WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., June 22, 2010 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE:NOC) Woodland Hills facility recently hosted a student engineering competition and celebration to mark the conclusion of the fifth year of its annual WORTHY (Worthwhile to Help High School Youth) mentoring and scholarship program.

Designed to encourage and advance students' pursuits of technical degrees, the WORTHY program provides on-the-job experience and improved access to secondary education for local high school students. During the program, which requires a two year commitment and runs during the school year, the students spend one day per month working with a Northrop Grumman employee mentor on an engineering and design project.

The program wrapped up for the summer on June 3 when eleven students from Canoga Park High School, joined by high school faculty and Northrop Grumman employees, participated in a competition using autonomous vehicles of their own design to complete obstacle courses. First year students used remote controlled vehicles to traverse a course with increasingly steep sides, knocking balls down from one side and pushing them up the other to earn points. Second year students competed with robots that they had designed, built, and programmed to travel through a course divided into squares, visiting as many cells as possible in the allocated time. The competition allowed the WORTHY students to demonstrate the engineering ideas and collaboration skills they developed during a year in the mentoring program.

On June 16, the WORTHY students and their parents gathered with Northrop Grumman employees for an awards banquet where the students gave presentations about their projects and celebrated their personal achievements in the program.

"The WORTHY program offers students an incredible opportunity to experience real world science and engineering first hand," said Liz Iversen, sector vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division. "Northrop Grumman is committed to sponsoring programs that encourage students who are interested in these fields and we congratulate the WORTHY students on their success over the past year."

Initially launched in 1997 by Northrop Grumman in Baltimore, WORTHY has expanded to include additional company locations. To be accepted into the Woodland Hills WORTHY program, rising high school sophomores and juniors must attend a Northrop Grumman-partnered public high school, complete an application, maintain a 3.0+ grade point average (GPA), write an essay, submit two letters of recommendation, and be selected through an interviewing process.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information. 

  CONTACT:  Gina Piellusch
          Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems
          (818) 715-2285
          gina.piellusch@ngc.com