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The Naval STEM Coordination Office, located at the Office of Naval Research, under the leadership of the Chief of Naval Research as the Naval STEM Executive, serves as the central coordination and information resource for Naval STEM efforts.

The Department of the Navy sponsors an HBCU/MI program to encourage and support minority researchers and graduates.

The International Cooperative Engagement Program for Polar Research (ICE-PPR) International Workshop for Sea Ice and Icebergs was held recently at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The workshop attendees focused on three areas: science and technology researchers who study data and create new algorithms or sensors; the centers that produce ice analysis products for mariners; and the operators themselves, personnel from the U.S. and Canadian Navies and Coast Guards who have operated ships in polar regions.

Gathered in a temporary maritime operations center in Arlington, Virginia, military, industry and political leaders watched multiple satellite images flash onto large monitor screens. These images showed three types of drug-running vessels hundreds of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean — a small, fast, highly maneuverable boat capable of transferring illicit cargo between ships on the high seas; a support ship with a crane for loading and unloading contraband; and a tugboat serving as the recipient ship for smuggling cargo into the U.S. The scenario was part of a larger July 2023 experimentation event designed to emulate drug-smuggling activities in the maritime domain as well as efforts to deter the flow of such contraband. Called the SCOUT Main Experimentation Event, the two-week exercise involved partners such as the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-South (JIATF-S), U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and numerous naval warfare centers and industry and academic partners. Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus, who was one of several ONR leaders at the maritime operations center, said, “I’m truly impressed by the innovation, teaming and analytic rigor you’ve all brought to this exercise. Your pioneering approach is leading the way for us to learn faster with new partners to tackle the hardest operational challenges.”

Four Department of the Navy (DoN) employees at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) won 2021 Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) from the US Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine.

Student engineering teams from Princeton, Washington College and the University of Alabama have won first place in their respective events at the “Promoting Electric Propulsion” (PEP) boat races, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE). In just six years, this electric boat-building competition has grown from a single university to 34, with more than 200 students who took part in the five-mile races on Broad Bay in Virginia Beach. Dr. Steve Russell, program officer, Sea Warfare and Weapons department, said he launched the PEP competition with a colleague from ASNE, Dr. Leigh McCue, and Tim Cullis, Naval Sea Warfare Center Carderock, after seeing a public race by local hobbyists in the Chesapeake Bay.

A TechSolutions sponsored project has been honored with an award from the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) for its TS-872 Breathing Dynamics Trainer, created in a collaboration with the Naval Aviation Training Systems and Ranges Program Office at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR PMA-205) and the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC). TechSolutions is a department within the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global, which quickly responds to viable requests for new or improved technologies or systems from Sailors and Marines. In the case of the Breathing Dynamics Trainer, Jason Payne, director, TechSolutions, said there was already training for pilots to experience hypoxia (low oxygen) using the Mask on Breathing Device (MOBD). However, TechSolutions received a request to expand its capabilities so that pilots could experience the effects of other breathing issues in a safe training environment, such as hyperoxia (too much oxygen) and excessive inhalation/exhalation pressures.

Science and technology enthusiasts were treated to a day of educational fun at the Navy League STEM Expo at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.