NUWC Engineer Receives National Award

Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport engineer Karin Kaplan has been named a winner of the Women of Color magazine’s Technology All-Star Award. This prominent annual award recognizes accomplished minority women at the top of their careers who have demonstrated
excellence in the workplace and in their communities. The award is sponsored by Career Communications Group.

Kaplan is a systems engineer with the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department where she works on unmanned aerial systems and combat control systems.

"Ms. Kaplan has accomplished a great deal since she began work at Division Newport in 2002," said Dr. Paul Lefebvre, Division Newport Technical Director. “According to the awards panel, Ms. Kaplan's numerous technological achievements stood out among her peers.”

Kaplan has been a test engineer and test lead for the Virginia Class submarine combat control systems, and she was the test and evaluation lead for the Collins Class replacement combat system for the Royal Australian Navy. She has also worked on NUWC Newport’s virtual worlds environment project.

"I was really surprised by the announcement that I had been selected for this award," said Kaplan. "I have never been honored by any organization other than my employer ."

Originally from Hong Kong, Kaplan grew up in New York City and now resides in Bristol, R.I.

Kaplan is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo where she earned both a bachelor of science and a master of science in electrical engineering in 2000 and 2002 respectively. She is also currently enrolled in a master of business administration program at the University of Rhode Island.

Kaplan will be honored at the Women of Color Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) Conference in November in Dallas, Texas.

NUWC Newport is one of two divisions of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. NUWC Newport’s
mission is to provide research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support for
submarines, autonomous underwater systems, undersea offensive and defensive weapons systems, and
countermeasures.