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College students have until Friday, Jan. 15, to apply to Naval STEM's Naval Horizons initiative.

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh, best known for his daring dive to the deepest spot on Earth, nearly 36,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, has died at age 92. Walsh was a co-pilot of the Trieste bathyscaphe, a deep submergence vehicle acquired by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in 1958. Two years later, on January 23, 1960, Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard, son of the inventor of the bathyscaphe, became the first humans to descend into the Challenger Deep, located in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench. “ONR sponsored the Trieste, but it was then-Lt. Don Walsh who made the very daring decision to make the first descent into the deepest spot of the earth’s ocean. Walsh was a Navy officer, a submariner, an adventurer, and an oceanographer. To his family, we extend our deepest condolences and gratitude for allowing him to explore, and share his extraordinary experiences and knowledge with us,” said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus.

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.

For excellence in research areas such as artificial intelligence and robotic and autonomous systems, the Department of the Navy (DoN) recently presented $15,000 scholarship awards to five students competing in the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.

School may be out for summer, but an opportunity to gain valuable, professional experience in their field of study has just begun for students enrolled in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Minority Institutions’ (HBCU/MIs’). Anthony Smith, director, Department of Navy's (DoN) HBCU/MI Program, said there are eight different internships with the addition of a new one this year. “We are embarking on a new student internship program with the Navy Facilities Command (NAVFAC),” he said. “That’s a big deal because that’s focused on students in engineering but more along the lines of civil engineering and construction technology – and that’s a big one that we have not had before. So, that’s exciting for us.” Education and outreach from the DoN includes college internships, graduate fellowships, science fairs and competitions, and curriculum enrichment programs for students of all ages. The HBCU/MI program aims to increase participation from under-represented educational institutions for research, development, test and evaluation programs.

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.

More than 130 teams of elementary, middle and high school students from around the world competed at the annual International SeaPerch Challenge on June 4 at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

A U.S. Marine and Coast Guardsman each recently received a Chief of Naval Research (CNR) Award for Excellence in Intelligent Autonomous Systems from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).

Recognizing the modern need for bold answers to complex naval challenges, ONR has sponsored the creation of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (GKC)—a new academic center dedicated to helping the U.S. government re-envision its approach to national security issues.

Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Lorin C. Selby last week introduced a new vision for future naval power—one based on faster development of unmanned, autonomous systems, vibrant partnerships with industry and academia, and reimagined naval formations.