The Charles County Energetics Technology Center (ETC) recently granted the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) the sum of $500,000 over the next five years.  CSM will use the grant to develop the Energetics Team: a two year series of courses and programs encouraging local high school seniors to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers that are in demand locally.

Two of the ETC’s projects involve research into
Improvised Explosive Devices and Virtual Reality.

BARI KOWT, Afghanistan (August 29, 2006) – U.S. Army
Staff Sgt. Randolph Corvin, with the 741st Ordnance
Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), Fort Bliss,
Texas, diffuses an improvised explosive device at an
Afghan border police compound just north of Bari
Kowt, Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, Aug. 26,
2006.  Photo by U.S. Army Spc. Bem Minor.
Iraqi Police discovered this improvised explosive
device Nov. 7 (2005) in eastern Baghdad and disarmed
it before it could be detonated in a terrorist attack.
Army photo – http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2
Maxim Schwartz, ETC software engineer, works with
virtual reality technology.

  Energetics is the study of the way energy flows and stores as it transforms.  In Southern Maryland, at the ETC and NSWC Indian Head, it’s used in research of propellants, polymers, microelectromechanical systems for use in ordnance and surveillance systems.  The ETC calls it “the next wave of American scientific development”.

  The ETC, currently based in La Plata, describes themselves as “a private, non-profit enterprise dedicated to growing science and technology in Southern Maryland”.  The center focuses on workforce and economic development in the region, and conducts energetics research and development.  

  According to the ETC statement, it saw the proverbial writing on the wall; that “America could be forced to import what should be its greatest strengths – invention and ingenuity”.  Southern Maryland lacks the quantity of technicians, research scientists, and development scientists it needs to staff the local demand for energetics research and development.  

  In response, the ETC granted CSM half a million dollars, to develop an innovative energetics workforce program to provide the area and country with qualified people that can meet the challenges of this technological frontier.  

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