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If
you want to see the future of economic development in
Virginia, you'll find it in Suffolk. Not in the quaint
old downtown that once proclaimed itself the peanut
capital of the world, but out on the exurban fringe of
Hampton Roads, just off Interstate 664 on land that,
only a decade ago, consisted mainly of farms
and woodland.
There,
a world-class cluster of "Modeling and
Simulation" enterprises has taken root around the
U.S. Joint Forces Command and an Old Dominion University
research center. So far, the simulations have been
primarily military in nature--massive war games firing up
supercomputers to muscle through scenarios of
unprecedented complexity. But potential applications of
the simulation technology--from training for natural
disasters to running massive multiplayer, Doom-style
shoot 'em ups--are limited only by the imagination.
To
this point, the agglomeration of U.S. military, academic
and private-sector M&S enterprises in Hampton Roads
has occurred largely spontaneously, with limited
assistance from policy makers in the Commonwealth. But
that's changing. The Warner administration is turning
Suffolk's M&S industry into a model of what can be
accomplished through high-level coordination of state
resources. Suffolk will become the crucible for an
economic-development experiment the likes of which the
Old Dominion has never seen before.
Under
the banner of the Virginia Modeling and Simulation
Initiative (VIMSIM), the administration is mobilizing
the research resources of ODU and the workforce training
capabilities of Tidewater Community College. VIMSIM also
is
enlisting the Virginia Economic Development Partnership
to target out-of-state businesses engaged in Modeling
& Simulation for recruitment, and it plans to extend the ultra
high-speed Internet connectivity of the Lambda Rail
project to the supercomputing simulation centers in
Suffolk. Even Gov. Mark R.
Warner himself has taken an intense personal interest in
the initiative, meeting with defense industry CEOs as
well as corporate executives intimately involved in
Modeling & Simulation operations. Never have so many branches of Virginia state
government worked in concert on such a sophisticated
cluster-building strategy. Says Secretary of Commerce
and Trade Michael Schewel: "We're trying to hit it
at all levels."
If
successful, VIMSIM could stimulate development of a
unique high-tech industry with multi-billion dollar
revenue potential. Modeling & Simulation isn't an
industry that's been targeted by a dozen other states,
like biotech, nor must it be built from scratch. "We're
leveraging existing strengths," emphasizes
Secretary of Technology Eugene Huang. "We can turn
[Modeling & Simulation] into a key point of leadership
for Virginia, not only nationally but
internationally."
In
Hampton Roads, the computer modeling of highly complex
phenomenon has its roots in the 1990s, if not earlier. A
number of military commands in the region utilize
Modeling & Simulation extensively to develop
doctrine, test equipment, tactics and strategy, and train
military personnel. Spotting an opportunity to expand
its R&D program, Old Dominion University established
the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC)
in 1997 to work with the military and its technical support
contractors. Over the years, VMASC has developed complex
simulations from military war games to port
transportation models, from models of crowd behavior to
newspaper distribution systems.
But
the driving force in the Hampton Roads V&S cluster
indisputably has been military transformation. Along with the shift
to lighter, more mobile, more information- intensive
forces, the U.S. military is placing greater emphasis on
"joint" operations between the Army, Navy, Air
Force and Marines. As a consequence, the Joint Forces
Command (JFCOM), which maintains its headquarters in
Norfolk and a simulation center in Suffolk, has enjoyed
rapid growth in federal funding over the past several years. JFCOM is
continually testing new military weapons, tactics and
doctrine, simulating a wide range of scenarios such as
the invasion of Iraq. That exercise
drew upon some 30,000 participants around the country.
Ever
alert to where the money is, major defense contractors
are expanding their presence in Hampton Roads. Most
recently--and spectacularly--Lockheed Martin
opened a $30 million computer-based modeling,
simulation, and integration center near JFCOM and
VMASC in Suffolk. "As a growing high technology hub
with proximity to major defense, homeland security and
other important customer installations, Suffolk is the
ideal location for our new center," said CEO Vance
Coffman in announcing the expansion in late 2003.
The
Lockheed Martin facility is "an eye-popping
place," says Schewel. "It's the newest,
flashiest and most astonishing thing I’ve seen in
quite a while." Although the M&S nerve center is in Suffolk,
the broader business ecosystem of vendors, suppliers and
support companies extends across Hampton Roads. By
Schewel's count, more than 130 M&S companies,
including some of the biggest names in the defense
sector, are scattered from Williamsburg to
Virginia Beach. Five years ago, VMASC (the ODU
simulation center)
estimated that the economic value of Modeling & Simulation activity in the region at more than $500
million a year.
Seeing
extraordinary economic-development potential
for the M&S sector, the Governor brought in a team
of his cabinet members and other senior state officials to meet
with Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, the commander of
U.S. Joint Forces Command, and his senior aides. Says
Schewel: "We
asked how the state of
Virginia
could better support JFCOM and its mission."
Virginia
could do quite a lot, as it turned out. To continue
expanding in the region, JFCOM would have to continue
attracting highly trained technicians and professionals
in the Modeling & Simulation field. There were two
ways to accomplish that goal: Graduate the talent from
local colleges and universities, and deepen the talent
pool by recruiting more M&S businesses.
Early
this year,
Schewel crafted a plan to address
the workforce issue and detail other ways the state
could foster growth of M&S activity. Key elements
included:
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Workforce:
Improve the local supply of technicians and
scientists by expanding graduate-level programs at
VMASC and technical training at Tidewater Community
College. In addition, set up linkages with other Virginia
universities turning out graduates in M&S-related
disciplines, and cooperate with JFCOM and private contractors to
recruit M&S professionals to the Hampton Roads
area.
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Incentives:
Create
incentives for new M&S companies to locate in
Virginia by providing workforce training dollars and
local incentives through use of "technology
zone" legislation, other direct local grants
and, perhaps, targeted state incentive grants.
The
state is moving ahead with several of these proposals. Most
critically, the Warner administration persuaded
legislators in the 2005 General Assembly session to
allocate an extra $1.45 million to expand the faculty at
VMASC. Meanwhile, the VEDP has set aside $125,000 for
targeted industrial recruitment. Funds for the Homeland
Security Institute probably can be found in federal
Homeland Security moneys set aside for the state.
What
makes the VIMSIM initiative important, however, is
not the scale of state funds invested. It's the
strategic thinking that goes into the development of an
industry cluster. Instead of vying for a single
industrial or commercial prospect, which may or may not
have existing business linkages to Virginia, the Warner
Wonks recognize that Knowledge Economy businesses are more
likely to invest in a region where they can recruit
employees with highly specialized skills and engage the
support of universities, suppliers and other enterprises
with specialized capabilities. Access to talent and
expertise far outweighs in importance the financial
incentives that economic developers traditionally have
offered.
Pursuing
cluster-related development makes sense for another
reason. The mutually supporting enterprises of an industry
cluster sink deeper roots in a region than branch
manufacturing plants or back-office facilities that
exist in a business vacuum. Clusters may wither if they're not
fed and cared for, but they don't close shop and
abruptly move out of town either. If properly tended to,
the Modeling & Simulation industry could well evolve
into a pillar of the Hampton Roads economy comparable to
shipbuilding and the ports. Indeed, given potential
applications of the technology to a wide variety of
fields beyond the military, M&S potentially could
transform Hampton Roads from a predominantly
military/blue collar town into a recognized Mecca for
supercomputing applications.
The main piece that seems
to be missing in Hampton Roads at this point is the
"soft" infrastructure capable of identifying,
nurturing, funding and supporting entrepreneurs from the
M&S sector with ideas for exciting new ventures.
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