ASME visits Northrop Grumman Ship Building

By Michael Grgas (FAMU-FSU Chapter member of ASME)
Spring 2009

Recently the FAMU-FSU Student Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) visited Northrop Grumman Ship building in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Just under thirty students attended. The sophomore, junior and senior ME students arrived at the College of Engineering just before dawn for the five hour bus ride to the facility.

Northrop Grumman is a mega-corporation comprised of over 120,000 employees, and is ranked #76 on the 2008 U.S. list of Fortune 500 companies. At the Pascagoula location where the students visited, some of the largest surface combatant naval warships are produced. Upon arrival, the students were taken on a guided tour of the 350 acre facility. Students interacted with senior mechanical and electrical engineers, and were given an in depth look into the build process. All construction takes place on location. The ships are built in pieces and are assembled from the bottom up. Upon completion, they are field tested in the Gulf of Mexico before being deployed around the world.

Lunch was provided off the shipyard where students met with recent NG hires. The Pascagoula location centers its hiring on schools in the Southeast and Gulf Regions. The new employees gave the students an overview of the hiring process, and their first year at NG.

Students later returned to the shipyard for an oral presentation on NG's latest development, the DD(X) 1000 Zumwalt-Class Destroyer. The design process for the new ship class has been underway since 2001. The first ship is proposed to be floating in the next few years. After the presentation, senior students were given interviews with hiring personnel. Contact information was provided for junior and sophomore students seeking future internships. Northrop Grumman and the College of Engineering have a close outreach relationship that both plan to strengthen over the next few years. The student chapter of ASME would like to thank Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding for its hospitality on this most recent trip and look forward to future opportunities to explore careers with this company.