“It’s going to support the advancement of autonomous systems,” said Ebersole, who declined to elaborate.
The effort marks the first big project the agency has teamed with scientists and engineers at the downtown office at 444 E. Second St. The Wright Brothers Institute and AFRL partnered to run the office on a two-year lease.
RELATED: AFRL partnership finds downtown home
“It’s kind of an experiment,” Ebersole said Thursday. “…We knew that in some of these emerging areas of autonomy, data analytics, mission learning, a lot of thought leadership is outside the fence of government labs.”
The 8,000-square foot facility was the former home of the University of Dayton Research Institute’s sensor lab and will anchor a newly dubbed downtown “Innovation District.”
“That’s one thing we’re going to use it as a place to host focus teams trying to work on hard problems,” Ebersole said.
RELATED: Air Force makes push to up spending on small businesses
With a more than $4 billion budget, AFRL has more than 6,000 scientists and engineers at its Wright-Patterson headquarters. The base is home to AFRL’s Aerospace Systems, Materials and Manufacturing, and Sensors directorates, and the 711th Human Performance Wing that includes the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.
About the Author