A new STEM complex is planned at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Its focus will be on connecting students from pre-K through 12th grade with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Project organizers hope the STEM Talent Development Complex will be completed by 2031.
The proposed facility will be 90,750 square feet and feature classrooms, dorms, labs, high-bay collaborative spaces, and community areas for events, such as drone races.
Tuesday morning, key partners ceremonially signed paperwork that opens the door for preliminary environmental studies, fundraising and contract development of 16 acres at Wright-Patt for the complex.
Jessica Short is chief operation officer of DO STEM, one of the tenants in the complex. She said her group connects STEM students to real-life opportunities.
"We need to start at the earliest age, at three years old," she said. "They need to see themselves with a STEM identity. They are engineers. They're problem solvers. They are working toward these types of critical technologies and skills that need to happen in order to be successful in these STEM fields later in the future."
Once ground is broken on the estimated $38 - $40 million center, the center will have a 50-year no cost lease.
Besides DO STEM, other tenants at the complex will include Air Camp, Inc., WPAFB Educational Outreach Program, the Strategic Ohio Council on Higher Education (SOCHE), and the Montgomery County Educational Service Center.
