Business and industry needs to partner with the government in encouraging middle school students to pursue careers in science and engineering, says Rear Adm. Michael Bachmann, the commanding officer of SPAWAR.

Reporting to the Chief of Naval Operations, Rear Adm. Michael Bachmann runs a nearly $6 billion R&D and information technology organization, one tasked with keeping the U.S. Navy the world’s high-tech military leader at sea, in the air and in space, and one that in 2006 provided 4,339 civilian jobs in San Diego alone that paid a combined $488.3 million in salaries.

Some of the smartest people in the world, both in and out the military, work for Bachmann at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. It is his job to keep track of them and more than 170 programs, dozens with annual contracts in the tens of millions of dollars, and a handful in the hundreds of millions.

The warships on San Diego Bay bristle with SPAWAR technology. So when Bachmann spoke before a crowded luncheon of the local chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association, he easily could have wowed the group with a jargon-rich update on current contracts and those on the way. Instead he urged them to join him in helping avert a crisis by collectively supporting education, especially of an increasingly rare breed: young scientists and engineers.

“I’m going to vary from my usual subject matter to talk a little about our future and conditions affecting it,” the admiral said. “One of those conditions, and I feel it’s a pretty serious one, is the attrition rate we anticipate in our highly skilled workforce. Combine that with a decline in the literacy rate in the U.S., and a reduction of students studying engineering, science and technology, and you can see that unless we do something about it, both you and industry will have a problem attracting and retaining the skilled workforce we need to meet the national economic and security needs for the 21st century.”

Bachmann spoke of recently attending an event previewing The San Diego Foundation’s “What’s Working: A Guide to Effective K-12 Math and Science Education in San Diego County.” Prepared by Building Engineering & Science Talent, a national organization headquartered in San Diego, the report’s release drew mostly local school superintendents and civic leaders, including Qualcomm Chair Irwin Jacobs.

Among the information revealed: of 52 states and jurisdictions, California’s eighth grade children ranked next to last in science achievement, outscoring only Mississippi. “When I saw that I was shocked,” Bachmman said. “I knew there was a critical problem, but when you see some of the statistics it is downright scary.”

SPAWAR loses about 200 employees a year, a number expected to increase as the scientists and engineers who came of age in the Apollo era start retiring in droves. Sometimes those folks are doing one-of-a-kind jobs, Bachmann says. Their replacements must be United States citizens.

To address the challenge, Bachmann is promoting existing national programs such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for the grade school level and local efforts such as the San Diego Unified School District College, Career and Technical Education Initiative. SPAWAR supports the MESA (Math, Engineering & Science Achievement) program by mentoring college students, participating in science fairs and supporting summer internships for high school and college students. Bachmann also is looking forward to participating in a new program of the San Diego Science Alliance called STEM Professionals With Class that matches scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians (STEM, get it?) with K-12 classroom volunteer activities.

“As we move into the future, unless substantial changes are made, our science and technology workforce will be increasingly less capable of performing the work required for fleet readiness and national security,” Bachmann said. “If we are to maintain our position as a leader in the field of science and technology, we must all come to the table to do whatever we can to prepare our young people for tomorrow’s jobs in government and defense. Our nation’s economic vitality and security depend on it.”

Bachmann’s luncheon audience appeared enthusiastic about his call to action, which played out well for Alan Baca, who along with Terry McKearney, co-chairs the NDIA chapter’s year-old Science Technology Engineering And Math (STEM) Committee. Earlier Baca gave the group an update on its efforts. The post-luncheon response exceeded his expectations, he says, crediting the admiral.

Its location close to Navy ships on San Diego Bay helps SPAWAR scientists and engineers design the fleet’s world-leading warfighting technology.

“We have been for a little over a year evaluating programs or initiatives in the San Diego area that we can recommend to our NDIA member companies as good programs to support,” says Baca, a broker with Staubach’s defense contractor practice group. Late this month he and McKearney expect to stage an NDIA forum on how defense firms can help.

Already NDIA is supporting the Middle School Science and Education Leadership Initiative that puts two teachers from each middle school into a summer academic development program. The funding helped make room for four more teachers.

The NDIA chapter also donates money to an extremely affordable San Diego Air & Space Museum program that for $120 to $180 takes an entire classroom into the field for a day of hands-on education. During a space day on Fiesta Island, students built and flew rockets, with NDIA members helping evaluate the efforts.

As the NDIA’s STEM Committee grows, he expects its members to become more familiar to teachers, making themselves available to volunteer in the classrooms or even host events at their offices. A huge goal is getting in at the middle school level and changing the students’ perception.

“I don’t think that science is a glamourous type of career, or something where most people say “I really want to be a scientist or I really want to be an engineer,‘” Baca said. “Everything on TV tells them to be a movie star, a music star or a big financial person. If they could get a little more exposure to the kinds of things you can do with those math, science and engineering backgrounds, it would be a huge benefit to what they could do with their lives.”

And they’d also likely never hurt for work. “Lockheed Martin says it needs to hire 5 percent of all U.S. engineering students each year just to keep up,” Baca says.

— Tim McClain