UMass Lowell: A New Wave of Industrial Engineers for Navy Shipbuilding

The “whole of nation” effort to ensure new U.S. Navy ships set sail includes American academia, and one of the ways those institutions are helping is by addressing workforce needs. In New England, Navy Maritime Industrial Base (MIB) suppliers have lacked in one key profession, so industry is working with a university and the Navy with the aim to increase their ranks.

The Francis College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) has prepared generations of engineers across the broad spectrum of their discipline’s branches, but one of its most recent programs teaches industrial engineering. That involves the developing, implementing, and improving of processes and systems by applying science, math, and engineering principles.

“Sometimes I tell people we're like the CSI of engineering,” said David Claudio, UML’s industrial engineering program director. “You have to interview different people to understand the same problem from different points of view to then put everything together and create that one big picture.”

New England companies that are part of the MIB need these optimizers who play a key role in bridging the gap between design and production by converting design concepts into actionable manufacturing processes for the intricate systems used in submarine construction. That need was raised by Granite State Manufacturing (GSM), a MIB supplier in New Hampshire which touts creating systems for every Navy submarine.

“As we were seeing the inadequacy of industrial/manufacturing engineers – where are we going to find more – we got talking with UMass Lowell about their program,” said Doug Thomson, GSM’s Vice President. “It really fit well.”

Some encouragement of engineering students to take this path in their education and careers was still needed. UML and GSM approached the Navy’s MIB program and BlueForge Alliance (BFA) with the idea of scholarships for rising juniors studying mechanical engineering who move to the industrial engineering path. In September 2024, a Navy-funded partnership through BFA was announced, facilitating those scholarships over a five-year span.

“We recruit a lot of first-gen students, a lot of kids that work outside the classroom in order to make ends meet, so this takes a little pressure off them and gets them excited about their studies,” said Joseph Hartman, UMass Lowell’s Provost, the former Dean of the Francis College of Engineering, and an industrial and system engineer by training.

Incentivizing the exploration of a new path is one step. Connecting the Navy scholars to career opportunities was the next. BFA provided UML with a robust list of MIB suppliers in New England to connect students with internships, co-ops and capstone projects at those companies. Each allows for varying levels and lengths of immersion at those suppliers.

For example, GSM partnered with UMass Lowell on a capstone project aimed at examining and optimizing the various inspection processes and reporting GSM has for its various parts, including those that become part of U.S. Navy vessels. This included students not only researching the company’s current equipment and software to see if their full functionalities were being used, but also looking at options not currently being utilized by GSM. The capstone work began in October 2024 and wrapped up at the end of the 2025 spring semester.

Ryan Blackwell, one of the UML Navy scholars, participated in the GSM project. He was drawn to industrial engineering and the scholarship in part because his great-grandfather was in the Navy and an engineer. Part of that service included fighting in and surviving World War II’s Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942.

“Actually seeing the submarine’s components broken down, I get to see what he actually lived on for 22 years of his life and what he had to learn, these complex systems,” Blackwell said.

Hope Driscoll, who transferred to UML from another university, eventually found her way into the industrial engineering program and earned a Navy scholarship. As part of her education, she landed an internship in the corporate quality division of a deep sea telecommunications company in the MIB. She’s had the chance to observe how parts are manufactured, develop ideas on how the assemblers’ processes can be improved, and interact directly with the company’s customers. She also lauds her access to training in various manufacturing methods at UML.

“It has allowed me to see that my workplace safety and ergonomics education can be applied in a field that I wouldn't have, before accepting this grant, expected myself to fall into.”

While in college, these Navy scholars are gaining valuable, real-world experience at MIB suppliers that exposes them to the critical role companies and their employees play in the national defense. Once they’ve completed their education, they have a direct line to those same suppliers.

“It's an honor to work with the U.S. Navy,” Hartman said. Of the greater national effort to build new Navy ships, he added, “I think we all here understand that we're doing really important work. We're a very small piece of that. I respect that idea, but what we're doing is super important, and I think our students understand that and our faculty.”