To encourage enrollment and retention of native american students in NASA related fields, navajo technical university (NTU) proposes to develop a robotics academy in partnership with the newly…

Navajo Technical University, a minority-serving and tribally controlled university in New Mexico, has been awarded a $374,768.58 cooperative agreement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop a Robotics Academy. The goal is to encourage enrollment and retention of Native American students in NASA-related fields by providing high school students from reservation areas with advanced coursework in aerospace manufacturing, unmanned aircraft systems, conceptual design, and employee skills development. The university will partner with the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute to leverage existing NASA projects and develop an experiential learning robotics curriculum sensitive to traditional Navajo ways of knowing. This contract does not have a set-aside designation and is intended to be completed by January 6, 2023.

To encourage enrollment and retention of native american students in NASA related fields, navajo technical university (NTU) proposes to develop a robotics academy in partnership with the newly established bond wilson center for technologies. This new center provides high school students from reservation areas advanced classes in aerospace manufacturing, unmanned aircraft systems, conceptual design and planning, and employee skills development. The NTU robotics academy will provide students a stimulating environment to unleash their curiosity and creativity in IT and stem. We will partner with sipi, training faculty and interns at their year-round robotics center to leverage existing NASA projects. 97% of the students attending NTU are native american and we have proven ourselves a leader in recruitment and retention through exciting outreach opportunities that draw students into our programs. We will develop an experiential learning robotics syllabus that is sensitive to traditional navajo ways of knowing and is transportable to other tribal serving institutions