By Chris Thatcher | November 17, 2016 Estimated reading time 4 minutes, 9 seconds.
If the Canadian aerospace sector is to have a talent pool of innovative entrepreneurs to compete successfully in the coming decades, governments and industry must collaborate to encourage more students to embrace science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), says the chairwoman, president and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation.
“Today’s STEM students are tomorrow’s innovative scientists and engineers,” Marillyn Hewson told the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa on Tuesday. “We must communicate to girls and boys that a career in STEM holds the potential to change the world for the better….Our industry is especially well-positioned to ignite the imagination of young people.”
The appeal to build a more robust STEM talent pipeline was part of a larger message to industry executives at the annual Aerospace Industries Association of Canada conference on meeting the objectives of the Canadian government’s June 2016 call to action on an innovation agenda.
Despite recent uncertainty in the defence and aerospace market, Hewson has steered the world’s largest defence contractor through a number of technology acquisitions since taking the helm in 2013.
To meet the Liberal government’s goal of making innovation a national priority, she urged industry executives to “take action” on three of the six areas in its proposed agenda: promoting an entrepreneurial and creative society; supporting global science excellence; and growing companies.
“We need to foster an environment of innovative entrepreneurship across the nation. We need to pursue opportunities in emerging markets to promote economic growth. And we must ensure that a pipeline of talent is going into science, technology, engineering and math so innovation can advance,” she said.
Government can foster “innovative entrepreneurship” by improving access to foreign markets, investing in infrastructure to facilitate high-tech commerce, and streamlining complex regulations. But industry has a vital role to play, said Hewson, citing examples of Lockheed Martin investments in Canadian entrepreneurs in each of these areas.
For example, Lockheed Martin invested $1.1 million in the research of a doctoral student at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology to develop “smarter” compression socks able to sense when to constrict or release to aid proper blood flow. That has since led to the launch of a company called Pression, with both commercial and military applications.
“Many of these local investments may seem, at first glance, to be outside the scope of our typical research chain. But with every investment, we seek to support Canadian ideas that have the potential to make lasting economic impact,” she said.
To expand opportunities in emerging and adjacent markets, she cited further investments in dual-use solutions, notably in satellite communications, space exploration, renewable energy, and hybrid airships.
But her most passionate call was for investment in young STEM students. “To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we will need more STEM professionals,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Hewson met with students involved in the Youth Sciences Council at Lockheed Martin Canada’s Impact Centre, an internal innovation hub that includes work on virtual-reality training systems it is developing with Carleton University.
“I’m confident that Canada’s government and the nation’s robust aerospace and defence industry can work together to meet these challenges and unleash the human ingenuity that leads to innovation and progress,” she said.
