Teenagers Experience a Day in the Life of a STEM Professional

As we strive to make an impact in the communities where we live and work, I’m happy to share two events hosted by Waters over spring break, which provided STEM opportunities to the next generation of scientists and leaders. On April 20 and 21, Waters Student Academy Alumni and high school aged children of Waters employees participated in two days of exposure to STEM technologies and hands-on learning in Cambridge, MA, and Wilmslow, U.K.

Hands-On Experience at an Esteemed Research and Media Lab in Cambridge, MA:

On April 20, Waters Student Academy Alumni and children of Waters employees (aged 15-18) met up at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. David S. Kong, an advisor for the Waters Student Academy and Director of the Community Biotechnology Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, was our host. The students learned about the innovation and the work being done at the Lab through stimulating activities and tours with current students and professors.

Their day included tours of the following areas:

• Tangible Media: Coupling the dual worlds of bits and atoms by giving dynamic physical form to digital information and computation.
• Lifelong Kindergarten: Developing technologies, activities, and communities to engage young people from diverse backgrounds in creative learning experiences in areas such as robotics, AI, coding, and more.
• Fluid Interfaces: Exploring Human-AI interactions, creating systems and experiences based in psychology and neuroscience, combining human computer interaction, sensor technologies, machine learning, among other technologies, to create ways to study the human psychology in connection with Artificial Intelligence.
• Biomechatronics: Working to restore function to individuals who have impaired mobility due to trauma or disease, advancing the science of bio mechatronics and biological movement control.

“Bring Your Child to Work Day” in Wilmslow, U.K.

On Friday, April 21, Waters in Wilmslow coordinated a “Bring Your Child to Work Day” for 13 and 14-year-olds. Students immersed themselves in activities to learn more about the work we do at Waters and got a peek at what their parents do every day.

Here’s a recap of the day:

• An introduction to LC-MS, including the impactful uses of our products for healthcare (newborn baby screening), research into Parkinson’s disease, Olympics drugs testing, etc.
• Hands-on tour of the facility and labs, learning about different jobs and about how parts of the business contribute to our products. The lab tour included looking at a range of instruments in the demo lab, a peek through the windows of the ion path into some labs, and a sound test in the EMC chamber (a sound-proof, EM radiation-proof testing room).
• Workshops were hosted in the afternoon where students had the opportunity to be an ion travelling through a mass spectrometer, through the aid of VR technology (developed by one of our engineers).
• The students wrapped with Q and A session with some of our Waters volunteers; questions ranged from “Where did Matt get his cool Pride cup from?” to “What were your first jobs?” and “What do we enjoy most about working at Waters?”

What did the students take away? Read some of their responses:

"Dad, you are very lucky to work somewhere as fancy as Waters.”

“The VR activity was amazing, and the other workshops.”

“I enjoyed seeing all the high-tech things in labs and all the automated gates onsite.”

“The presentations were good.”

“Loved the separations experiment in the lab.”

“The ESD testing room was my favorite!”