NBC Montana: Montana Tech, US Navy sign historic agreement

Montana Tech and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center signed a historic agreement Wednesday afternoon on campus.

It’s known as a cooperative research and development agreement, and it will allow employees from both the Navy and Montana Tech to jointly develop new technologies that advance manufacturing, autonomy, materials and data science.

The new partnership will provide Tech students and faculty opportunities to access advanced Navy experiments, and it lays the foundation for Tech students to be co-mentored by Navy scientists and engineers.

“We pride ourselves on hands-on applied learning, and this agreement does exactly that. It’s something that we should all be proud of and excited about this partnership,” said Montana Tech Chancellor Les Cook.

“I came out here a few months back and saw the capabilities. I was blown away by it,” said Craig Bleile, a U.S. Navy engineer and scientist. “I know there’s a lot of collaborative research we can do in common to help make the Navy stronger and the nation stronger.”

The project builds on over 10 years of research at Tech in materials and manufacturing for defense applications, which the university says would not be possible without the support of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester.

Montana Tech, US Navy sign historic agreement | KECI (nbcmontana.com)