On Monday we had the privilege, along with our supporters and collaborators from The Boeing Company, to celebrate UW student recipients of Boeing scholarships, and to express our immense gratitude for The Boeing Company and its generous, longstanding support of our students, faculty and programs.
For nearly 100 years, our collaboration with Boeing has had a significant impact in shaping the University, Boeing and the Pacific Northwest. Boeing’s support has given our students the opportunity to challenge themselves, to apply their education to real-world problems and to pursue their dreams. Thanks to Boeing, these students have been able to develop their talents and engage in significant and positive ways with the wider community. Our Boeing-funded students are leaving the UW well-equipped to create a better world for all of us.
This past year our collaboration with Boeing achieved a new milestone. The Boeing Advanced Research Center — or BARC — officially launched in January, with an initial focus in areas of advanced assembly and manufacturing technologies. Housed in our Department of Mechanical Engineering, BARC is exciting because it represents a new way of collaborating to tackle the challenges facing industry and society. At BARC, UW faculty and Boeing engineers lead research projects together, and graduate students have the opportunity to work side-by-side with Boeing to address some of the most significant issues in airplane design, manufacturing and assembly.
The depth and breadth of Boeing’s impact on the UW is vast. The company’s investments in research, academic programs, scholarships and fellowships benefit many students on all three campuses. We are truly grateful for our collaboration with Boeing, for its leadership on our campus, in our community and in our state, and for its longstanding partnership, working together with us to educate, serve and provide opportunities for all of Washington’s citizens.