(U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Grant P. Ammon)
NPS - Making a Difference in STEM Education
By Dr. David Nickles
President Barack Obama has identified STEM education as a necessity for laying the foundation
for America’s future prosperity. Resupplying the pipeline of students who will pursue STEM careers has also become a legitimate concern for the Departments of the Defense and Navy as well.
“Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and
prosperity as a nation,” Obama said in a recent radio address. “It’s time we once again put science at the
top of our agenda and work to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology.”
As the premier graduate educational institution in the Navy, the Naval Postgraduate School is the
primary military university producing highly qualified M.S. and Ph.D. graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to
our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation.”
– President Barack Obama
But the STEM pipeline does not start with the students at NPS – they’re the final product. It starts
with youngsters in K-12 being interested and engaged in science and math classes so they want to
learn more in these areas as they progress through school and into college. For those young people
who have yet to be inspired to pursue studies in STEM, we have a responsibility to help fill this
pipeline so that one day they will become the engineers, research scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and science and math teachers that will motivate the next generation of children
to aspire to these careers.
NPS is committed to becoming a leader STEM education for all youth, including the under-represented and economically disadvantaged. As it builds and expands partnerships with local and
national STEM organizations, NPS is developing and implementing programs that enhance opportunities for K-16 students and their teachers to engage in authentic, Naval mission-based research and educational activities under supervision of Naval STEM professionals. Some of these
activities include:
• Girls Day In
• PhDs & Polka Dots
• CareerExplorer831
• Mathletics Competition
• Expanding Your Horizons
• Campus Lab Tours
• Astronaut presentations
• Monterey Lego League
• FIRST Robotics coaching
• International Space Station Downlink
• Science & Engineering Fair Judging
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Area Students Get a Call from Orbiting Space Shuttle Discovery
NPS Receives President’s Partnership Award from Hartnell College
Naval Postgraduate School Hosts Girls Day In
SPECIAL EDITION
Walt Havenstein, left, talks to FIRST Founder Dean Kamen before the opening ceremonies of the Washington, D.C. Regional FIRST Robotics Competition,
Mar. 23 Havenstein serves as the CEO of SAIC, as well as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for FIRST.
SAIC CEO and NPS Alumnus Brings Passion to Promoting
STEM Fields to America’s Youth
By Amanda D. Stein
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has long been vested in the
STEM – or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics –
disciplines, not only for the thousands of military officers and DoD
civilians who have crossed the stage in King Auditorium, but also
for the dozens of young adults interning across campus at any given time. NPS alumni see first-hand the value of education in these
technical arenas.
For graduate Walt Havenstein, however, promoting the sciences is
both his day job, and his free time. Havenstein is the Chief Executive
Officer of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
which uses scientific, engineering and technology applications to
solve real-world problems. He also serves as the Chairman of the
Board of Directors of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology (FIRST), a not-for-profit organization founded to inspire
young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.
During his 12 years serving on active duty in the Marine Corps, Havenstein received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from
the U.S. Naval Academy, and went on to get his master’s degree in
electrical engineering from NPS in 1977. He transitioned to the Reserves in 1983 and began his work as a civilian in the defense industry.
With national security being one of their key areas of focus, SAIC
works frequently with the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other departments of
the U.S. government. But their work also extends to a wide range
of global problems, from public health issues to protecting critical
infrastructure, all of which heavily rely upon the STEM fields.
“Many of the solutions to national problems, and ways to improve
our lifestyles here in the United States and around the world, come
from science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” explained
Havenstein. “Virtually all of our standards of living are based on
invention and innovation that start with a fundamental understanding of science, the application of science through engineering, and
inevitably, mathematics. Whether it’s the house you live in, the water
you drink, the energy you use, or the healthcare that we take for
granted, all are based on solutions or inventions that came from the
application of basic science and mathematics.”
Naturally, as the STEM workforce ages, the need for fresh young faces is constant. For the past 15 years, Havenstein has worked closely
with FIRST to help inspire new generations of scientists and engineers through programs and competitions for young people around
the world.
FIRST provides mentor-based STEM programs and support to kids
K-12, emphasizing the value of their achievements and providing
opportunities for college scholarships. Havenstein has a noticeable
passion for FIRST, noting that there should be an emphasis on the
STEM fields in much the same way sports are encouraged at an
early age.
“If you are going to inspire young people to want to deal with the
rigors of these academic disciplines, you have to capture their imaginations relatively early in life, and reinforce that imagination by
making what I will call heroes out of scientists and engineers, the
way we do out of athletes.”
“Update NPS” is a monthly publication for students, faculty and staff of the Naval Postgraduate School produced by the
Office of Institutional Advancement. For additional copies, comments, or to suggest story ideas, contact the editorial staff at
update@nps.edu.
Area Students Get a Call from
Orbiting Space Shuttle Discovery
successes
By Dale Kuska
More than 1,000 students,
parents and members
of the NPS community
packed King Auditorium
Saturday morning where
they received a call from
the Space Shuttle Discovery orbiting more than
200 miles into space —
part of the NPS Centennial’s Education Downlink
STS-131, Teaching from
Space event.
Thanks to the diligent efforts of NPS’ Centennial
Headquarters and faculty
astronauts, NPS was approved as one of two locations to host an educational downlink
from the Space Shuttle while on its 13-day
mission to the International Space Station.
Shuttle Commander and NPS graduate,
Navy Capt. Alan “Dex” Poindexter, along
with Mission Specialist Dottie MetcalfLindenburger and Pilot Air Force Col. Jim
Dutton engaged approximately 700 students from across the Peninsula in a lively
discussion about their mission and the realities of weightlessness in space, while select students were also allowed to ask questions of their own.
Students were immediately introduced to
the visually-stunning impact of weightlessness as Metcalf-Lindenburger’s hair floated
wildly in all directions while Poindexter
“I’ve never been the type
of girl who could just sit
and play with Barbies or play
video games. I have to be engaged,” says NPS intern Morgan
Juran, whose dream as a little girl
was to become a Marine “because
they’re pretty tough and they don’t
take no for an answer!”
Morgan lifelong aspiration to join
one of the services was derailed
because of her prosthesis, but that
hasn’t stopped her from working to
achieve another of her dreams, becoming a biomechanical engineer.
was suspended upside down. But in spite
of the fun, and great questions from the
students such as whether or not the crew
had seen any aliens, the downlink is really
about education and opportunity.
“NASA’s very charter includes educational
outreach as one of its important activities,”
said Newman, a member of four space
shuttle flights from 1993-2002. “With its
goals of exploration and discovery, it has
been recognized since NASA’s inception
that the space program provides a unique
opportunity to motivate young people. Science, math, and engineering can be difficult subjects, and we as a country need to
offer many reasons why kids should study
hard in school. I think the NASAs human
spaceflight program its
science and robotics programs are some good reasons … And, in the end, it
is rocket science.”
NPS boasts more astronaut graduates than any
other graduate-level institution in the world. In its
role as a university that
is educating tomorrow’s
cadre of space travelers
now, according to Director of Alumni Relations
and Centennial Planning
Kari Miglaw, where better
to expose the next generation’s pool of potential
astronauts than the Naval
Postgraduate School.
“One of the reasons I want to be
an engineer is because I’m really
curious.” As a high school student
Morgan used her personal experience and curiosity about biomechanical engineering to design the
award winning Science Fair project “Prosthetics and myoelectric
impulses in the human arm.”
Since high school she has recognized how different and rewarding
doing “real” scientific research can
be. “In my science fair project I
had a generally good idea what my
answer was before I started, but
this (research) is all stuff that takes
months and you don’t already
know what the outcome will be.”
Determining the full capacity of
different computer programs NPS
researchers and students are using,
Morgan learned patience as she
spent a lot of her internship watching graphs form and interpreting
the results. “It isn’t all that exciting,
but when you think something will
give a completely flat graph, and
you get a graph that has an enormous spike, you’re like ‘Aahhh,
that was unexpected!’”
Morgan’s career path, once disrupted, is now re-crystallizing. “I
want to do prosthetics and still
want to advance defense technology, so I really hope to work for
the NSA, because that’s the highest
level you can get serving the country without going military.
Senior NPS staff are presented with the Hartnell President’s Partnership Award.
NPS Receives President’s Partnership Award
from Hartnell College
By Amanda D. Stein
What began as an informal mentorship by Naval Postgraduate
School (NPS) faculty to foster an interest in science among community college students has now evolved into an award‐winning,
campus‐wide internship program.
NPS was honored at the 2008 Hartnell College Foundation Party in the Library with the President’s Partnership of Excellence
Award, which recognizes an organization that has made significant contributions and impacts to the school’s program and institutional advancement. NPS received the award for its “exemplary
partnership and support of the Hartnell College science program.”
Phoebe Helm, President of Hartnell College, commended NPS for
offering community college students the opportunity to work on
world‐class research projects.
“Giving this kind of high level exposure to sophisticated, rigorous study through mentoring relationships is turning Hartnell’s
math and science students into serious high‐achieving, engineers,
mathematicians, computer scientists and rocket scientists,”she explained. “Largely because of your [NPS] support, Hartnell is becoming known as a magnet college for math and sciences.”
Joe Welch, an NPS Lecturer for Information Sciences and a Computer Science Instructor at Hartnell College, first began meeting
with students from neighboring Salinas, Calif., to encourage greater awareness of educational paths involved with math and science.
In 2006, he and NPS Prof. Craig Martell partnered with Hartnell
Instructors Pimol Moth and Shannon McCann to provide four
students with summer internships at the NPS robotics lab. The following summer, NPS Prof. Chris Brophy also joined the partnership to provide Hartnell students an opportunity to intern at the
school’s rocket lab. Building upon the strong relationships Welch
and Martell have developed with Hartnell, the NPS Cebrowski Institute for Innovation and Information Superiority recently began
formalizing the internship process.
Sue Higgins, Deputy Director for the Cebrowski Institute, and
Program Manager Alison Kerr organized a pilot program they described as academic “speed‐dating,” a match‐making event where
more than a dozen Hartnell students and NPS faculty met to discuss possible internship opportunities.
“What we’re trying to do is find the right fit, whether a student
is most interested in computer science, in one of the engineering
fields, space systems or operations research. We’re trying to broaden their experience but also give our faculty an opportunity to
have some very talented undergraduate students work with them
across the summers as interns,” said Higgins.
NPS Provides Local College Student Research Experience
Ever since he was a child, 25‐year‐
old Rodrigo Sanchez knew he
wanted to be an engineer. But as a
first generation college student with
limited financial support, Sanchez
didn’t know how he was going to
find the resources he would need to
pursue his lifelong dream. But while
studying at Hartnell Community
College in Salinas, Calif. two years
ago, Sanchez found his answer.
Rodrigo Sanchez
Still in its development stage, Sanchez applied to Hartnell’s STEM
internship program, which would place him in a research internship
at a partner institution.
In 2008, Sanchez began his first summer internship at NPS, where he
spent several weeks working in the school’s Marine Propulsion laboratory. Sanchez returned to NPS the following year, and spent his entire
summer working in the Control and Optimization Laboratories on the
development of a small‐scale autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle.
Sanchez recently graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
NPS Hosts Young Scientists, Engineers
for Hands-on Internships
By Amanda D. Stein
NPS reaches beyond the gates surrounding the
campus to connect with students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
The various schools, departments and Institutes on campus host dozens of high school,
undergraduate and graduate students from
schools locally and across the country. The
internships foster a sense of continuous learning and networking while encouraging budding scientists and engineers to pursue careers
within the Department of Defense.
“These internships are important for the students because it gives them the opportunity to
do hands‐on laboratory work on focused research projects of national interest,” noted Jim
Newman, a professor in the Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG). “This kind of project‐
based learning and experience set the basis for
my own career, and I feel that it really creates a
very powerful environment for learning.”
During the summer, the NPS campus is like a
school within a school, bringing in dozens of
interns to work alongside experienced faculty,
researchers and graduate students on various
projects. This summer, more than 180 interns,
both new and returning, joined the NPS community. Funding for the interns comes from
various grants either through NPS or the college where the students come from.
In the fall, most of the students will return to
their studies, while some will continue to work
throughout the year. The Space Systems Academic Group currently has 10 high school, undergraduate and graduate level students from
Salinas, San Luis Obispo, Montana, Michigan,
Tennessee and the Monterey Peninsula, getting hands‐on lab experience alongside NPS
students and faculty.
Under the direction of Professor Newman
and Professor Rudy Panholzer, the interns are
paired up throughout the group with different
researchers and projects that fit their interests
or funding. Newman worked as an astronaut
for NASA for almost 20 years before taking a
teaching position in the Space Systems Academic Group at NPS.
Monterey Space Camp Gets First-Hand
View of Work, Life on the ISS
By Javier Chagoya
NPS visiting Professor and NASA Astronaut
John Phillips talks to youngsters about living
and working on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a Lyceum of Monterey
County Space Camp program. Twenty-five
students from local high schools participated in the week-long forum on space-related
activities which concluded with the trip to
NPS. Hosted by the university’s Graduate
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the tour offered space camp participants
an opportunity to learn about working in
space, current satellite technologies, rocket
fuels and other space systems from the experts who teach tomorrow’s astronauts all
about them.
Selected for Astronaut candidate training in
1996, Phillips has since made three trips to
the International Space Station, totaling 203
days in space. His most recent trip to the final frontier was with STS-119, a 13-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in
March of 2009.
successes
Jeremy, a June 2010 York
High School graduate, interned part-time at the Naval
Postgraduate School (NPS) for
nearly a year.
Through his experience, Jeremy
learned a lot about electronics and
had the opportunity to apply that
knowledge in a practical way, including designing a programming
interface that significantly improved a particular data collection
process.
Moreover, he gained a greater appreciation for what he was learning
in his high school classes, noting
that, “All the stuff we learned in calculus and various math classes actually makes sense here when you
can apply it.”
Being exposed to the practical aspects of research and development
at the NPS opened Jeremy’s eyes to
how the real world of research is
different than he had envisioned it.
“Before this [internship], I didn’t
really know what the term ‘research’
meant. I thought ‘Oh, it’s theoretical
physics, and I’m not really interested in that.’ But [research] definitely
has more opportunity for hands-on
experience than I thought.”
Having gained a new appreciation
for applied research from his experiences at NPS, Jeremy’s next steps
toward a STEM career began in fall
2010 when he started college as an
electrical engineering major at UC
Berkeley. Unlike many other freshmen, Jeremy brought a practical,
authentic understanding of the importance of his engineering studies.
Have a question about
STEM related activities at NPS?
Contact Dr. David Nickles,
Director of Research
Communications and Outreach
at danickle@nps.edu
Naval Postgraduate School Hosts Girls Day In
By MC1 Grant P. Ammon
More than 50 young women from Monterey-area high schools and
middle schools descended upon the Naval Postgraduate School
campus, Mar. 11, as part of the Girls Day In pilot program. Girls
Day In is a new K-12 outreach program that aims to introduce science and technology disciplines to children in the local Monterey
community by providing opportunities for female students from local schools to explore the fields of science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM).
“Don’t be afraid to try new things,” encouraged Sherman during her
opening remarks. “This profession is hard, but I believe failures are
almost as important as the successes.”
Sherman shared her experiences working as an engineer and researcher with the girls and chaperones in attendance during her
kick-off speech. She vividly detailed her adventurous career as an
engineer studying ice caps in Antarctica, mapping the ocean floor
inside the submersible capsule “Alvin” and piloting remotely-operated vehicles. Sherman also shared her feelings on the study of math
and science that she had early in her scholastic endeavors.
“I had some tough math and science teachers in high school. In my
first year of college, I took an astronomy class and was relieved that
it would be my last exposure to science and math,” Sherman noted.
“Down the road I took another math course and the teacher was
great. I really started enjoying my math and science courses. I realized math was fun.”
Dr. Alana Sherman, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
(MBARI) delivers a speech during Girls Day In. (U.S. Navy photo by MC1
Grant P. Ammon)
The girls were also taken on an escorted tour of the university campus by volunteers from the Monterey Sea Service Leadership Association (SSLA) and were afforded the opportunity to see first-hand
the world-class research laboratories. The SSLA volunteers saw the
afternoon as a chance to provide guidance and mentorship to a
younger population of girls that may be interested in pursuing careers in the STEM fields.
During the day-long event, the girls were exposed to a variety of
presentations and activities, which included opening remarks by
university president Dan Oliver and a keynote address by Dr. Alana Sherman, pictured above, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), in addition to the opportunity to build,
program and operate robots under the tutelage of NPS professor
Timothy Chung.
“A primary function of our organization is the mentorship of fellow
women serving in the sea services. Girls Day In was an opportunity
to continue that mentorship and outreach,” said Navy Lt. Heather
Hornick, a meteorology student at NPS and member of the SSLA.
“As soon as we heard about the program we asked how SSLA could
help. Taking the time to volunteer at this event gave us the chance
to work with young girls and show them the opportunities that are
possible in the science and engineering career fields.”
University Welcomes Top County Students for Annual Mathletics
By MC1 Grant P. Ammon
The Naval Postgraduate School
opened its doors to hundreds of
county math whizzes when the
university hosted the 43rd Annual Monterey County Mathletics Competition, May 14.
Mathletics is an annual contest
established to promote excellence in mathematics, and to
recognize the achievements of
local students and their schools.
Coordinated by the Monterey
County Office of Education,
the event is made possible
by donations and volunteers
from the primary sponsoring
schools, California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB)
and NPS.
The contest, open to Monterey
County students from grades
5-12, brought more than 350
youth onto campus as each
school’s team is allowed up to
three students per test.
Dr. David Nickles, NPS’ Director of Research Communications and Outreach, played a
lead role in bringing the event
to NPS, and was already well
versed in the competition.
“I’ve been a big fan of Mathletics
for 12 years dating back to my
days as Science/Math Coordinator for the Monterey County
Office of Education,” he said. “At
that time, we held Mathletics at
Hartnell College and it was evident from the enthusiasm of the
kids that participated back then,
as well as today, that for them,
math was fun!”
Nickles added that recognizing
the fun in math is a primary goal
of the competition, but the value
in the annual event is far than
just fun and games.
“Mathematics courses, especially algebra, are generally
considered gatekeepers to kids
taking advanced science in high
school, and in their later pursuit
of science, engineering or technology careers while in college,”
Nickles explained. “Mathletics is
a comprehensive mathematics
competition designed to promote excellence in math and ...
becoming ‘Mathletes’ encourages children to practice mathematics so they will not only
enjoy, and not fear, learning to
abstract, but so they will compete better in school.”
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NPS Assistant Professor and C4I Chair Rachel
Goshorn highlights some of the sensors on
board one of many autonomous vehicles in the
university’s UAV/AUV Robotics Lab. About 25
children and parent chaperones from the First
LEGO League of Monterey toured the lab in
November.
NPS Associate Professor of Physics Bruce Denardo
demonstrates the effects of liquid nitrogen on an acoustic device during a visit by students of the Monterey
Academy of Oceanographic Science (MAOS). A group
of approximately 60 high school students toured NPS,
participating in and observing demonstrations from
throughout the school.
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Unlike many teenagers who
enjoy a respite from challenging study and complex thinking before tackling their senior
year of high school, Abigail (Abby)
Hoffman spent her summer as an intern learning to run a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).
Never having seen a SEM (she looked
it up on Wikipedia before her first
visit to the lab), Abby went through
a week of training before starting to
take high resolution, very high magnification pictures for researchers like
Distinguished Professor Nancy Haegel in the Physics Department at NPS.
She described the SEM as a sophisticated camera that “uses electrons
instead of light for particles are too
small to be seen by laser light, which
is really cool. And now that I’ve been
on it for a couple weeks, anyone in
the physics department, if they have
samples that they need high resolution pictures of, then they come to
me and I know how to prepare them.
I’m getting really good pictures.”
As a senior who will take Physics, AP
Chem, AP Calc, AP English, economics, chorus and orchestra at Stevenson
HS this fall, Abby had a typical view of
high school before coming to NPS. “I
went through school up until last year
thinking if I’d been taught the information I’ll do well on the test. As long
as I’ve been taught the information,
then I know what to do.”
Now, though, Abby has a new perspective on learning and plans to put
her experiences at NPS to good use.
“Coming here, it’s an entirely different process. One of the things I think
has really influenced me is being
able to take on projects and preparing yourself for them. It’s really exhilarating when someone says ‘Oh, I
would like this fixed’ or ‘I would like
to know if we can be able to do this’
and then it’s about doing the research
and testing things out; more of an independent way of learning, which I
really like. I think that’s definitely going to change how I go through my
classes next year.”
Upcoming Events at NPS
Expanding Your Horizons
“All Shades of Navy- Introducing Young Women to Naval Careers”
is designed to introduce middle school girls to non-traditional Navy
careers such as nuclear engineering, computer science, oceanography,
and cryptology. Expanding Your Horizons National office will work
with the Office of Naval Research to bring a new EYH conference to
the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, this Fall.
The Monterey conference at NPS will be open to young women in
grades 5-11.
Contact Dr. David Nickles at NPS for information. danickle@nps.edu
Have a question about
STEM related activities at NPS?
Contact Dr. David Nickles,
Director of Research Communications and Outreach
at danickle@nps.edu
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