PIPELINE: PennState Intern PipelinE LInks to Navy Engineering
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseProject Abstract: PIPELINE: Penn State Intern PipelinE LInks to Navy EngineeringCivilian employees of the Department of the Navy play a critical role in keeping the Navy operating to protect American interests around the world. The DoD is the nation#s largest employer, with more than 700,000 civilian employees. As threats change and technology evolves, the DoD must have an agile, modern workforce with the ability to operate effectively in a knowledge#based environment and take advantage of emerging technologies. The DoD faces workforce challenges, including identifying new skill requirements and career fields; recruiting, training, and retaining people with the right mix of skills and abilities for the wide range of DoD missions; and building a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the American public. There is an urgent need to increase the flow of highly trained research and development engineers into Navy laboratories and supporting organizations.Because of the timescales associated with specialized higher education and research training # there could be ten years between starting as an undergraduate to completing a PhD # this requires a sustained long-term outlook.The objective of this project is to develop and execute an integrated research and workforce development pipeline that motivates and connects U.S. students to careers in the Navy technical workforce, with emphasis on advanced undersea technology development. This will involve research experiences for undergraduates (REUs), undergraduate DoD internships, engaging minority-serving institutions (MSI) and PSU campus partners, recruiting students into graduate school, matching students with faculty members, supporting DoD-relevant thesis research, interacting with DoD program managers, and placing graduate-student interns in DoD labs, including meriting the pursuit of security clearances.Our general approach weaves together three major threads: exposure to the defense R&D profession, performance of defense-relevant research, and education. Exposure to the defense R&D profession will begin as early as practical in a student#s program of study, meeting PIPELINE students where they are. High-visibility defense systems will be connected to the people who create and steward them. Undergraduate students at several Penn State campuses and our partner MSIs will have opportunities for meaningful internships at Navy labs, Penn State College of Engineering labs, and Penn State Applied Research Laboratory, a Navy University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). Graduate students will have similar opportunities # with emphasis on research, working side-by-side with Navy researchers.The experiences of PIPELINE students will be enhanced by directconnection to the defense research ecosystem, guided by faculty advisors and Navy mentors. Undergraduate students will have opportunities to participate in summer and academic-year REU activities as well as the aforementioned internships. ARL-specific job fairs will increase exposure to growth areas in the R&D profession. Graduate students will undertake thesis research on topics relevant to future defense needs, perhaps taking them to the prototype stage.Outcomes from this project include a workforce pipeline of studentsin Navy science and engineering careers across the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral ranks. The program expects to matriculate 5-10 undergraduate students and 2-3 graduate students per year into Navy engineering careers by the third year of the program, and each year thereafter. By raising awareness of the Navy research and funding opportunities, as well as requiring Navy proposals from faculty-student teams, we intend to bolster defense research expenditures at Penn State and multiply the pipeline of research and development engineers into Navy laboratories and supporting organizations into the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2023
- Source ID
- N000142312656
Entities
People
- Andrew Barnard
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Pennsylvania State University
- United States Navy