Draper Scholars Program Grows to More Than 150 Graduate Students with Its Next Class
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Draper announced its next class of Draper Scholars for the academic year beginning this fall. The group of 42 new master's and Ph.D. candidates will join the continuing Draper Scholars, bringing the program total to 151.
"Draper has an education mission as part of its charter, so university engagement is a critical part of the company's identity. Engagement can take many forms, including internships, workshops, and capstones. The Draper Scholars program is the pinnacle of these offerings featuring collaborative work involving the student, their university faculty advisor, and Draper advisor," said Christopher Yu, Draper Scholars Program Director. "And Draper is actively growing the program with an eventual goal of 250 Scholars that will reflect Draper's overall growth."
Since 1973, the Draper Scholars Program has provided students with the opportunity to engage and work with experienced engineers and scientists while conducting graduate-level research. The Scholars Program is intended to be a collaborative joint research program, pairing each Scholar with a member of the company's technical staff and a university faculty advisor while they conduct research in technical fields of mutual interest.
Students join the program from partner universities that include Brown, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Purdue, Tufts, and the University of Colorado Boulder with MIT being the largest source of Scholars. Another key aspect of the Draper Scholars program is its continued support of the nation's military academies – the Air Force Academy, West Point, and the Naval Academy. Approximately twenty percent of Draper Scholars are military academy graduates.
The students in the Scholars program conduct research that can potentially lead to customer solutions in national security, space systems, biotechnology, and strategic systems. The students' work is highlighted each year at a research symposium held in the fall. You can learn more about the work previous Draper Scholars have done here. For information on how to apply to the program, visit the Draper Scholars Program webpage.
About Draper
Draper is a non-profit research, development, and manufacturing company that solves some of the nation’s most important challenges. With more than 2,600 employees working in collaboration across 12 locations, Draper delivers transformative, mission-driven solutions that successfully meet our customers’ requirements. These efforts focus on four critical mission areas: Strategic Systems, Space Systems, Electronic Systems, and Biotechnology Systems. To extend our legacy into the future, the Draper Scholars program engages with the next generation of innovators while DraperSPARX™ seeks to partner with startups and small businesses that can further our mission. To learn more about Draper, visit www.draper.com. Follow Draper on Linked In and Instagram.
Released August 10, 2026
