THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090010
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 67 lines
The military and Old Dominion University are cooperating on a high-tech venture in Suffolk that should be a boon to Hampton Roads.
The project could attract high-tech companies with payrolls totaling $30 million to $40 million a year, according to one national consultant's study.
As staff writer Katrice Franklin reported Wednesday, ODU has set aside $500,000 to start up the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center during the next two years.
The center will be patterned after, and probably located beside, the military's Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk, just south of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge. In fact, the state center initially will use computers at the military center, and military personnel will help train the state center staff.
Since the military center opened in October 1994, its $35 million worth of equipment has been used by the four military services to simulate battles. In computer war games, officers are making mistakes and learning from them with no loss of lives. Various battle strategies are being tested.
At the state simulation center, business war games could be staged via computers. The center will allow companies to ask ``what if'' questions, and the powerful computers can take into account a dizzying array of variables. Again, various strategies can be tested, and the information gained might give a company a priceless edge over competitors.
The first project planned for the state center is the determination of the resources Hampton Roads ports will need to handle a traffic flow expected to triple by 2010. That is information of particular value to Norfolk Southern Corp., a local Fortune 500 railroad company.
A computer-simulation center in Orlando similar to the one planned for Suffolk helped the Orlando area attract 140 companies and more than $180 million in economic development in eight years. According to a study by the national consulting firm Booz-Allen-Hamilton, the Suffolk simulation center could produce a $180 million economic impact in Hampton Roads over the first five to seven years.
ODU President James V. Koch said the state center should draw software-producing companies to Hampton Roads. They might create software for scheduling bus routes or for simulated baseball, basketball or war games. Some engineering or computer companies also could be attracted here by the center, Koch said.
``I've made it a high priority,'' Koch said, ``to mobilize the resources of the university to help create jobs and stimulate economic development. This is what I hear the governor and the General Assembly and the area cities telling us they would like us to do.''
He said ODU, through its Entrepreneurial Center and its Technology Applications Center, is generating more new jobs than anyone else in Hampton Roads.
Capt. Craig Quigley, U.S. Atlantic Command director of public affairs, said the state center will benefit all concerned. ODU students will receive real-world training, the military will learn from ODU faculty and smart people will be attracted to this area. Jobs also should be created for ODU graduates.
The city of Suffolk has promised a building for the state center near the military center. That could prove to be one of the smarter moves Suffolk ever made.
One obstacle remains. ODU is asking the General Assembly for $1 million a year to operate the center during the next five to seven years. Money's tight in Richmond, but failing to fund the state simulation center would be an expensive mistake. Virginia and Hampton Roads cannot wait for progress to come to them. High-tech seeds must be planted, and the proposed state simulation center is a seed from which an entire high-tech garden could grow.
Empty land, alone, will not attract high-tech companies. by CNB