By Allison Connolly
The
Virginian-Pilot
The
National Institute of Aerospace will finally get its own space next year, as officials
broke ground on the site Friday.
For more than a year, the research institute,
a partnership between seven universities and NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton,
has been operating via the Internet and out of a small office nearby.
The institute has 30 full-time and part-time graduate students and 35 professors
from the member schools working on 60 research projects. In the past year, the
program has received $12 million in research funding, of which $5 million has
gone back to the schools.
Ultimately, officials hope the institute will
employ more than 300 people and generate as much as $20 million a year in research
dollars.
While the institute doesn’t grant degrees, students and faculty
from member schools will have the chance to work alongside Langley engineers on
projects for such customers as the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation
Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“They’ll
do research inside NASA Langley with Langley’s expertise,” said Robert
Lindberg , president of the institute. The member schools are: Hampton University;
the University of Virginia; Virginia Tech; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical
State University; North Carolina State University; the University of Maryland;
and Georgia Tech. Affiliate members include Old Dominion University and the College
of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
The nonprofit was created by Langley
with funding potentially worth $118 million over the first five years.
“The
first five years will be intense,” said Carolyn W. Meyers, provost of North
Carolina A&T and chairwoman of the institute.
The institute will be
the first tenant of the Hampton Roads Center North Campus, an office park being
developed by Craig Davis Properties Inc. of Cary, N.C., on 250 acres bought from
the Hampton Industrial Authority.
The campus will ultimately house six
buildings and 360,000 square feet of research space. The city will invest a total
of $7 million on infrastructure around the park.
The institute will initially
occupy half of the first 60,000-square-foot building. Also Friday, Hampton Mayor
Charlie Wornom announced that the Army Corps of Engineers has given the city approval
to extend Commander Shepard Boulevard from Magruder Boulevard to Big Bethel Road,
which will improve access to the institute on Floyd Thompson Boulevard.
The
institute will serve as an incubator for entrepreneurs. The first one expected
to move into the building is Crewestone Technologies Inc., an audio and video
production company that develops science-based content for NASA and television
and film.
Reach Allison Connolly at 446-2318 or allison.connolly@pilotonline.com
