Matthew Bartel, deputy director of Space Systems at BAE Systems, started the midshipmen internship program in 2016 with Robert Novak, BAE’s vice president of Navy Programs. Courtesy photo

NASHUA – For the past nine years, BAE Systems, in concert with the U.S. Navy, has fostered a summer internship program for midshipmen enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy.

Matthew Bartel, deputy director of Space Systems at BAE, started the program in 2016 with Robert Novak, BAE’s vice president of Navy Customer Requirements and Advocacy. Both Bartel and Novak are graduates of the Naval Academy.

“It’s grown into a great program,” said Bartel, adding that the students are Navy interns rather than BAE employees.

Novak said the program is much more than a simple exercise.

“Students get exposure and hands-on experience to internal research and development programs and technology with real-life implications,” he said. “Collaborating with the future leaders of the U.S. Navy is incredibly rewarding for our engineers as well. It’s this collaboration and insight that enable us to deliver new capabilities to our service men and women at the speed of need.”

Bartel said the program is divided into three blocks. Each block is four weeks long and has two interns.

“That’s by design,” he said.

He also said many of the interns come into the program with prior knowledge of computer science or cyber defense.

“These midshipmen are exceptional,” said Bartel.

The internship provides midshipmen with the rare opportunity to gain real world experience while they are still students at the Naval Academy.

“Giving these students a practical application of what they’ve been learning at the academy is a really positive win-win for both organizations,” said Bartel.

Bartel said that during the program, students are taken to the different BAE sites where they learn more about the history and engineering of various military systems such as electronic warfare and cyber defense. The interns also study radio frequency signal processing and learn how “defense works with industry.”

“We’re making a significant impact on exposing the leaders of tomorrow,” said Bartel.

Following the internship, the midshipmen may complete in-depth capstone projects, presenting what they learned during the program.

Bartel said that after students graduate from the Naval Academy, they are commissioned as ensigns in the Navy or as second lieutenants in the U.S. Marine Corps where they must serve for at least five years.