Engineering Innovation with Siemens Software in STEM Initiative Italy
By: Hannah Straub
Leuven, Belgium- Feb 18-19, 2020
In the world of innovation, it is imperative that students gain real life experience in their field of interest, so that their studies can be validated by hands-on practice, and the gap from classroom to industry become almost non-existent.
Paving the way for this idea are students and faculty at Galileo Galilei High School in Trento, Italy, in which Siemens employees have developed a program geared towards student success. On Nov. 9, 2019, Maurizio Parodi and his colleagues of the Global Simcenter Portfolio Development team presented “E-Mobility: Electric Cars Driving Themselves?” an EV/AV workshop presented in English with students in their last year of high school. The workshop was created in order to inform students of future innovations in the autonomous driving sector.
“The idea of the workshop for the school was to set up opportunities for some of the students to show them what Siemens does in real life,” says Parodi.
Right after the workshop, students were asked to make a 200-word essay discussing the impact and implications of such innovations. As a part of the internal committee, Parodi and 3 other professors of Galileo Galilei choose the top 13 essays to grant these students an opportunity to tour the Siemens Digital Industries Software R&D Center in Leuven, Belgium.
“I got in touch with my colleagues in Leuven, and we thought that the students would benefit from being shown technology but also take the opportunity to have them talk to different teams in the company,” said Parodi.
On Feb. 18-19, these lucky 13 students were given the chance to explore a real-world career at Siemens, through facilities tours, including the Engineering and Consulting Services labs, as well as talking with professionals in different roles at Siemens. Students talked with representatives from R&D, sales, marketing, finance, and human resources to get a first view about different roles and how they interact with one another while contributing to the success of the company. Students got to see real acoustic testing done on the Simrod in the lab, and their evening was concluded with dinner hosted by a specific Siemens colleague.
“Students were actively engaged throughout the event asking relevant questions and they were impressed to see so many young people working at Siemens, especially the international environment, since we had colleagues of 8 different nationalities contributing,” said Parodi.
A highlight of the experience was the discovery of everything Siemens does to impact society, such as electrification to reduce CO2 emissions.
“Our students were very receptive to the experience and were excited to see the path they could potentially go down with a career at Siemens,” concluded Parodi.
Due to its success, the high school has already asked for the Siemens team to plan a similar event for next year.
