ACADEMIA

By Chad Binette -- A new partnership building in the Central Florida Research Park will help Metro Orlando keep and add thousands of high-tech, high-wage modeling and simulation jobs and remain a national leader in that expanding industry.

The University of Central Florida and the military will share the Partnership III building, which will be home to UCF Institute for Simulation & Training laboratories and related modeling and simulation research. The UCF facility, scheduled to open in fall 2010, will be built to meet at least the silver level of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

UCF President John Hitt joined military and elected officials at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, July 10, at the building site, next to the Partnership II building in the Central Florida Research Park. Hitt described the “incredible partnerships” involved in the building and research and emphasized his goal to make UCF America’s leading partnership university.

Speakers included state Rep. Dean Cannon, retired state Sen. Dan Webster, Orange County Commissioner Bill Segal and Rear Admiral Donald Gaddis, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division and assistant commander for Research and Engineering, Naval Air Systems Command.

The modeling and simulation research at Partnership III will teach military personnel “to fight smarter and fight better and give them a better chance of coming home alive,” Gaddis said. “On their behalf, my heartfelt thanks to all of you.”

Meg Crofton, vice chairman of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission and president of the Walt Disney World Resort, discussed the importance of the defense industry as a “cornerstone” of the Central Florida’s economy.

Led by Cannon and Webster, state legislators worked hard to fund Partnership III and related enhancements to buildings that house military agencies in the Research Park. The funding enabled the Department of Defense to meet new security requirements for its personnel working in the area.

The Metro Orlando area is a national leader in modeling, simulation and training, with more than 100 companies that directly or indirectly generate nearly 17,000 jobs in the region. New and expanding companies are attracted to Central Florida in part because of the presence of the military and Institute for Simulation & Training.

U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps simulation offices based in the Research Park expect to award more than $5 billion in contracts this year, and much of that money remains in the Metro Orlando area.

The 118,860-square-foot Partnership III building will be constructed next to Partnership II and will be a mirror image of that building, saving the state about $500,000 in design costs.

The Partnership III budget is $20 million. All of that money was provided by the state, separate from its allocations to UCF. No money from UCF’s state funds or from student tuition dollars is being spent on the project.

Partnership III, like Partnership II, will provide additional laboratories for a variety of modeling and simulation research. In one example, UCF and military research focuses on improving medical care in the battlefield to save the lives of military personnel and civilians. Such research also benefits law enforcement officers and emergency health care providers.

Partnership III also will house UCF’s new high-performance computing cluster, which allows for realistic training scenarios with thousands of people training in the same virtual world and enables UCF to conduct cutting-edge research in the physical and biological sciences.

Other applications for modeling and simulation research at UCF and local companies include aviation safety, education and entertainment.

Energy-conserving features in the new building will include T-5 fluorescent lighting; occupancy sensors; and enhanced wall, roof and window insulation. The building also features an energy-efficient chilled water air-conditioning system; energy-recovery ventilators that recover energy from exhaust flows; and a demand-control approach to ventilation, which brings more outside air into a space when many people are inside and less when there are few people present.

The building’s architect is Schenkel Schultz, and the construction manager is Clancy + Theys.