The Northrop Grumman Foundation returns as a major Festival Sponsor, and will be significantly enhancing the Festival's focus on STEM through impressive activities at the Expo -- including exciting new competitions in cyber defense and robotics!
"The Northrop Grumman Foundation is committed to helping advance STEM education and sparking interest in young people," says Sandra Evers-Manly, vice president of Global Corporate Responsibility and president of the Northrop Grumman Foundation. "Our mission is to fund educational projects that make a difference in the lives of our country's students and teachers. We seek to ultimately affect generations to come and our country as a whole. We strive to be a part of life-changing experiences."
As a leading global security company, Northrop Grumman provides innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
"We are pleased and excited to once again support the mission of such a major effort to promote STEM." Evers-Manly adds.
Northrop Grumman has a few partnerships that they hope to showcase at the 2014 X-STEM Extreme Symposium:
CyberPatriot is the premiere national high school cyber defense competition designed to be fun, competitive and non-traditional way to teach, develop and showcase STEM skills. CyberPatriot V kicked off last October with more than 1,200 teams vying for a chance to compete in the National Finals Competition. All 50 states and U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Europe and the Pacific, and Canada were represented.
More than 15,000 student participants, educators, mentors, industry leaders and community members from 24 countries applauded 700 of the world's best student-run VEX Robotics Competition teams, as they went head to head with their custom-built and programmed robots at the 2012 VEX Robotics Competition World Championship.
Evers-Manly explained the Foundation strategy: "The global aspect of the VEX Competition led us to expand our participation --100 new teams in 10 new locations worldwide. In the U.S., 87 teams will begin at 62 new schools. These teams will serve an estimated 870 students in California, Maryland, Mississippi and Washington, DC."
She adds:" We will definitely have a presentation that will focus on the James Webb Space Telescope. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Blake Bullock and Scott Willoughby are confirmed as speakers. We anticipate seeing some of the forward-thinking ideas these young scientists will showcase at 2014 X-STEM Symposium and the USA Science & Engineering Festival!"
The Festival thanks Northrop Grumman Foundation and other sponsors for its participation in helping to inspire the next generation of innovators!
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