Lockheed Martin provides $250,000 grant to Syracuse University’s engineering program

Lockheed Martin provides $250,000 grant to Syracuse University’s engineering program June 01, 2006Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Furthering its support of engineering education at Syracuse University, Lockheed Martin has pledged $250,000 to SU’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) to assist the college with its goals of building a world-class microwave engineering laboratory and attracting the highest caliber of engineering students from across the nation.

Carl Bannar, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Radar Systems business in Syracuse, presented a $125,000 check today to Interim Vice Chancellor and Provost Designate Eric F. Spina, formerly the Douglas D. Danforth Dean of ECS, and ECS Interim Dean Shiu-Kai Chin. The University will receive the second installment of the grant in 2007.

“I am pleased that Lockheed Martin is able to support the microwave laboratory, continuing our corporation’s strong research and recruiting relationship with Syracuse University,” says Robert B. Coutts, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Electronic Systems business area, of which Radar Systems is a part. “With this grant, the University and Lockheed Martin each will gain by advancing the current state of the art in microwave technology, building a potential human resource talent pool from the student population supporting experimentation and in capturing intellectual property from our collaborative work.”

“We are very grateful to Lockheed Martin for enabling us to transform our microwave engineering laboratory into a first-class facility,” says Spina. “Partners such as Lockheed Martin are critical to the quality of our academic and research programs because their engagement helps to ensure the relevance of these programs to real-world applications. In the end, this partnership will help us to attract high-quality students, which is important for Syracuse University and essential for the health of technology firms in Central New York.”

ECS plans to renovate and expand the existing microwave laboratory facility in Link Hall this year. “As technology continues to advance and markets grow, the microwave spectrum offers endless future opportunities,” says Chin. “Yet there are simply not enough qualified radio frequency and microwave engineers to meet the growing demand for this expertise. This new and larger laboratory facility will dramatically enhance the capabilities of our microwave engineering program and enable us to significantly contribute highly skilled and trained microwave engineers to industry.”

Lockheed Martin and ECS have a long history of collaboration. Lockheed Martin’s Engineering Leadership Development Program (ELDP) carries on a partnership with the college’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science that dates back to the 1970s. In this unique program, students work towards a master’s degree in computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering or mechanical engineering and earn up to nine hours of academic credit for courses they take at Lockheed Martin.

Chin says the program is a win-win situation for both Lockheed Martin and ECS. For the college, “students get the benefit of solving industry problems of realistic scale,” he says. For the company, “over the last 30 years, SU has had a significant hand in educating the cream of the crop in terms of engineering,” says Chin. “Many of our graduates now hold leadership positions at Lockheed Martin and in industry, and SU is proud to have played an important part in this.”

Through its local community grant program, Lockheed Martin also has provided strong support for ECS’s programs in K-12 outreach, the student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and a regional American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics student conference held here last spring.