Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) announced the completion of the 2014 Global Externship Program to give international students exposure to career fields in cyber, program management and computer engineering.

Four of the students were from Saudi Arabia and one was from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“The externship program, which was for Saudi Arabian and Emiratis students studying in U.S. universities, supports our commitment to identify and develop talent in cyber and other technical disciplines in those countries,” said Walid Abukhaled, Chief Executive Saudi Arabia, Northrop Grumman.

The five students were Badreya Al Marzouqi, a chemical engineering major at Drexel University; Jamela M. Alsheri, a polymer science and engineering major from Case Western Reserve University; Ashwag Alasmari, an information systems major from UMBC; Hasan Dabour, an electrical engineering graduate from Northeastern University; and Wael Badeghaish, a materials science and engineering major from Catholic University of America.

The students worked with three Baltimore-based startup companies at the bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park:

• RedShred(TM), which takes complex business documents, like grants an request for proposals, quickly extracts the most important information and allows efficient reviews without manual intervention.
• Blue Wave Semiconductors, which develops advanced thin film and nanomaterials and tools, and nanotechnology-based electronic and photonic devices.
• RELI Group, which works in health care information technology and population health supporting federal, commercial and nonprofit organizations.

During the eight-week course students also received leadership training in other business skills such as English technical writing and professional communications. This externship is one of many Northrop Grumman similar programs across the United States.

“It has been a remarkable experience to be part of the Northrop Grumman-UMBC Global Externship Program. We are at the stage where we cannot solve an issue by only being engineers. Therefore, diversifying our knowledge and communicating with experts from various nations across the globe helps us better understand how cultural differences impact running a business,” Al Marzouqi added.

“The externship program has been valuable and unique. It expanded our knowledge, gave me an idea of what is a good fit for me in the work environment, and taught many significant skills such as the training from writing workshops. The experience made us aware of our strengths and provided the opportunity to network with professionals and make new friends. Working for startup companies also brought my attention to the basics of how to start my own company,” said Dabour.