They Mean Business
It’s no secret that the Midwest of the 1970s faced economic peril as traditional jobs, most in manufacturing, withered. Yet, what Dayton and its surrounding communities like Beavercreek did in response is a remarkable story of remaking an economy to fit a high-technology future. Today, technology is the engine that drives the area’s job growth and development.
“Dayton as a whole is reinventing itself around technology and innovation, … and we’ve added a lot of technology jobs. It’s a very entrepreneurial town,” says Jerad Barnett, president and CEO
of Synergy and Mills Development, a regional commercial contractor and real estate developer.
In 2008, the company opened the five-story Pentagon Tower off Interstate 675 in Beavercreek, “just a stone’s throw from quite a bit of technology development,” Barnett says. He calls the area “our little Beavercreek version of Silicon Valley,” and it’s no wonder. Pentagon Tower is next door to Computer Science Corp., which in 2006 was awarded a $628 million contract, creating 600 new jobs, to direct a database modernization project for the U.S. Air Force. Much of Beavercreek’s technology progress is the result of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, located just north of the community, with a mission to develop aerospace and defense technologies.
With a new facility under construction near the base, the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center for Human Capital Development, known as ATIC, has its eye on the future of the technology industry. Partnering with the Air Force Institute of Technology and other colleges and universities, ATIC educates and trains students aspiring for technical intelligence careers such as defense contractors.
Handling research and development initiatives for both military and commercial clients, Cornerstone Research Group conducts the majority of its operations at the 28-acre Russ Research Center. “We make the R&D process pain-free,” says Ernie Havens, vice president of business development.
Founded in 1997, the company specializes in advanced materials and systems engineering. Cornerstone is Ohio’s largest technical-intern employer. “We actually have a dorm set up for
our students, so when they come as a co-op, we have a place for them to stay – 16 of them at a time,” Havens says. That’s one reason why the average age of Cornerstone’s 130-member workforce is in the low 30s.
Also headquartered in Russ Research Center is Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc., one of the leading jet-engine propulsion research companies. “We work side-by-side with government researchers on classic systems like gas turbines, which are currently used in all kinds of aircraft, advancing their power, their efficiency, their power-to-weigh ratio,” explains Grant McMillan with ISSI business development.
The company is also conducting research on the pulse detonation engine, “which is an entirely new combustion process,” he says. ISSI’s largest commercial products are pressure- and temperature-sensitive paints.
Another area bustling with technology activity, the Miami Valley Research Park broke all the molds in the region when it opened back in 1984. Bruce Pearson, president of the nonprofit Miami Valley Research Foundation that operates the 1,250-acre park, says it was loosely patterned after North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. In Miami Valley’s version, which is associated with four academic institutions, 43 organizations occupy more than 2 million square feet. Another $50 million in construction activity is expected to wrap up in the spring of 2009.
Pearson says the park residents’ diverse activities – from avionics engineering and Internet security to sensor development and transportation systems – “provide that synergy, that interaction, that excitement.”
Putting its brainpower to work for a variety of clients is The Greentree Group, also located in the Miami Valley Research Park. Greentree’s information-technology services are in high demand by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Air Force. More than 100 professionals work in Greentree’s Beavercreek headquarters, also assisting commercial clients with financial and project management.
By summer 2009, nearly 5,000 people will be employed at the research park, Pearson predicts.
