SWE’S TEAM TECH

My name is Lindsay Piispanen and I am currently a sophomore in Industrial Engineering. Last year, as a freshman, I was really interested in gaining experience with some hands-on application of what I was learning in class. We had several projects in my engineering class, such as building a robot, but I wanted to work on a project that might actually be used or implemented somewhere. Not having many ideas about where to look for this type of technical experience, I did some research online about clubs here at Purdue that might offer what I was looking for.

Team Tech's Prototype

I quickly found out that the Society of Women Engineers was forming a Team Tech, a small engineering team that is made up by members of SWE, and the first one at Purdue. At the callout for SWE, I was able to sign up for the team and meet with the chair who was leading the project.  We get a company sponsor and complete a project for them throughout the course of the year, and compete with other schools at the end of our projects. This past year, Archer Daniels Midland Company sponsored us and we created a prototype of a water filtration system that could help lower the concentration of nickel in their wastewater streams. The team started in January and just finished this with the competition at Annuals a few weeks ago in Nashville.  It was especially exciting to see a project go from brainstorming to actual models and testing. So if you are looking for fun technical engineering experience, joining Team Tech just might be for you!