40. Community Need Located at 118 E 4th St., Dayton, OH 45402, the Power House project will act as a catalyst for educational advancement, economic/workforce development, talent retention/recruiting job-creation through partnerships with Infinity Labs, other community/academic stakeholders and public entities, and new business acceleration through co-working and mentoring opportunities for those regionally underserved and/or negatively economically impacted communities. The Power House will connect with the Dayton community to once again turn adversity into opportunity and harness the collective ingenuity, drive, and spirit of discovery once exemplified by the Wright Brothers, Charles Kettering, and Levitt Luzern Custer.

Through our partnership with Infinity Labs, WSU students and faculty will have access to numerous bespoke lab spaces (ex. Cyber and Radio Frequency Electronics Lab, Optics Labs, etc…) for highly customizable and potentially transformational research/hands-on learning, SCIFs for classified research/projects, and specialized prototyping and additive manufacturing equipment which, currently, are not available in our academic network and/or region. Access to like equipment and lab spaces in a similar setting would be cost prohibitive for a public university but for a partnership such as this. Therefore, a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Wright State University and Infinity Labs, for the mutual benefit of both organizations and the surrounding community writ-large, is in place. A Joint Use Agreement (JUA) is in place.

As noted above, a central pillar for the Power House is community impact. As part of the company’s servant leader model, Infinity Labs will create a community-based job training program that includes an apprenticeship program, upskilling accelerator, and business incubator program. The Infinity Labs job training program is designed to help disadvantaged, low-income workers increase workforce capabilities, improve quality of life, and support fast-paced technology growth/scaling across the Dayton metro region. Infinity Labs sees an opportunity to make Dayton a national leader in upskilling for job growth and the reduction of economic disparities through purposeful and deliberate workforce development.

External support / funding will play a central role in the Power House vision. State capital and/or budget support would be most impactful and prove central to the recovery of the local economy, community, and disadvantaged workforce. The Power House will be the largest and only multi-level classified SCIF in Downtown Dayton, OH and critically necessary for Infinity Labs growing national security portfolio (AFRL, DARPA, IARPA, Department of Energy, USAF HQ). This SCIF space is being built at the request and with the approval/sponsorship of Infinity’s national security customers.

But for state capital and/or budget support, the vision of the project and the revitalization of the surrounding community would not be possible. The projected development cost without grants and subsidies would price WSU and Infinity Labs out of this space and extensively delay or totally prevent this project. Rather than delaying this vision, WSU and Infinity Labs dare to dream of a future where those most effected in the short term become the most positively impacted in the long term. Without external funding, regionally disadvantaged and/or negatively economically impacted populations lose this immediate opportunity for a better life for themselves and their families.