SPAWAR hosts IT Job Shadow Day

Area high school students received a firsthand look at how science and information technologies are creating information for the Navy during Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic’s Information Technology Job Shadow Day.
High school students control an unmanned aerial vehicle during SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic’s Information Technology Job Shadow Day Feb. 14 on Joint Base Charleston-Weapons Station.

High school sophomores, juniors and seniors from Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties’ school districts, along with two Marines from Camp Lejeune, met with SPAWAR leaders on last week as part of a Department of Defense initiative designed to inspire students to pursue careers in science and math. The shadow day also gave SPAWAR the opportunity to showcase its IT work force and demonstrate IT skills.

Students toured labs to see equipment, programmed by SPAWAR’s IT personnel, that supports and protects war fighters. Students and accompanying math, science and engineering teachers walked through replicas of submarine radio rooms, visited equipment test chambers and got a bird’s eye view of North Charleston from a working air traffic control tower.

Students also had the opportunity to visit the center’s Real World lab, where tools are built for military mission rehearsals, desktop training simulations and other purposes. In the lab, buildings, vehicles, landscapes and objects are created using software, and the resulting products, which are run on immersive 3-D simulators, look and work like video games.

According to Capt. Bruce Urbon, commanding officer for SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic, the IT shadow day is a win-win for the students and the military operation.

“Students get exposed to a number of IT career field opportunities,” he said. “For us, it’s an opportunity to plant seeds of interest as we seek to build tomorrow’s work force.”

SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic is a Navy engineering center that designs, builds, tests, fields and supports many of the frontline command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems in use today.