President of The Society of Women Engineers Visits Shorewood Robotics

On October 25th and 26th, The President of The Society of Women Engineers and GE Engineer, Dayna Johnson, spoke with and participated in a Q & A session with Trinity Christian School’s Elementary and Middles School’s Robotics Team.

TCS’s Robotics Team, sponsored by Caterpillar, led by Head Coaches Christine McBride and Terese Osacky meets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (Aug-Dec), had the honor and privilege of learning from Johnson as she spoke of her experiences leading teams of engineers and how their organization advances the field of engineering. Johnson is the Emerging Technology Programs and Operations Leader at GE Gas Power. Her performance in that role earned her a position in GE’s Accelerated Leadership Program. TCS Robotics members learned about the latest advances in solar and wind power in both onshore and offshore production. Auggie Payton, an 8th grade Robotics team member, asked Johnson to “elaborate on tidal energy and how scientists plan to utilize the power of tides in the future.” Every student left the presentation with a greater knowledge and understanding of the measures engineers take to bring electric power to the people and the challenges that engineers are working hard to overcome.

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), with over 40,000 individual members who are collegiates and professionals, strives to advance and honor the contributions of women at all stages of their careers and recognize the successes of SWE members and individuals who enhance the engineering profession through contributions to the industry, education, and the community. A few of SWE partner companies are Boeing, Tesla. Amazon, BP, Apple, 3M, Whirlpool, Bayer, Carrier, and Texas Instruments.

The TCS Robotics Team participates in First Lego League Robotics Program. Each year First Lego League challenges students with a specific theme and this year’s Robotics theme is all about Energy. Robotics students research energy, choose a problem to identify and innovate to solve that problem in any part of the energy producing/storing/maintaining process. They seek out leaders in the industry, to gain valuable knowledge to use in their innovation project for competition.

On November 9th & 15th, Brian Madderom, Senior Engineering Manager for Constellation Energy, spoke to the Robotics Team about how Nuclear Energy works and is harnessed to generate electricity. After the students learned about the nuclear fuel and how the fuel pellets are the size of mini-marshmallows, 3rd grader Ben Schwartz asked Madderom, “How much do nuclear pellets cost?” Madderom replied, “About $200 for a single pellet, but each Pez-dispenser-like fuel rod carries many pellets, and each fuel rod is bundled with 99 other fuel rods, and each nuclear reactor holds about 177 fuel bundles! That’s 17 thousand fuel rods per reactor. The fuel all together costs about $100 million dollars per nuclear reactor!” He went on to explain that the fuel in each nuclear reactor powers a million homes for 6 years without needing new fuel. Madderom has designed modifications to electrical systems for many of Constellation's 21 reactors located between twelve nuclear power plants. Madderom currently leads an engineering department focused on upgrading Constellation's existing nuclear power plants to output more carbon free electricity supporting a carbon free future in our area.

On November 29th & 30th, Diane Rink, the Director of Regional Field Operations at Nicor Gas, addressed the Robotics team via Zoom about natural gas (where it comes from & how it is used) and Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). Rink earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and is a life member of the Society of Women Engineering. She is responsible for Natural Gas Emergency Response, meeting local, state, and federal Safety and Compliance regulations, and managing workforce development across 4 reporting centers which include being accountable for safely serving 250,000 customers, maintaining reliability of 5,000 miles of gas pipeline, and managing a $7M O&M budget. Rink explained how Natural Gas is used to make steel, glass, raw materials and is used as an energy source to power homes. 3rd grader, Michael Brenczewski asked, “Does Nicor Gas develop gas used for your car?” and Rink answered that, “Nicor’s parent company makes LNG – Liquified Natural Gas- that is Natural Gas put under extreme pressure that forces the gas into a liquid state that can then be used as liquid natural gas fuel.” Students were amazed by the variety of ways to use natural gas (RNG, LNG and Compressed Natural Gas) and how engineers at Nicor explore and perfect new ways of utilizing such a remarkable resource.

TCS Robotics will send 62 students to compete in the Illinois State FLL Robotics Qualifying Championship Competition in December, at which last year they were awarded the Rising Star Award (an award given to teams that have captured the attention of the judges and expect great things from in the future.)

For more information contact:

admissions@trinitychristian.info