Have you ever wondered about the technology behind the Coco delivery robots seen all over Los Angeles? Well, our Upper School students in the Women in STEM and Engineering & Design: Robotics courses had the exciting opportunity to visit a Coco autonomous vehicle manufacturing site. They were guided by Westridge alum (!) Madeline Emslie '16, who is a senior technical project manager for Coco. (Fun fact: Emslie helped start Westridge's Rocketry Club when she was a student here, which later became the basis of the Engineering and Design: Rocketry Upper School elective at the time!)

Emslie explained how the robots work, which students got to see up close. She also talked about the engineering design process, a crucial part of which is communication-dependent (especially as engineers work in teams to solve problems).

She spoke about her time just after Westridge and how her career trajectory came to life. In high school, she wanted to pursue aeronautical engineering and later turned to electrical engineering, which she ended up majoring in at Purdue University.

Maddie M. '26, currently in the robotics course at Westridge, found the field trip interesting and helpful given her own interest in pursuing engineering after high school. 

"I have trouble thinking about what I want to do because I'm 17—I'm not even in college yet," Maddie explained. " ... [But] I've known that I want to do engineering [as a career] for a while now. And I knew that I wanted to end up working at a company like this, but I didn't know the specifics, and so this trip was a really good way to learn that."

The senior added that it was helpful to have her teacher, Upper School Computer Science & Engineering Teacher Autumn Rogers, asking questions. While Maddie herself wasn't sure what questions to ask, Rogers' questions in turn helped Emslie and her colleagues give the students more insight into topics such as how navigation works or the process behind engineering the robots.

Westridge Upper School Science Teacher Dr. Edye Udell, who teaches the Women in STEM course (read more about it here!), said the class has been hearing from many alums that getting to know yourself as a person is important and that what you think you might want to do in STEM can often change.

"It was nice to hear that you don't stop learning and exploring after college," Maddie added.