Naval Undersea Warfare Center Forms Partnership with Portsmouth Foundation

The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport has established a formal educational partnership agreement with the newly established Undersea Science and Engineering Foundation Inc. (USEF) of Portsmouth, NUWC announced Monday in a press release.

Under the agreement, USEF will work with NUWC Newport’s Outreach Office to develop a program, which will have volunteers provide mentoring and tutoring for area elementary and high school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

USEF will also collaborate with NUWC Newport to bring the scientific, technological and undersea technology expertise from NUWC Newport to area faculty and students.

“We recognized that there is a widely untapped resource in the community of retired scientists, engineers and other professionals that can support and help expand NUWC’s existing educational outreach programs,” said William Ferreira, chairman of the USEF board. “We want to utilize that expertise to meet the needs of our schools in enhancing math and science curricula that support undersea science and engineering education.”

NUWC Newport has established educational partnership agreements with a wide range of educational organizations to encourage and enhance study in scientific disciplines at all educational levels. The command received a Navy-wide award in educational outreach in 2010 for its support to local schools, including public schools in Newport, South Kingstown, Providence and New Bedford, MA.

“NUWC Newport has long recognized that we need to stimulate interest and participation in STEM education in our area so that students will continue to pursue education and employment opportunities in areas that support the undersea technical disciplines needed at NUWC,” said Dr. Paul Lefebvre, technical director of NUWC Newport.  “Our partnership with USEF has the potential to significantly increase our level of support to local schools through additional volunteers and funding that can broaden these educational opportunities to students that might not otherwise be able to participate in the programs.”

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.