National Security Agency
Dr. Aaron Ferguson Ph.D. – Cyber Security
National Security Agency
National Security Agency
National Security Agency
National Security Agency
Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) aligns its programs and resources with student and community needs. This is part of the college’s mission to enhance the economic vitality of the region. Nearly 40,000 students each year enroll at PGCC. Transforming lives through education is a big part of the PGCC mission.
Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) opened its doors 10 years ago and provided the Patriots with a home-base for its programs and competitions preparation. Monthly meetings, workshops, competitions, and conferences were held to accommodate the following:
The Northeast Maglev has supported the Patriots Youth Summit, Cyber Security, and Aerospace/Aviation Summit by providing membership sponsorship for students to attend and compete in the competitions. It was impactful in that it made it possible for students who would have been unable to attend our programs to join and participate in the workshops and competitions.
Additionally, Northeast Maglev sponsorship assisted with the upgrading of our computers.
RadNet Inc. Sponsors the Patriots Bio-Medical Competition
“Leading Radiology Forward”
RadNet Inc. (RadNet) provides outpatient diagnostic imaging services. The company offers diagnostic imaging solutions including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), nuclear medicine, digital mammography, ultrasound, digital X-ray, fluoroscopy, bone density scan, and others.
Some of the potential STEM-related careers at RadNet include radiology technologist (in a number of modalities, such as ultrasound, MRI, CT, mammography, nuclear medicine, DEXA, and more), as well as roles in software development, data and systems analysis, artificial intelligence, digital marketing, and programming.
RadNet will provide a mentor for 10 teams, with three students on a team, to prepare them for the competition. Each team in the competition will research one of the radiology careers, contextualizing what they learn about the field of radiology with one of President Biden’s Health Priorities. They also will produce a research paper, oral presentation, poster display, website design, and brochure.
“We have a passion for high-quality healthcare, and we are proud to share our expertise. Radiology presents a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact in people’s lives, and we need the brightest minds, like those at Patriots Technology Training Center, to make a difference.”
Cliffondra Brown, Vice President
Customer Relations & Training and Development
RadNet Inc.
SAVE THE DATE
Bio-Medical Competition-Kick Off Meeting
Meet Your Mentor
January 13th, 2024 10 am to 12:30 pm
1441 McCormick Dr. Suite 1050
Largo, MD 20774
RadNet Students Luncheon
Saturday, February 24th from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Community Radiology Associates
1401 Rockville Pike, #150
Rockville, MD 20852
Bio-Medical Competition Dinner
April 25, 2024, 6 pm to 9 pm
1441 McCormick Dr. Suite 1030
Largo, MD 20774
CYBER.ORG is a major sponsor for Patriots/NSBE Jr. Cyber Security Competition Summit at Bowie State University in which 350 middle and high schools’ students attended the event.
They donated 400 Cyber-Security cards that provided key information about Cyber Careers. Each student receives a stack of cards to study for the Kahoot Game, and they hosted the Capture the Flag Competition with 10 teams of 3 students each.
They also hosted an exhibit, gave an oral presentation on their organization and answered questions from their student audience on cyber security careers.
Capital Technology University is a major partner for our Aerospace Program and has hosted an exhibit at the Patriots Aerospace Aviation Summit at Joint Base Andrews. This has proven to be a great program that brings the government, the aerospace industry, and our students together exposing them to aerospace careers with over 20 aerospace exhibits and four competition Air Traffic Control, Drone, Flight Simulator, and Ship Building. Capital College University also supports our Cyber Security Competitions Summit and invites our members and the community to their campus for hands-on STEM workshops.
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is one of the largest student-governed organizations based in the United States. NSBE, founded in 1975, supports and promotes the aspiration of collegiate and pre-collegiate students and technical professionals in engineering and technology.
With more than 790 chapters and more than 20,000 active members in the U.S. and abroad, NSBE’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.”
For the past 20 years, the Patriots has chartered a NSBE Jr Chapter for 4th to 12th grade students. Our students have attended their summer, regional, and national conferences where they have an opportunity to meet students across the country, network with colleges/universities, IT companies, and Federal government agencies, attend workshops, and compete in competitions. Some of the major benefits for having a NSBE Jr Chapter are because NSBE provides scholarship opportunities and helps us build a roadmap for our members to become engineers.
As a NSBE Jr Chapter, we have partnered with the NSBE collegian and alumni chapters:
Capitol Technology University
Howard University
University of Maryland
US Naval Academy
Washington DC Alumni Chapter
General Dynamics is a global aerospace and defense company. From Gulfstream business jets and combat vehicles to nuclear-powered submarines and communications systems, people around the world depend on their products and services for their safety and security.
The portfolio of General Dynamics spans the realm of the world's most technologically advanced business jets, wheeled combat vehicles, command and control systems and nuclear submarines. We offer these through our five business groups: Aerospace, Combat Systems, Information Technology, Mission Systems and Marine Systems.
General Dynamics has been a sponsor and hosted for the Mini Cyber Security Conference to inform students about Cyber Security careers. Students were able to asked the General Dynamics professionals questions about the different cyber security careers available. After the presentation by the General Dynamics professionals, students competed in a Kahoot Game answering questions that were provided in the presentation and won prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Winners.
As Maryland’s first historically black public university, Bowie State University empowers a diverse population of students to reach their potential by providing innovative academic programs and transformational experiences as they prepare for careers, lifelong learning, and civic responsibility. Bowie State University supports Maryland’s workforce and economy by engaging in strategic partnerships, research, and public service to benefit our local, state, national, and global communities. Bowie State University will be widely recognized as one of the nation’s best public comprehensive universities that is a model for academic excellence, innovation, and student success.
For the past seven years, Bowie State University has been instrumental in hosting the Patriots programs and competitions. We see this as a win-win partnership when the students and the parents are able to visit the campus, talk to the professors and students to hear about college life at Bowie and what it has to offer.
The Patriots also partnered with the Elementary Education Majors who, as future teachers in the classroom, hosted our summer camp for 25 students.
The following are programs that are hosted at Bowie:
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touch screen personal computers.
Microsoft is one of the favorite partnerships of the students because they have hosted our summer camp students visit to their Pentagon store to learn about video games and the students were able to compete in several tournaments - Madden NFL, NBA 2K, and Minecraft. Microsoft has supported our STEM carnival, Youth Summit by setting up exhibits, and Video Gaming Tournament/Summit . We are most thankful for the contribution of Surface Computers, volunteers, and donation of the Office 365.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America’s civil space program and the global leader in space exploration. The agency has a diverse workforce of just under 18,000 civil servants, and works with many more U.S. contractors, academia, and international and commercial partners to explore, discover, and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.
At its 10 major centers across the country – and the only National Laboratory in space – NASA studies Earth, including its climate, our Sun, and our solar system and beyond. We conduct research, testing, and development to advance aeronautics, including electric propulsion and supersonic flight. We develop and fund space technologies that will enable future exploration and benefit life on Earth.
NASA’s centers across the country:
| Ames Research CenterSilicon Valley, California | George C. Marshall Space Flight CenterRedstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama |
| Langley Research Center,Hampton, Virginia | Goddard Space Flight CenterGreenbelt, Maryland |
| John H. Glenn Research Center,Brook Park, Ohio | John C. Stennis Space Center,Hancock County, Mississippi |
| Armstrong Flight Research Center,Edwards Air Force Base, Edwards, California | Lyndon B. Johnson Space CenterHouston, Tex |
| Jet Propulsion Laboratory,San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles, California | John F. Kennedy Space CenterCape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida |
NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor’s Center hosted Patriots First Annual Solar System Competition that consisted of 60 students who competed with their team to win a trip to the Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. The Washington Business Roundtable and the Inspire Group provided judges for the competition and sponsorship for 10 students to attend Space Camp. We are in our 11th year hosting our Solar System Competition. The competition requires research by a team of two students who will produce a two-page paper about Human Exploration on Mars, a flyer supporting the research, and the students will also be challenged to compete in a land rover racing computer challenge.
The Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC), a nonprofit, public benefit organization, is designed to advocate, educate, research, develop, and preserve the history, and the future, of blacks in the film and television industries.
In 1996, BHERC was founded by Sandra Evers-Manly to remove the veil of invisibility that shrouds African Americans and other diverse groups from the main stage, and to spotlight diversity and the stellar contributions of black film and television artists who brought dignity and professionalism to even the most menial of roles.
BHERC has invited the Patriots members to attend the Annual Film Festival where they will receive first-hand information from the professionals in the film industry. Students were given the opportunity to apply for a scholarship through BHERC and create a short film to be showcased at the Los Angeles Diversity Youth Film Festival.
BHERC also sponsored the following:
Iron Bow Technologies is a leading IT solution provider dedicated to successfully transforming technology investments into business capabilities for government, commercial and healthcare clients. Their depth of technical expertise, global reach and strategic partnerships with industry leaders as well as disruptive technology partners uniquely positions Iron Bow to target the right solution to ensure your successful business outcomes.
Iron Bow has been one of our major partners in Patriots early years. It is one of the reasons why we are successful in providing workshops/competitions for the youth today. One of the first competitions hosted by Iron Bow was the Renewable Energy Competition and they also assisted with the kick-off of our Lego Robotics Program. They birthed our Cyber Security Competition as they are a cyber security company. Their involvement consisted of being the Master of Ceremony, Keynote Speaker, and judges for the competition. Additionally, Iron Bow provided a representative to serve as a member on the Patriots Board of Directors.
Black Data Processing Association (BDPA)
The Black Data Processing Association (BDPA) mission to bridge digital divides across cyber security, information technology (IT) and telecommunications competency gaps spans 40+ years. BDPA-DC's projects across the National Capital Region support career development and economic development through well blended and tailored series of student programs, industry outreach, community relations, and legislative affairs primarily for urban and underserved communities.
BDPA has partnered with the Patriots and invited our members to attend their computer programming workshops and, as well, their members have participated in the Patriots competitions and programs.
SYSTEMS APPLICATION & TECHNOLOGYIES, INC. (SA-TECH)
Systems Application & Technologies, Inc. (SA-TECH) specializes in providing Operations & Maintenance (O&M), Engineering, Information Technology (IT), and Logistics support in highly regulated environments, to support the Test & Evaluation (T&E) and Training missions of a variety of Department of Defense (DOD) customers.
The SA-TECH CEO, Timothy Adams, is a major sponsor and partner as he has been a keynote speaker at the Patriots Aerospace/Aviation Summit and Video Gaming Conference/Tournament and instrumental in expanding our Aerospace/Aviation Competition hosted at Joint Base Andrews. For the last three years we have had 300 students to attend the summit at the base.
SA-TECH has always been a sponsor at the following events.
MedStar Health is a comprehensive system across the Maryland and Washington, DC region with hundreds of locations, including an extensive primary care and urgent care network, many telehealth options for urgent (eVisit) and non-urgent (Video Visit) care solutions, and acute care hospitals with world renowned experts in infectious disease and infection prevention.
MedStar has provided sponsorship for the Annual Bio-Medical Competition and has also made available their doctors to be a part of our E–Mentoring Program. This program allows students the opportunity to forward questions about a medical career to the doctors. MedStar has hosted and provided judges for the Bio-Medical competition. Our students have benefited by networking with the doctors which helped them understand the pathway to being in the medical field industry.
As a not-for-profit organization, MITRE works in the public interest across federal, state, and local governments, as well as industry and academia. They bring innovative ideas into existence in areas as varied as artificial intelligence, intuitive data science, quantum information science, health informatics, space security, policy and economic expertise, trustworthy autonomy, cyber threat sharing, and cyber resilience.
MITRE is well diverse and coverers many of the STEM careers that our grade students would like to major in. MITRE has set up exhibits for the Patriots Youth Summit at Bowie State University and provided volunteers in our early years developing our video game summit. It has also been a sponsor for our summer camp, cyber security competition and has supported our Patriots/NSBE Jr Chapter.
Black Engineer of the Year Award Conference (BEYA)
The BEYA STEM Community, over 10,000 strong, offers K-12 students, college students, corporate, government, military professionals, business, and industry employers with three (3) days of learning, networking, celebrating excellence, and showcasing STEM career opportunities.
The Patriots have been attending the BEYA conference for over 23 years. Our members have attended the workshops, mentoring programs, and exhibit hall to meet over 100 government agencies, IT organizations and college and universities representatives. Patriots has partnered with BEYA by recruiting 1200 students to attend the Pre-College and Mentoring Program. For the past four years, we have hosted the Patriots STEM Carnival at BEYA as well as the Women of Color Conference in Detroit, Michigan inviting government agencies, IT companies, and college universities as exhibitors and providing over 25 hands-on STEM exhibits that include:
NATIONAL AIR TRAFFICE CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION (NATCA)
NATCA is a labor union and aviation safety organization in the United States that represents nearly 20,000 highly skilled air traffic controllers, engineers, and other aviation safety-related professionals.
These air traffic controllers and other aviation safety professionals make vital contributions to the U.S. economy and make modern life possible by coordinating the safe, orderly, and expeditious movement of nearly one billion aviation passengers and millions of tons of freight within the National Airspace System each year. NATCA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
The NATCA has been a vital partner and sponsor by helping with the expansion of the Patriots Aerospace Program. They have managed the Air Traffic Controllers Competition, setup exhibits, and provided volunteers at our summit hosted by Joint Base Andrews.
They have also hosted a mini-conference by providing three representatives to give the students an overview on pursuing a career in the Air Traffic Controller industry. At the conference, the students were able to compete in the Airport Madness 3D Competition that challenged the student’s skill to see how many airplanes they could take off and land. We are thankful for the NATCA volunteers being mentors for our E-Mentoring Program.
T-REX has designed, built, integrated, and operated some of the world’s largest mission critical systems for our government clients who need to leverage the power of data. They have invaluable experience in implementing complex IT modernization projects with critical cyber data protection requirements, aggressive schedules, and large size and scale. They foster innovation, while mitigating risk, saving time and money, and improving benefit-to-cost ratios.
T-REX has supported the Patriots Cyber Security Competition by providing judges, supported our students by providing the opportunity for them to interview their employees, sponsored a conference registration for the students to attend a Cyber Security Conference, Chair the E-Mentoring Program and provided funding. We see this as a win-win situation as a roadmap for students to not only major in a STEM career but to prepare them to work with T-REX in the future.
T-REX has supported the following events:
VERIZON is one of the largest communication technology companies in the world. Verizon Communications Inc. the company offers voice, data and video services and solutions on its award winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.
VERIZON has been a standing partner with the Patriots for the past 10 years. They have provided volunteers and in 2019 Verizon awarded the Patriots a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to expand our staffing, STEM programs and competitions.
VERIZON has supported and participated in the following workshops/competitions:
WASHINGTON GAS (WGL Holdings, Inc.)
WGL Holdings, Inc., is a public utility holding company that serves more than 1 million customers in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. As a subsidiary of AltaGas, it provides natural gas, electricity, sustainable energy, carbon neutrality and energy services, and also is engaged in natural gas exploration, production, and storage. The company operates four divisions: Washington Gas, WGL Energy, WGL Midstream, and Hampshire Gas.
Washington Gas has been a partner since day one when Patriots was born. They supported our first Annual Youth Summit and is a sponsor and the Mistress of Ceremony . The Youth Summit has been hosted annually that draws over 400 students to the event. The summit hosts workshops, exhibitors, and competitions. The signature program that the Washington Gas host is the Jeopardy Game where the students can win prizes at the summit. WG has also played a major role in our Pre-Mother’s Day Competition.
WG has also supported the following programs:
Comcast is an American telecommunications conglomerate. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world, the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home internet service provider in the United States, and the nation’s third-largest home telephone service provider.
COMCAST has been side-by-side for 15 years in awarding the Patriots with grants and volunteers. The Patriots has been the recipient of the COMCAST Care Program that provides the assistance of their employees who come out and support the Patriots annual youth summit which draws over 400 students. These great volunteers help with the planning and execution of our programs. The COMCAST CARE Program with it volunteers bring a lot of value to the Patriots Technology Training Center. A representative from COMCAST is a member on the Patriots Board of Directors.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees, it is one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers and military technology providers. At Northrop Grumman, they are leading and defining the future from air, cyber, land and sea to space. Their teams of pioneers stand ready to define what is possible every day.
Northrop Grumman is one of our prominent sponsor and partner in supporting Patriots STEM with volunteers and hosting our programs. Throughout the year, they have supported our following programs:
Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) protects the health of U.S. agriculture and natural resources against invasive pests and diseases, regulates genetically engineered crops, administers the Animal Welfare Act, and helps people and wildlife coexist. APHIS also certifies the health of U.S. agricultural exports and resolves phytosanitary and sanitary issues to open, expand, and maintain markets for U.S. plant and animal products.
For the last six years, USDA has sponsored and hosted the Patriots STEM Summer Camp at their Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) office in College Park, Maryland. Students went to different APHIS departments, did a report and then returned to the group giving a presentation on the function of the departments before a panel of USDA judges. A plaque was presented to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.
