When two giants have goals as aligned as Lockheed Martin and Penn State, the well of possibilities is deep and wide. The Lockheed Martin-Penn State partnership has evolved for both organizations over three decades of collaboration and continues to find new and exciting avenues to explore. Just since 2015, the company has invested approximately $5.6 million in research at Penn State around autonomous unmanned systems, remote-operated vehicles, hydrostatic testing, coatings, and more.
But lucrative, cutting-edge research is just the beginning of the relationship.
The company also holds an annual Lockheed Martin Day during the first week of September at the HUB/Alumni Hall (or virtually in 2020) so company representatives can meet directly with students interested in various careers with Lockheed. During the 2018-2019 academic year, Lockheed Martin hired over 250 full-time employees from the Penn State ecosystem. Penn State students know this direct contact with a prestigious employer is a can’t-miss event and attracts top-tier talent.
“Through these kinds of direct student engagement opportunities, Lockheed Martin has increased our hiring of Penn State graduates in each of the past five years, and we have hired more than 1,600 Penn State alumni,” said Dan Heller, Vice President of Engineering & Technology for Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems business area.
As of August 2020, Lockheed Martin is co-located on the Penn State University Park campus at Innovation Park, an environment designed to accelerate innovations with the advantages of being close to students and researchers. Lockheed will be able to maintain its relationship with student interns even when they return to campus. Working on projects at a “Lockheed facility” while attending class at Penn State helps students better prepare for employment after graduation and can get students started on the clearance process (which can take almost a year) while they are still in college.
When Lockheed Martin works with Penn State across a number of colleges and campuses through sponsorship, support, and scholarships, Lockheed taps into a diverse pool of talent. Lockheed and Penn State have found several programs that offer win-win engagement for both institutions. For example, Lockheed Martin helps support the College of Engineering, where it is one of an elite group of industry sponsors of The Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory. A hands-on facility for engineering students, the Learning Factory taps university-industry partnerships where student-design projects benefit clients and where sponsors interact with students and faculty to help drive engineering education and the frontiers of research.
With so many common objectives, Penn State and Lockheed Martin will likely continue a mutually beneficial relationship for the next 30 years and beyond.
“The research partnership between Lockheed Martin and Penn State is important to stimulating innovation that strengthens student and faculty contributions to technologies that will bring positive change around the globe.” Don Mothersbaugh, director of corporate engagement, Penn State.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a highly diversified global enterprise principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced-technology systems, products and services. The corporation’s core businesses span space and telecommunications, electronics, information and services, aeronautics, energy and systems integration.