ME teaching professor and ECE alumnus honored as SAE Contributors of the Year

UW–Madison Mechanical Engineering associate teaching professor Glenn Bower and Electrical and Computer Engineering alumnus Danny Bocci have been recognized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) as Contributors of the Year for their outstanding technical leadership and innovation in the Formula SAE Electric competition.

Bower and his colleagues in SAE (Bocci and Jonathan Peiffer) engineered the second-generation Energy Meter that is used to monitor the energy and power consumption of all vehicles competing in the SAE Formula Electric and Driverless event. The 2^nd Generation Energy Meter is unique as all the necessary components were packaged into a commercially available High Voltage Disconnect.  This allows installation/removal of the Energy Meter into any vehicle in less than a minute. Their team also developed a testing rig which can verify proper functionality of an Energy Meter in a couple of minutes. The total volunteer engineering effort is estimated at 1 million dollars utilizing a $250,000 donation.

Bocci earned his Bachelors and Masters degree from the UW Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and is an alumnus and former controls team leader of the UW Hybrid team from 2002 to 2006. The UW won the 2002, 2003, and 2004 competitions and placed 2^nd in the 2005 and 2006 competitions.

Bower shared, “I have enjoyed watching Danny Bocci’s career growth at John Deere. About 12 years ago, he reached out and asked me to assist with the SAE Formula Electric event. Since then, 15 annual entries has become 100. In addition to engineering the energy meter, we have been diligently working on streamlining technical inspections, creating a 72 station charging system, providing best practice workshops and creating EV response teams for the competition.”

From developing the second-generation energy meter to enhancing student safety and advancing event data collection, Bower and Bocci’s work has strengthened both competition operations and student learning. Their vision and innovation continue to elevate SAE’s Collegiate Design Series and prepare students for the future of mobility.

Congratulations, Glenn and Danny!

Read more about the 2025 honorees, including former ME research scientist, Dr. Andrea Strzelec.