Technical Pillar
What is Technical Pillar?
Grand Prix
The PSWE Grand Prix teams serve to bring members a collaborative, hands-on experience in motorsports. With opportunities both in the shop and on the track, members learn about kart design and assembly, tuning, and race strategy. Each team consists of a crew chief, driver, track worker, and four crew members. No prior experience is needed.
The PSWE Gas Grand Prix team has historic involvement with the annual Purdue Grand Prix race, recently celebrating 50 years of sponsorship with Corning Inc., the longest sponsorship in racing history. Running two karts each year, there are plenty of opportunities to gain both technical and racing experience through kart assembly, maintenance, and working in the pits. With a 14th place finish out of 73 teams in Race 68, the team is looking forward to continuous growth and improvement in future seasons.
Technical Solutions
The Technical Solutions team collaborates directly with industry partners on projects that are mutually beneficial for both the company and the team. Members gain exposure to real-world engineering problems, testing methods, and design constraints commonly seen in industry while building strong professional and technical skills.
Past projects include an improved windrower design with John Deere (earning 2nd Place at Nationals) and a project with Pratt & Whitney focused on simplifying modeling approaches for dynamic responses in multistage rotors. Members present their work at venues such as Design Expo, to corporate partners, and at SWE conferences including WE25 and WE26, while gaining resume-ready experience and valuable industry connections.
Research and Design
The Research & Development team guides members through every step of the engineering design process while working on typically life-science–focused projects. Open to all majors and especially well-suited for BME, ABE, and CHE students, R&D provides hands-on experience in problem definition, concept generation, prototyping, and risk assessment.
Past projects include a user-friendly tourniquet and a computational menstruation model. Members also participate in workshops and supplemental sessions to build technical skills in CAD, programming, prototyping, and design methodology, with opportunities to submit their work to SWE conferences such as WE Local.
Sustainability
The Sustainability Team works on competition-based engineering projects focused on environmental sustainability and real-world impact. Open to all majors - especially EEE, CHE, ABE, MSE, and ME - team emphasizes the idea that sustainability is essential across every industry. Members gain experience in research, the engineering design process, CAD modeling, programming, prototyping, lab visits, and technical writing.
Last year’s project focused on carbon capture in HVAC&R systems, with a proposed algae greenhouse solution. This year, the team is competing in the NEWEA Student Design Competition, tackling challenges in wastewater and environmental water system design while producing a comprehensive technical brief and design documentation.