West Coast computer science firm headed for Dayton

A Portland computer science company interested in deepening relationships with federal customers and launching work with autonomous vehicles will soon open an office in Dayton’s Innovation District downtown, at 444 E. Second St.

Portland, Ore.-based Galois Inc. will have a team of three to five people working in that building as early as this summer, said Aaron Miller, the company’s director of business strategy and operations.

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Miller is working from his home in Centerville currently. But Galois has a history with heavy-hitters such as DARPA and Amazon, and Miller said the company has signed a lease for a building that already is home to a Wright Brothers Institute-Air Force Research Lab partnership, as well as Mile Two LLC.

Miller said he hopes the company can build relationships with federal partners, automakers, parts suppliers, academic experts and others in the Dayton region.

“I know there’s a big focus on commercialization and entrepreneurship here in Dayton,” he said in an interview Thursday.

The company will do defense work but is not a defense contractor, Miller emphasized. Working in Dayton will let the company tap into avionics expertise around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, as well auto-technology manufacturing expertise.

Galois focuses on building “trustworthy” computer systems, secure systems that work only as they are intended to work, driven by new programming languages, he said.

Galois and its work have been spotlighted in Wired and Popular Science magazines, among other places. The company recently completed a cyber-militarized systems program, “the most secure avionics program that has ever been created,” Miller said.

“The Dayton office here is really going to extend some of the scientific relationships that we’re looking to build with our federal research partners” he said. “Obviously, the Air Force Research Lab is someone we’re looking to have a good team to match with.”

The company also hopes to work with academics, Honda’s Western Ohio research operations and commercial partners in autonomous vehicles which need secure “provably correct” programs.

“Being in Dayton is kind of a centerpiece, where we can have access to a lot of different markets,” Miller said.

The company has a total of 70 employees between Portland, Arlington Va. and Dayton.

“We are actively hiring right now,” Miller said.

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