PDAC: Submission #379 | Dayton Development Coalition

Submission information

Project Details

1. To which Review Panel are you submitting your project? Economic Development

2. Project title Artificial Intelligence & Cybersecurity Center of Excellence for Workforce Development

3. Short description It will establish a 3D virtual Center of Excellence to accelerate development of Dayton region’s AI and Cybersecurity future workforce. They will get hands-on, project-based experience prototyping AI-smart, cyber-secure technologies for healthcare, manufacturing, and aerospace. It leverages a multimillion-dollar Air Force program that the non-profit DLG (Discovery Lab - Global) Director ran for 10 years before retiring to further refine this 3D virtual lab approach over the past 6 years.

Organization Details

4. Organization making the request Discovery Lab - Global (DLG)

5-8. Address 707 miamisburg-centerville rd #247
Dayton, Ohio. 45459-6522

9. County United States

10. Recipient organization SAME

11-14. Address {Empty}

15. County {Empty}

16. Organization type Non-profit

Organization Contact Details

17. Name Rob Williams

18. Title Discovery Lab - Global (DLG)

19. Organization Discovery Lab - Global (DLG)

20. Telephone 9379070062

21. Email rob.williams@discoverylabglobal.com

22-25. Address 707 miamisburg-centerville rd #247
Dayton, Ohio. 45459-6522

26. County USA

27. Additional contacts {Empty}

Location Details

28. City Dayton

29. County Montgomery

30. Congressional district Ohio 10th

Financial Details

31. Funding request 3000000

32. Total Cost 5000000

33. Other sources of funds We have received funding from Department of Labor (DoL) of $250,000 as a sub-contract grant under a prime. The DoL funding is to develop and administer a cybersecurity certification “boot camp” inside of our 3D virtual cybersecurity campus that helps veterans pursue a career in cybersecurity by earning an industry and government recognized cybersecurity certification after completing our program. We also submitted a proposal for $580,000 to the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The funding would be to develop and implement a cybersecurity STEM program inside of our 3D virtual cybersecurity campus for college students to develop our future workforce. It focuses on Diversity-Equity-Innovation (DEI). We believe this ONR proposal has a high likelihood of being selected for funding.

34. How the funds will be used Administration or Operations

35. Do you have matching funds raised or committed? If yes, explain in question #36. If no, skip to question #37. No

36. If yes, please provide additional information. (Or, budget document can be uploaded, see question 37) {Empty}

37. Budget No

38. By what date will you be ready to spend the funds Within the next 6-12 months

39. Programs/grants for which this project would qualify We believe that additional funding opportunities exist for pieces of this proposal with DARPA, ONR, and possibly NSF. The key would be for the PDAC to be used to demonstrate the credibility of a 3D Virtual Innovation Center that attracts university and industry alliances that would convince these potential additional funding opportunities to see that additional funding would support the critical mass of community, education, and industry involvement.

In addition, the proposed center of excellence will be qualified to collaborate with small businesses like Spectral Energies to attract SBIR/STTR (Small Business Innovative Research) grants/contracts from NASA, DoD, NSF, NIH, Dept. of Energy, etc. In this context, Spectral Energies had tremendous experience in SBIR/STTR grants and commercialization and it expressed interest in exploring funding opportunities to complement the proposed congressional funding. This will also help enhancing the visibility to other small businesses in the Dayton region who might have interest in recruiting the trained workforce in AI and cybersecurity, that is essential for WPAFB needs.

Community Details

40. Community Need This project will directly benefit the healthcare, manufacturing, and aerospace industries in the community. These industries in the community will increasingly depend on AI to develop the “smart” capabilities for their products and services needed to be globally competitive and will increasingly depend on cybersecurity products and services to protect that competitiveness from cyber-attacks such as data breaches that steal sensitive and proprietary company information, ransomware that holds company information hostage, and Denial of Service attacks that can disable company operations.

Our project will create a 3D Virtual Center of Excellence (CoE) that will accelerate innovations in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity while developing our future AI / cyber innovators. This dual track mission of the CoE addresses two community needs: (1) the market need for accelerated innovations in AI and cybersecurity to help create jobs driven by the nation’s need for innovations that are in these 2 areas and in their intersection and (2) to grow the region’s future innovators by constructing a STEM talent development pipeline across the last 2 years of high school and the first 2 years of college.

Some may question why the proposed Center is focused on both technologies, AI and Cybersecurity, instead of focusing on just one such as Artificial Intelligence or Cybersecurity instead of both. There are two compelling reasons: (1) In our Discovery Lab – Global (DLG) program, we’ve determined that AI and cybersecurity are potential gamechangers for the future success of healthcare, manufacturing, and aerospace companies that need to be globally competitive to survive however (2) we also see these two technologies are becoming increasingly interdependent as companies discover the need to develop products and services that are not only AI-smart but also cyber-secure.

Because of these 2 compelling reasons and because DLG has experience developing AI and cybersecurity STEM projects inside of our existing 3D virtual STEM campus, we believe that proposing a Center of Excellence (CoE) that integrates AI and cybersecurity into our workforce development strategy is exactly what the region will need. This approach will also uniquely set our project proposal apart from other STEM workforce development proposals.

41. Previous Funding: Has the requesting organization received Congressionally earmarked funding in the past? If so, please provide a brief project description, year funded, amount, and Congressional sponsor. No

42. Direct new jobs created 11-25

43. Existing jobs retained? None

44. Sustained permanent jobs? 26-50

45. Please explain how you determined the job creation listed in questions 42-44. For Question #42 - Job creation estimate was based on the staffing need to direct workforce development projects for both Artificial Intelligence and for Cybersecurity. We estimate that the demand for a future workforce and upskilling in both AI and in Cybersecurity will drive the need for staffing sufficient to organize and direct the projects supporting both. We also base on our estimates on our own experience operating a year-round 100-student Air Force program during the period 2005 - 2015. Creating such a sustainable capability with the strategic objective of building up the region's tech talent in AI and Cybersecurity suggests that our estimate of 11-25 over the first 2 years is reasonable and realistic.

For Question #44 - We believe that the long-term, sustained economic benefit to the region of a CoE focused on AI and Cybersecurity will be strategic and significant given the nation's growing need for innovative AI-smart technologies and services that are also Cyber-safe.

46. Using your best guess, of the jobs created over the next 10 years, what will the average salary be? $75,001-$100,00

47. Is your project a workforce development program? Yes

48. If yes, does your program center on one of the ten JobsOhio targeted industries? Yes

Which industry? Technology

49. Counties in which jobs will be created Montgomery

Additional Details

50. Letters of endorsement, supporting materials, additional information. You can submit ONE PDF file that does not exceed 10 pages.

211025 AI and Cybersecurity Center of Excellence of Workforce Development.pdf (2.25 MB)

51. Is there opposition to the project? No

52. Name of person filling out this form. Rob Williams

53. Telephone number of person filling out this form. 9379070062

54. Email of person filling out this form. This is where notification will be sent that the form was received. rob.williams@discoverylabglobal.com

55. Do you want your project to be considered as a Community Project in the fiscal year 2025 –2026 State Capital Budget Bill? No

56. If your project type is on the list of ineligible projects (see above), please offer an explanation why your project could be eligible. If your project is not on the list, answer the question by stating that your project is not on the list of ineligible projects. {Empty}

57. Has your organization received state capital budget funding in the past? If so, provide a brief project description, year funded, and amount. {Empty}

58. Does your project have a connection with, or provide some benefit to, a state agency that has bonding authority? Please check all that apply from the following list: {Empty}

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