Throughout this 12 months’s Nationwide Engineers Week commemoration held on the Pentagon, the deputy undersecretary of protection for analysis and engineering defined a few of the alternatives obtainable to younger engineers excited by supporting the nation’s protection.
“There isn’t any extra thrilling or difficult place to work than within the Division of Protection,” mentioned David Honey throughout a keynote handle Thursday afternoon. “DOD is likely one of the world’s largest engineering organizations and employs greater than 100,000 engineers. Right here, engineers share a singular mission to advance cutting-edge engineering know-how, techniques and practices, and specializations that vary from cyber and house to hypersonics and quantum science and extra.”
For younger engineers inserted in working for the Protection Division, Honey mentioned there are a selection of alternatives they’ll reap the benefits of. A type of is the Science, Arithmetic, and Analysis for Transformation Scholarship, additionally known as the “SMART Scholarship.”
“This gives scholarships for undergraduate, grasp’s and doctoral college students at present pursuing a level in one in every of 21 key STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] disciplines,” Honey mentioned. “SMART students are chosen, matched with a related DOD laboratory, and awarded a full-tuition scholarship.”
Throughout the summer season, Honey mentioned, these college students intern at that DOD lab, and after they graduate from college, they go to work at that very same set up for a time frame that matches their scholarship.
“Our SMART students get a paid training and an incredible engineering place proper out of faculty, which is a reasonably whole lot,” he mentioned.
One other solution to become involved as an engineer or as a pupil pursuing a level in a science, know-how, engineering, or arithmetic program, is although one of many division’s College Affiliated Analysis Facilities, or UARCs.
A UARC is a DOD-supported non-profit analysis group affiliated with a college that has a selected space of area experience or specialization and helps the long-term wants of the division.
Up till final month, there’d been solely 14 UARCs. However in January, the division introduced the creation of a brand new UARC, to be related to Howard College in Washington.
“Simply final month we had been honored to assist set up the division’s fifteenth UARC. This new UARC is at Howard College, and it’s our first UARC at a traditionally black faculty or college,” Honey mentioned. “This Air Power-sponsored UARC will deal with tactical autonomy, which can function beneath a consortium mannequin, with plenty of different HBCUs supporting this effort.”
Additionally, a chance for younger engineers to assist help the nation’s protection is thru the Vannevar Bush School Fellowship.
“That is the Division of Protection’s most prestigious single-investigator award and helps primary analysis with the potential for transformative influence,” Honey mentioned.
The five-year fellowship, with as a lot as $3 million in funding, “helps new, out-of-the-box concepts the place researcher creativity intersects with the unknown,” Honey mentioned.
In 2022, 9 people had been capable of reap the benefits of the Vannevar Bush School Fellowship. Honey mentioned they work in areas similar to semiconductor know-how, synthetic intelligence and quantum idea.
“I might strongly encourage engineers to think about a profession within the DOD,” Honey mentioned. “The necessity is nice, and the work may be very rewarding. The world is turning into a difficult place, and the DOD’s want for sound, modern engineering has by no means been better. You will not solely do fascinating and thrilling engineering duties, however you may be part of one thing necessary — as a result of the work we do really issues.”
