The Boeing Tech Team is the UW-Madison Society of Women Engineers’ design team that competes in the SWE Team Tech competition sponsored by Boeing. It is a national SWE competition where teams from universities across the country partner with a company and carry out a design project. This competition emphasizes the importance of teamwork and interfacing with industry in the engineering educational process. Teams may consist of up to 12 members and must complete a project over the course of 6 months (January – June). Chosen teams will present their completed project at the SWE National Conference in the fall.
How to get Involved
Boeing Tech Team's 2023 Project!
Past Projects
Boeing Tech Team’s 2022 Project
This year our team has partnered with Mercury Marine to increase accessibility in boating. They will be working to make a boat more accessible for handicapped individuals for onboarding boats. This involves moving a stable ramp from a boat that can connect onto a graph. Key concepts for the project may include statics, mechanics of materials, robotics / electrical engineering, computer science, and material science for proper materials.
Boeing Tech Team’s 2021 Project
Chemicals, such as quaternary ammonium compounds (QUAT), are often used in the food service industry to sanitize tables and surfaces to kill bacteria that may cause food-borne illnesses. In order for the chemicals to effectively destroy bacteria and not pose a health risk to humans when consumed, their concentration must be within a certain range. Current test methods are difficult to use, and the results produced can vary based on many factors. Georgia-Pacific has decided to collaborate with the University of Wisconsin-Madison SWE Boeing Tech Team to create a new QUAT testing method that is accurate, inexpensive, reliable, and easy to use. The new method aims to reduce errors in the color interpretation of QUAT strips. The team is developing a phone application that will be able to quantify the colors of the reference and unknown strip using RGB values and then inform the user of their QUAT solution’s concentration range.
Boeing Tech Team’s 2020 Project
This year, the Boeing Tech Team will be collaborating with AbbVie, a research driven biopharmaceutical company. AbbVie targets difficult-to-cure diseases to leverage their expertise and create solutions that have a positive impact on patients’ lives and society. An AbbVie plant continuously emits 1000 liters per day of trisodium phosphate with a concentration of 2% (by weight, in water) into the lake. However, discharge of phosphates into freshwater lakes contributes to a process known as eutrophication which induces excessive growth of algae. Site engineering wishes to treat the waste stream such that no more than 2 pounds per day of inorganic phosphate enters the lake. Our project is to design a process that produces a clarified waste stream which meets the phosphate restriction.
Meet the 2023 Boeing Tech Team Officer!
Mary Laudon
My name is Mary Laudon and I am the Boeing Tech Team Elect Officer for the UW-Madison SWE section. If you are interested in learning more about the tech team, the companies we partner with, or our current project, please reach out!
