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Local company lands $8.4M DOD contract
YOUNGSTOWN
An $8.4 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense will allow a Youngstown company to provide science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education to students at 1,000 high schools over the next four years.
Applied Systems & Technology Transfer (AST2), a technical and management consulting company for the defense, energy and environmental markets, initially will select 10 schools, most in Northeast Ohio, in April for the first phase of the program, said Jack Scott, the company’s president, Tuesday.
This is part of the DOD’s Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach (MENTOR) program that seeks to encourage high- school students to be innovative and creative through activities that will make them interested in new manufacturing careers and “foster the next generation of innovators,” Scott said.
The students will design and manufacture electro-mechanical systems such as mobile robots and ground and air vehicles.
“We know that in spite of the importance of manufacturing to our nation’s economy, among 18- to 24-year-olds, manufacturing ranks last among industries in which they would choose to start their careers,” Scott said. “We know something has to change.”
AST2, based in the Youngstown Business Incubator, will install technology in 10 high schools before the start of the next school year allowing juniors and seniors, about 100 for each school, to do hands-on next-generation manufacturing using three-dimensional printers and other high-tech equipment, Scott said.
The technology “has the potential to transform how we learn and how we work and, most importantly, how we learn to work,” he said.
In the second year, an additional 15 schools will be added to the original 10. In the third year, there will be 200 schools involved in the program, and 1,000 schools worldwide by the fourth year, Scott said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, a supporter of this project, said manufacturing today is completely different than it was 30 to 40 years ago, comparing long-closed steel plants with 3-D imaging and robotics being used today.
This program “is an important investment in preparing today’s students for future STEM careers, particularly manufacturing with its significance to our region,” he said.