barc12Boeing is tapping into the talent at the University of Washington to help the company develop its airplanes and spacecraft.

Gov. Jay Inslee, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner, and UW president Michael Young will gather next Monday and speak at a launch event for the new Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC).

Per Reinhall.
Per Reinhall.

Housed in the UW’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the new 4,300 square-foot facility will pair full-time Boeing engineers with UW graduate students and professors who will work together on various Boeing products.

There are already four projects underway that focus on automation, robotics, and aircraft assembly. For example, one team is developing robots and unmanned vehicles that help build the insides of airplane wings, and another is figuring out how to automate the riveting of fuselages.

There will be up to eight Boeing employees working at the BARC, who will act as affiliate instructors. From the UW, eight graduate students and six faculty members will work inside the new center together.

Per Reinhall, chair of the UW Mechanical Engineering Department, is the director of BARC. Reinhall is also the CTO of Vicis, a new UW spinout that has developed an innovative helmet designed to mitigate the forces that are thought to cause concussions on the football field and in other contact sports.

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