Outreach > Educational Outreach > Workforce Development
Strengthening the STEM workforce pipeline is vital to the nation's prosperity and security. NIA partners with universities, community colleges, secondary schools, business and industry, and government agencies, to design and carry out workforce development initiatives. NIA offers a robust continuing education program as well as specialized initiatives. 

IPPW-8: NIA is honored to have been a partner and organizer for the 8th annual Interplanetary Probe Workshop held in Portsmouth, VA. IPPW is an internatioanl workshop that invites engineers and scientists from across the globe to present on their work, offer shortcourses, and of course workshops. 

LARSS: For 25 years the Langley Aerospace Research Student Scholars Program has offerend research-based mentored internships to students from all academic backgrounds at NASA Langley Research Center. In 2011 LARSS was rated among the top ten internships in the nation by Vault Career Intelligence. 

NASA Pre-Service Teacher Institute: NASA’s Pre-Service Teacher Institute (PSTI) engages, empowers, and builds confidence in pre-service and novice teachers so that they may design and implement integrative standards-based STEM curriculum in their new or future classrooms. 

RASC-AL: A NASA aerospace engineering design competition, RASC-AL challenges undergraduate and graduate level students to develop comprehensive mission concpets regarding any one of four themes that address real obstacles faced by NASA today. Their work is presented at an annual form before a panel of NASA and Industry judges. RASC-AL projects are often integrated into university capstone courses. 

RASC-AL Exploration Robo-Ops:  A NASA robotics engineering competition, RASC-AL Robo-Ops challenges undergraduate and graduate level student teams with designing, constructing, and actively using an interplanetary rover. Student teams test and compete with their rover at the NASA Johnson Space Center Rock Yard, the same facility where NASA tests their own rovers. A panel of NASA judges assesses the design, construction, and ability of each team's rover.