NSWC Indian Head Division STEM Program Inspires Future Scientists and Engineers

NSWC Indian Head Division STEM Program Inspires Future Scientists and Engineers

By NSWC IHD Public Affairs Office

Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) continued its community outreach efforts with the completion of the 2024 summer high school STEM internship, Naval Energetics Technology Apprenticeship Program (NETAP), at the Naval Support Facility Indian Head's Aquatics Center in Indian Head, Maryland, July 26. The program seeks to not only educate future scientists and engineers about the work done at NSWC IHD, but also creates a pipeline for these students to potentially join the warfare center and embark on a career in technology.

NETAP is a three-week internship program that divides 12 high school students into four teams of three to build an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV). According to NSWC IHD's STEM Coordinator Amanda Wilmot, the program culminates in an underwater robotics competition where each team's ROV participates in a series of underwater obstacle courses. One of the scenarios involved an underwater minefield-clearing mission with simulated mines and obstacles. While the scenarios take place in the base swimming pool, they simulate missions that engineers in the warfare center's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Department face in real-world situations.

The command's Chief Technology Officer Dr. Kerry Clark conceived NETAP in 2022. One of Clark's goals for the program was to offer previous interns an opportunity to participate as peer mentors to the new crop of students. Angel Lwin, a 2024 North Point High School graduate participated in NETAP 2023 and was a student mentor for this year's students.

"It's really important to be able to get involved in the community especially with events like the Naval Energetics Technology Apprenticeship Program," said Lwin, who will study aerospace engineering this fall at the Florida Institute of Technology. "It's a great opportunity for students to expand on what they're learning in school in this hands-on environment and become leaders who fully understand the concepts of engineering and teamwork."

NSWC IHD's involvement in programs such as NETAP wouldn't be nearly as effective without the support of Charles County Public Schools. Karena Bennett, an AP Biology and Bio-med teacher and the Science Department chair at McDonough High School in Pomfret, Maryland, was a faculty volunteer and mentor for this year's team.

"This is an amazing opportunity for different students from the different schools to learn to work together in a problem-solving atmosphere, that is real life and hands-on," Bennet said. "Students have to learn how to problem solve and work together as a team - and learn how to write like a scientist as well as learn to get through problems while using science to explain how they got their answers."

Another alumnus of NETAP 2023 who came back to support this year's cohort was Brendon Broughton, a 2024 St. Mary's Ryken High School graduate who will be studying engineering at the University of Alabama this fall. "Not very many high schools have in-depth engineering programs and NETAP really goes in and hammers in on key engineering points which is certainly beneficial to the students," Broughton said.

All involved, from NSWC IHD leadership to the faculty advisors to the student interns, considered this year's event an overwhelming success. "We're starting to see the fruits of our labor as we have students who have finished the program who are now going off to college and coming back to guide the new students," Clark said. "This year's event is the vision of this pipeline coming to fruition."

NSWC IHD - a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy's Science and Engineering Establishment - is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.

-NAVSEA-