Roosevelt Middle Pre-Engineering Students Tour Lockheed Martin

To celebrate Engineers’ Week, February 20-24, 2012, over 160 students in the Pre-Engineering program at Roosevelt Middle School toured the Lockheed Martin facilities located on the water in Riviera Beach.

Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

Lockheed engineers conducted tours of the site, allowing students to see the products currently being worked on.  Marlin Autonomous Underwater Vehicle™ Marlin is a small yellow submarine that inspects deepwater oil and gas structures, especially important following severe weather, to make sure the structure is safe to resume production.  The battery was removed so the students could view the insides of the vehicle. Its sensors and imaging equipment make it ideally critical to Florida’s maritime industries, resources and economy.

Another submarine at the plant is the Dry Combat Submersible.  This sub can be used to transport Navy Seals or scientists to their maritime objective.

Huge and with the look of a torpedo, the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle is an unmanned, semi-submersible, semi-autonomous vehicle that uses sensors and imaging equipment to detect underwater mines to keep the sailors out of the minefield.  There were four of these in various stages of being refurbished.

A video of interviews with engineers enlightened the group about the many different fields of engineering that Lockheed employs.  Other engineers on site then discussed their backgrounds, why they became engineers, and what they do on a daily basis.  This was followed by a lengthy question and answer period to quench the curiosity of the students.

Roosevelt Middle has four magnet programs: Pre-Engineering, Pre-Medical, Technology, Environmental Science, and Lockheed Martin has been a business partner for the Pre-Engineering magnet for many years with Steve Rodrigues, Chief Engineer, serving on the Magnet Advisory Board for the school.

For more information, please contact Dee Ann Tiffany, Magnet Coordinator, at 561 822-0261 or deeann.tiffany@palmbeachschools.org .