WiscWind participates in Collegiate Wind Competition 2025

After a year of design iterations, brainstorming sessions, and wind tunnel tests, UW-Madison’s WiscWind competition team wrapped up their year at the Collegiate Wind Competition in Boulder, Colorado. Although the team didn’t place, they walked away with something just as valuable – real-world experience in sustainable energy design and a renewed passion for innovation.

The competition team is made up of Badgers from across the College of Engineering and beyond. Each student participant brings skills and knowledge from their degrees and experiences to contribute to the club’s goals. Whether it was mechanical and electrical engineering students collaborating to build a wind turbine, or civil, environmental, and chemical engineering students leading the design of a hypothetical offshore wind farm, all members played a vital role in preparing and competing in this national competition. With assistance from their faculty advisor, Scott Williams, the team developed a wind turbine from scratch with every component of their design, aside from bearings, screws, and some electrical equipment, designed or manufactured by a WiscWind member. Their structure has a homemade three phase axial flux generator with a PCB stator, a 3D printed pitch control, among other components developed in the design lab.

At the competition, the team presented their design for industry professionals and other collegiate teams. They also participated in three sub competitions: turbine design and testing, project development, and connection creation. All of these components allowed the group to reflect on their own design and how they can make improvements in future years. Mark Kuzel, WiscWind team lead, remarked, “Talking with other teams and discussing the design process can bring up insights that our team may have overlooked or confirm ideas that we have been using. While everyone is competitive, they’re also willing to share ideas. One of the main goals of the competition is to win, but also for us to become better engineers.”

With this goal in mind, WiscWind is already reflecting on what they want to improve for next year. Themes include, reducing mechanical losses, increasing blade efficiency, and focusing on generator design. Taking their wind turbine to the national competition, inspired new ideas and sparked excitement in the group. They plan to test early and often come fall, to see how many more watts they can squeeze out of their turbine in hopes of being a competitive threat at next year’s competition.

Special thank you to Mark Kuzel and Scott Williams for sharing photos, testimonies, and competition details.