Draper’s Education Commitment Runs Deep

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Every year Draper provides meaningful engineering experiences to hundreds of students through project sponsorships, internships and its flagship Draper Fellow Program for students pursuing masters and doctoral degrees. Recent projects include human-powered flying machines, hacking competitions, tiny hyperspectral satellites, bacterial resistance diagnostics tools and a high-speed transportation pod. Students pursuing advanced degrees work closely with Draper technical staff to develop state-of-the-art technologies in world-class laboratories, and often publish their results in top-tier journals and present at conferences.

Draper has an 80 year history in supporting the next generation of technical leaders through its participation in science, technology, engineering and math in education. Draper’s commitment to education reaches students across the U.S. Recent examples include:

  • Draper Fellowships – In the 2016/7 academic year, Draper is sponsoring more than 60 graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in engineering and the sciences in the Draper Fellow Program and two graduate students in the inaugural Hertz-Draper Fellowship Program. Alumni of the Draper Fellow Program, founded in 1974, comprise more than 1,200 Draper Fellows from both civilian and military backgrounds and who are excelling worldwide in technical, corporate, government, academic and entrepreneurship sectors.
     
  • Mentoring University Capstone Students – Draper’s cognitive and behavioral understanding engineers mentored a Tufts University capstone team of four undergraduates in the senior Human Factors course.
     
  • Internships for High School and Undergraduate Students – 20 high school students completed summer internships at Draper in 2016 with the support of a dedicated team of supervisors and mentors, while approximately 56 undergraduate students participated in internships for up to six months. 
     
  • Sponsoring Student Engineering Projects – Draper regularly introduces students to cutting-edge technology, most recently for projects involving flight, transportation and satellites. Draper provided guidance to student teams in flying size- and weight-constrained, human-powered flying machines; hacking a drone in a publicly sponsored competition; and designing tiny, inexpensive hyperspectral imaging satellites at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Draper also sponsored the MIT Hyperloop Team as it competed to build a high-speed transportation pod and won first place for design and third place overall in the national Hyperloop Pod Competition sponsored by SpaceX. 

“Draper’s core commitment to promoting and supporting advanced technical education for more than 40 years as an independent not-for-profit, and for more than 80 years in total, is unmatched worldwide. We are extremely proud that students at all levels have always been an integral part of Draper,” said Sheila Hemami, Director of Strategic Technical Opportunities at Draper.

Released February 14, 2017

MIT Hyperloop Team; Details in following caption
Draper served as mentor and advisor to the MIT Hyperloop Team. The Team won first for design and third overall in the national Hyperloop Pod Competition. Image courtesy of the MIT Hyperloop Team.
Caroline Harriot and Zahar Prasov mentoring a Tufts University capstone undergrad team.
Caroline Harriot (fifth from left) and Zahar Prasov (far right) mentoring a team of Tufts University capstone undergrad
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team Possibilities Are Coming flight crew members (2016).
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team Possibilities Are Coming flight crew members are (left to right) Chace Medeiros, Violet Davis, Sarita Marom, Max Gittelman and Shadi Abujoub. (2016)
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team prepares their glider for takeoff at the 2016 event.
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team prepares for takeoff! (2016)
Dr. Jason Holder with his summer internship team at Draper
Dr. Jason Holder (10th from left) advised a high summer internship team, which included four high school and one college student working on “Phage Hunting for Better Bacterial Diagnostics.”
Draper served as mentor and advisor to the MIT Hyperloop Team. The Team won first for design and third overall in the national Hyperloop Pod Competition. Image courtesy of the MIT Hyperloop Team.
Draper served as mentor and advisor to the MIT Hyperloop Team. The Team won first for design and third overall in the national Hyperloop Pod Competition. Image courtesy of the MIT Hyperloop Team.
Caroline Harriot (fifth from left) and Zahar Prasov (far right) mentoring a team of Tufts University capstone undergrad
Caroline Harriot (fifth from left) and Zahar Prasov (far right) mentoring a team of Tufts University capstone undergrad
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team Possibilities Are Coming flight crew members are (left to right) Chace Medeiros, Violet Davis, Sarita Marom, Max Gittelman and Shadi Abujoub. (2016)
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team Possibilities Are Coming flight crew members are (left to right) Chace Medeiros, Violet Davis, Sarita Marom, Max Gittelman and Shadi Abujoub. (2016)
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team prepares for takeoff! (2016)
Draper’s Red Bull Flugtag team prepares for takeoff! (2016)
Dr. Jason Holder (10th from left) advised a high summer internship team, which included four high school and one college student working on “Phage Hunting for Better Bacterial Diagnostics.”
Dr. Jason Holder (10th from left) advised a high summer internship team, which included four high school and one college student working on “Phage Hunting for Better Bacterial Diagnostics.”