Northrop Grumman Partners with Virginia Tech to Build Future Talent

Northrop Grumman Corporation is the first anchor-level partner of Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus with a $12.5 million donation to advance talent development, teaching and research supporting quantum science and engineering. The company’s donation will help establish a Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development at Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus.

“Our partnership with Virginia Tech will help support their vision to solve the world’s most pressing problems with ground-breaking technologies,” said Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman chairman, chief executive officer and president, who is also a member of the Innovation Campus Advisory Board. “Through partnerships like this, we can build on a ‘better together’ approach to prepare future talent – to help build the next generation of engineers, scientists and technologists – while driving innovative critical research.”

Northrop Grumman’s support will be used in several ways. It will establish an endowed faculty position and recruit an internationally recognized researcher to head the new Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development, which will be based at the Innovation Campus. The partnership will endow five to 10 graduate fellowship positions to recruit nationally competitive doctoral and master’s candidates, with a focus on diversity. Additionally, it will build programs to connect Northrop Grumman experts with Virginia Tech quantum science and engineering faculty based at the university’s Innovation Campus and Blacksburg campus. It will also create or enhance pathway programs that engage K-12 students and students from underrepresented groups to open new talent pipelines and help shape a more inclusive culture in the high-tech sector. The partnership will also support master’s degree students through capstone courses or other experiential learning programs in computer science and computer engineering.

Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus plans to invest an additional $15.8 million to build the leading Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development for the nation, bringing total support for the initiative to $28.3 million.

Northrop Grumman has a long-standing relationship with Virginia Tech. This fall, the company launched a graduate degree cohort in computer and electrical engineering with a growing number of employees involved, and the company hired numerous Virginia Tech students as interns this past summer. In 2021, Northrop Grumman sponsored more than $600,000 in Virginia Tech research. The company employs over 700 Hokie alumni.