Power Engineering Day 2023

May 16, 2023

The college’s annual Power Engineering Day attracted 50 students from Dearborn STEM Academy, Jeremiah E. Burke High School, and Charlestown High School, plus five incoming first-year Electrical Engineering students who came to our South End campus to explore the exciting world of electric power and its career possibilities.

At this dynamic event, the high schoolers interacted with representatives from leading companies and organizations, including Black and Veatch, Electroswitch, Eversource, Mass Clean Energy Council, National Grid, Nexamp, Phoenix Electric, and Sigma C Power Services. A number of the company representatives attending this year’s Power Engineering Day were alums of the Electrical Engineering program.

“We want to show them what we do, why we do it, and the role we play in the power engineering field,” said Claudino Teixeira, a 2022 graduate of the Electrical Engineering program who was at the event representing Phoenix Electric Corp., where he works as in his role as an electrical project engineer.

The event also featured college students currently enrolled in Franklin Cummings Tech’s ABET-accredited Electrical Engineering bachelor’s degree program, three of whom demonstrated their senior projects in the lobby, and about 10 other current undergrads who spoke with high school students and incoming Electrical Engineering students about studying electrical engineering in college. The Electrical Engineering program prepares students for careers in the electric power and energy industry, including the fast-growing sustainable energy sector.

In this video, Electrical Engineering student Louisa Jenness demonstrates her senior project, a crochet stitch counting device.

Erin Danaher, a structural engineer at Black & Veatch, explained why she was excited to attend Power Engineering Day: “I got to where I am with help from mentors and people showing me what was possible. This is a chance to give back and show the next generation everything that’s possible.”

The 2023 student participation survey found that 86% of students reported that they learned a lot about the electric power industry from the event and more than half of those attending said they could see themselves working in the industry.

When asked the best part of the 2023 Power Engineering Day, the student comments included:

• “I learned how we can change the environment to make a healthier place.”
• “I loved the different examples we were shown. My favorite examples were the physical models because I felt they really demonstrated what they were trying to explain to us.
• “The professor’s demonstration of capacitors outside in the hall!”
• “Getting to learn more about the different kinds of jobs being in the engineering pathway can get me.”

In this video, Dr. Craig Christensen, Associate Professor and Chair of Electrical Engineering, demonstrates capacitors and other electrical devices to the visiting students.