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EDUCATION & OUTREACH

The Dr. Gladys West Scholarship Program

A scholarship program supported by the Trimble Foundation Fund to empower a new generation of stars pursuing careers in technology.

Access to education is a pathway for the future

The Dr. Gladys West Scholarship Program enables universities to award a four-year scholarship to one student each year.

University of Colorado Denver logo

University of Colorado Denver

Supports undergraduate students pursuing tech careers in the Construction Engineering and Management program. Open to future industry leaders with financial need.

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Florida International University logo

Florida International University

A minority-serving institution, FIU will award the Dr. Gladys West Trimble Technology Lab Scholarship to a first generation student in the College of Engineering & Computing.

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We must appreciate our past, learn in the present and prepare those behind us for the future. We must encourage our youth to pursue a higher-level education so that they will be equipped to change the world.

Dr. Gladys WestGPS Pioneer

About Dr. Gladys West

This scholarship program honors the tenacity, talent and enterprising fortitude of Dr. Gladys West, a pioneer in the mathematics, minority advancement and the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The program embodies two of the Trimble Foundation's key support pillars: female education and empowerment and embracing diverse perspectives.

Dr. Gladys West headshot
Education

Born in 1930, Dr. West knew from a young age that education would be the key to moving forward from her family farm in rural Virginia. A scholarship recipient herself, Dr. West earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mathematics at Virginia State University. Hired as a mathematician in 1956 with Virginia's Naval Proving Ground, she was one of only four African American employees at the time.

Experience

With her intelligence and computational skills recognized, Dr. West quickly climbed the ranks and became project manager for the Seasat radar altimetry project in the 1960s. Knowledge gained through that work enabled her to program an IBM computer to calculate an accurate geodetic Earth model the essential building block for GPS.

Impact

Known today as the hidden figure who helped invent GPS, Dr. West is one of the reasons why consumers can receive driving directions from a phone or tag a photo location on social media. And why professionals in industrial markets such as construction, transportation  and agriculture can leverage geospatial technology to realize significant improvements in productivity, quality, safety, transparency and sustainability to transform the way they work with precision.

Just as Dr. West viewed education as the pathway for the future, we are excited by the opportunity to support a new generation of stars to help them pursue their educational journey.

Rob PainterCEO, Trimble