On Friday, October 3, Siemens’ West Chicago plant hosted a Manufacturing Day event. More than 60 middle and high school students, teachers and parents from all over the greater area of Chicago participated in interactive activities, plant tours and informational sessions to learn more about careers in manufacturing.
After being greeted with pizza, snacks and an overview of the event by Jayne Beck, a 33-year engineering veteran, students toured the factory and tested out NX, the 3-D Siemens software used to design the Mars Rover, among many other innovative products. Children also visited with members of the Fox Valley area FIRST robotics team, #2451, PWNAGE, which designed and built a robot that plays handball.
Afterwards, participants learned about the basics of engineering by attempting to build the tallest tower using dry spaghetti and marshmallows; building a boat using a piece of tin foil that could hold 100 pennies without sinking; and designing and flying paper airplanes.
Siemens also raffled off an iPad mini and sets of wireless speakers.
Manufacturing Day is a national, annual event celebrated on the first Friday of October. Hundreds of U.S. manufacturers, such as Siemens, open their doors to demonstrate the potential of modern manufacturing and foster interest in manufacturing careers. This year marks three consecutive years that Manufacturing Day was celebrated across the United States.