FORT BELVOIR, Va. - Army eCYBERMISSION will recognize the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center for excellence in recruiting and reviewing student projects at the eCYBERMISSION National Judging and Educational Event in Hunt Valley, Maryland June 19.
CERDEC had the most virtual judges with 57 CERDEC employees, military personnel, civilians and contractors, volunteering their time to review and judge 660 mission folders for eCYBERMISSION this past year.
"ECYBERMISSION is about placing students at the intersection of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and a passion to solve real-world problems. It's about developing citizens and STEM professionals who contribute to our national future. CERDEC's personnel have this kind of exceptional commitment and recognize it in others, which is why they give back via STEM activities such as being virtual judges," said Maj. Gen. John F. Wharton, commanding general, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. "In RDECOM, science and technology that gives our Soldiers decisive overmatch capabilities are a life-or-death reality. We see the importance of STEM firsthand, which is what drives our investment in STEM outreach. ECYBERMISSION is a very important part of it."
ECYBERMISSION is a free, web-based science competition for sixth through ninth graders and is one of several STEM initiatives offered by the Army Education Outreach Program, or AEOP. RDECOM was tasked by the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) to lead AEOP, which is one the various programs that represents the Army's nationwide commitment to increasing STEM literacy and expanding STEM education opportunities.
"Really, our overall goal with AEOP is to broaden the pool of STEM-literate students so that when they get up to college, they are competitively eligible or academically prepared to take on the rigor of a STEM degree or to compete for competitive programs within the DOD or just in general," said Louie Lopez, the program manager of AEOP at RDECOM.
In the eCYBERMISSION challenge, students compete in teams of three or four with an adult team advisor and can choose a pre-determined Mission Challenge or real problem in their community that they must solve using STEM concepts.
Mission Challenges can span an array of areas such as alternative sources of energy; environment; food, health, and fitness; forces and motion; national security and safety; robotics; and technology. After choosing the problem, students use the scientific method to develop hypotheses and conduct research and experiments to devise potential solutions.
The current judging cycle included projects that explored exposure to drugs in middle schools, teen violence and ecology on playgrounds.
"ECYBERMISSION is really a special program, unlike your standard old school science fair or science competition, eCYBERMISSION really challenges kids to look around their schools, their communities, the world and find a real-life problem and solve it," said Erica Bertoli, CERDEC Outreach team lead. "So these aren't kids who are building a volcano or building a diorama of the solar system, they're really challenged to take either the scientific method or the engineering design principles and put them into effect to solve a problem that they see in their everyday world; and the creativity of these kids is just mind-blowing."
At the conclusion of the eCYBERMISSION challenge, teams electronically submit mission folders for virtual judging.
A single folder typically takes 20 minutes to one hour to judge, which puts into perspective just how dedicated CERDEC scientists and engineers are to this mission, said Bertoli.
"CERDEC, as a whole, has always had a culture of outreach and support that goes beyond having an outreach program and really is within the intent of the engineers and the scientists," Bertoli said.
"If you talk to our engineers, they talk about wanting to give back, wanting to reach into the next generation, wanting to pay forward the mentoring and the support that they received as students," said Bertoli. "So, really, the success that CERDEC finds in things like having the highest Army participation in virtual judging is really a reflection of the engineers within the organization who find it a personal mission to want to support programs like this."
CERDEC volunteers see their efforts as a way encourage young people to take an interest in STEM.
"When I was a student, I participated in similar events or science projects in general and wanted to see how that works on the other side," said Erick Ortiz, CERDEC S&TCD electronics engineer and subject matter expert for electromagnetic compatibility, who participated as a virtual judge this year.
Ortiz notes that he tried to provide as much feedback as possible, including positive comments and constructive remarks to help students learn from their mistakes and to help them identify new perspectives on their technical approaches.
The Army outreach mission creates a symbiotic relationship between young students and future employers by cultivating interest in STEM early on, which can ultimately feed the DOD enterprise through direct employment, advanced industrial base, and more, according to Lopez.
"It is still one of those best kept secrets that you can work for the Army as a civilian and programs like this, which allow us to talk to students, as young as sixth grade, about the experience and opportunities of working for the DOD as an engineer or scientist. You are letting them know that they can choose to serve their country in a lab, and the people that are in the uniform need the people in the lab. There's a world of opportunities and eCYBERMISSION is really great at being the first engagement for a lot of these kids- that just leads them further into a future with STEM," Bertoli said.
In the Army's effort to increase the number of STEM interested students, CERDEC hopes to double the number of workforce participants in the next eCYBERMISSION cycle and will begin outreach efforts in the fall, said Bertoli.
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The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's Soldiers.
RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. AMC is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness--technology, acquisition support, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment--to the total force, across the spectrum of joint military operations. If a Soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it, eats it or communicates with it, AMC provides it.
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Army.mil: Science and Technology News
U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
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