UTEP Receives Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Quality Excellence Award
Last Updated on April 26, 2018 at 5:00 PM
Originally published April 26, 2018
By UC Staff
UTEP Communications
UTEP President Diana Natalicio accepted Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ Quality Excellence Award on behalf of The University of Texas at El Paso on Thursday, April 26, 2018.
UTEP is the first academic institution to receive the award, which recognizes organizations that drive continuous improvement and demonstrate values that foster innovation, customer relationships and professional development while relentlessly pursuing improvements in the quality of industry and academics.
President Natalicio accepted the award from Daniel Pleshko, vice president of quality and mission success for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Charles Akers, director of mission assurance for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
“I am pleased to accept this Quality Excellence Award on behalf of the students, faculty and staff at UTEP,” President Natalicio said. “We are grateful for Lockheed Martin’s long recognition of the value of this mutually beneficial partnership. Their strategic investments over the past decade to enhance educational opportunities at UTEP strongly validate the caliber of our students and the quality of our faculty and staff. We look forward to further developing this highly productive collaboration in the years ahead, and thereby advancing the competitiveness of both UTEP students and the field of aerospace engineering.”
UTEP and Lockheed Martin have shared a longstanding partnership. Throughout the last decade, the company has invested more than $5 million for research as well as improvements to the quality of laboratories and facilities on campus. Since 2009, those funds have led to successful collaborations on more than 40 professional and educational projects. Currently, Lockheed Martin is near the midway point of a five-year effort to bolster the infrastructure of the College of Engineering.
Lockheed Martin’s reach also extends to the College of Business Administration, where the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Academy has offered students an application-oriented view of ERP systems since 2017.
In addition, UTEP has continually evolved its curriculum, industry alignment, focus on students and quality of work through the partnership.
“Your leadership and UTEP’s focus on institutional quality, industry relevant curriculum and student engagement sets the standard for future universities to receive this Quality of Excellence Award,” said Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
Lockheed Martin leaders also expressed gratitude for the quality of UTEP graduates who have joined the company. More than 130 full-time employees at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth are UTEP graduates. Scores more have served internships at the company.
“The halls of Lockheed Martin are filled with the best and brightest talent,” Carvalho said. “The graduates of UTEP are helping to create a culture of inclusion and innovation that will inspire the next generation.”