ATLANTA (Oct. 7, 2014) – Siemens’ West Chicago plant hosted a Manufacturing Day event, Oct 3. More than 60 middle and high school students, teachers and parents from the greater area of Chicago participated in 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. Participants then 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. “I have a huge passion for manufacturing,” said factory plant manager Juan Carlos Rivero Garcia, who has worked in seven different factories in Mexico, Germany and the U.S. during the last 17 years. “Why wouldn’t we share that passion with the community? These kids will soon be the next ones coming in to work here.” Siemens also raffled off an iPad mini and sets of wireless speakers. “I had an awesome experience, and it was fun to see how they make things,” said 11-year-old John Goodman of Lombard, who heard about the event from his 4-H club and attended with his mother. 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 in the U.S. Siemens will continue to strive to transform the perception of manufacturing and what it means to work in manufacturing across the U.S. Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) specializes in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the fields of industry, energy and health care, and provides infrastructure solutions, primarily for cities and metropolitan areas.
