WashingtonExec’s Fourth Annual K-12 STEM Symposium to Focus on “Careers in STEM”

Highlights for March 25 Event Include New “Girls in STEM” Wing, “Hack My Drone” Interactive Exhibit and Presentation by High School STEM Superstar

March 07, 2017 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time VIENNA, Va.—WashingtonExec—with Presenting Sponsor, LGS Innovations; Platinum Sponsor, Altamira Technologies; and Gold Sponsors, Vencore, Siemens Government Technologies and The Aerospace Corporation—will hold its fourth annual K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Symposium on March 25, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Nysmith School in Herndon, Va. More than 3,500 children, parents, teachers and business leaders are expected to attend the free symposium, which is Northern Virginia’s largest K-12 STEM event.

In conjunction with this year’s theme, “Explore Careers in STEM,” the symposium will feature interactive exhibits, including UAVs, flight simulators, smallsats/drones, physics experiments, topography models, heart monitors, 3D printers, robotics, connected cars and other exhibits aimed at students in kindergarten all the way through college. More than 35 high-tech, engineering and science education, non-profit, industry and government organizations will participate in the event via keynote and panel discussions, classroom breakout sessions, exhibits and science fair projects.

New for 2017, Altamira Technologies is sponsoring a “Girls in STEM” wing at the symposium, which will include an interactive exhibit to engage all attendees in a “Hack My Drone” mock cyber attack.

“We chose to sponsor WashingtonExec’s STEM Symposium this year because it is designed to reach the pre-college age students who are passionate about STEM or may be considering a career in STEM,” said Kevin Kelly, chief executive officer of LGS Innovations. “Our hope is to use the WashingtonExec STEM Symposium as a way to pass that passion on to the next generation of bright minds.”

Besides Kelly, event speakers will include Adalene Spivey, executive director of the Children’s Science Center; Michael Orr, director of the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) Systems Engineering Directorate; Mike Matthews, engineering program director at Vencore; Laurence DeLucas, Ph.D., principal scientist at The Aerospace Corporation; Edward Swallow, vice president of The Aerospace Corporation and chair of the WashingtonExec STEM Council; Ken Nysmith, headmaster of The Nysmith School for the Gifted; Evan Glazer, Ph.D., principal of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST); JD Kathuria, founder and chief executive officer of WashingtonExec; and Aaditya Singh, a rising Massachusetts Institute of Technology freshman attending TJHSST.

The NRO, National Security Agency, George Mason University, Volgenau School of Engineering, Microsoft in Education, Smithsonian Science Education Center, Children’s Science Center and the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center under the U.S. Department of Transportation are a few of the Symposium’s exhibiting partners.

“We are proud to host our fourth symposium in the science and technology-rich region of the Greater Washington, D.C. area,” said JD Kathuria, chief executive officer of WashingtonExec. “The ‘Trends in Workforce Demand’ report released by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments last fall showed that STEM jobs are fueling our region’s growth, so we need to keep getting K-12 students excited about STEM-related coursework and activities. Our symposium is the ideal forum to do that.”

The symposium is open to the public and credentialed media. Free, advance registration is required via the event website: stemsymposium.com.