s atmospheric particles.

At the end of 2019, she participated in AiCHE, on the Chem-E-Car project, in which they designed and built a small car that uses alternative energy.

This group won first place in the science poster category in 2021.

Tec promotes international research

After the success of the first two undergraduate students from the Tec in the University of Illinois Chicago system, it was possible to negotiate more places for students, not only at the Chicago campus but also at Urbana-Champaign.

In total there will be 14 students representing the Tec abroad in these bonding experiences promoted by the Vice Rector’s Office for Internationalization.

In addition to Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, the Tec’s office in Chicago also opened international research opportunities at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Cincinnati this semester.

“I believe that these research opportunities at partner universities is a unique experience that contributes to the development of our students in a global environment where the researcher facilitates the process of discovery and learning,” said Juan José Cabrera, director of the Tec’s office in Chicago.

These opportunities have been doubling each semester in the mid-western region of the United States since they began in the summer of 2021, he said.

“In my opinion, this success is mainly due to meeting the expectations of students, researchers, and participating universities, the number of which has quadrupled in the same period,” he said.

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