The University of Wisconsin-Madison Wins the 2023 Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge with First Majority Female Team

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- History was made at the NECA 2023 Convention and Trade Show in Philadelphia. In their first year competing in the Electrical Contracting Innovation Challenge (ECIC), the University of Wisconsin-Madison took home first place. Not only did the Badgers win in their first year competing, but they're also the first majority female team to win the Challenge.

"It's a huge milestone for this initiative to have a team that is mostly female, win the ECIC," said Adam Rude, VP of Construction Support Operations at ERMCO, Inc. "It hasn't happened in the nearly two decades this Challenge has taken place and it's great to see." Rude is also the Chair of the ELECTRI Talent Initiative Committee, which oversees the ECIC.

"In Madison's Construction Club, we are pretty women dominated in terms of our leadership board which is really great because you don't see that in many places," said Elyse Miramontes, University of Wisconsin-Madison team member. "I think it really added to the fact that we were setting ourselves apart from the other teams and had a different makeup than everyone else has had in the past." As a UW-M senior pursuing her civil engineering undergraduate degree, Miramontes is also the university's Construction Club President.

Out of the 12 schools that participated in the 2023 ECIC, Rude remembers the UW-M presentation being the most impressive due to the team's knowledge, composure and conciseness. "We all spoke on what we worked on during the semester," explained Miramontes. "Our six members that presented are the only members who worked on the proposal. I think it was to our advantage." The University of Wisconsin-Madison students who participated in the ECIC presentation and impressed the judges are Colin Schiesl, Michael Warntjes, Sophia Wendleburg, Alexa Rademacher, Kristin Heise and Elyse Miramontes.

This annual competition, created by ELECTRI International, is meant to help college students gain first-hand knowledge of and experience in the electrical construction industry. This year, student chapters were tasked with managing a pre-determined electrical construction project. Teams had to organize project materials and fulfill start-to-finish project management tasks.

"Seeing how women can be involved with construction and just seeing women present, it's sometimes more comforting for other women to join," exclaimed Miramontes. "It's a big milestone for the industry in general."

Read the full story at www.necanet.org.

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SOURCE National Electrical Contractors Assoc Inc.