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THE AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: AN

INTERGOVERNMENTAL MODEL FOR TODAY’S

MILITARY EDUCATION

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERALISM

AND THE CENSUS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON

GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JULY 29, 2006

Serial No. 109–240

Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

http://www.house.gov/reform

(II)

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

TOM DAVIS, Virginia, Chairman

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

DAN BURTON, Indiana

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

GIL GUTKNECHT, Minnesota

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

JON C. PORTER, Nevada

KENNY MARCHANT, Texas

LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia

PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina

CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina

JEAN SCHMIDT, Ohio

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

TOM LANTOS, California

MAJOR R. OWENS, New York

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

DIANE E. WATSON, California

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California

C.A. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

———

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont

(Independent)

DAVID MARIN, Staff Director

LAWRENCE HALLORAN Deputy Staff Director

TERESA AUSTIN, Chief Clerk

PHIL BARNETT, Minority Chief of Staff/Chief Counsel

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERALISM AND THE CENSUS

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio, Chairman

CHARLES W. DENT, Pennsylvania

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

EX OFFICIO

TOM DAVIS, Virginia HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

JOHN CUADERES, Staff Director

URSULA WOJCIECHOWSKI, Professional Staff Member

JULIANA FRENCH, Clerk

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on July 29, 2006 ............................................................................... 1

Statement of:

Bowlds, Major General Ted, Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory; Brigadier General Mark Matthews, Commander of the Air

Force Institute of Technology; Hon. Kevin DeWine, Ohio State Senator;

Dr. Daniel Curran, president of the University of Dayton; Dr. Jay

Thomas, vice president of research and Dean of Graduate Studies

at Wright State University; and Dr. Elizabeth Downie, director of the

Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute .................................................... 10

Bowlds, Major General Ted ...................................................................... 10

Curran, Dr. Daniel .................................................................................... 37

DeWine, Hon. Kevin .................................................................................. 30

Downie, Dr. Elizabeth ............................................................................... 52

Matthews, Brigadier General Mark ......................................................... 20

Thomas, Dr. Jay ........................................................................................ 43

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Bowlds, Major General Ted, Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, prepared statement of .................................................................... 14

Curran, Dr. Daniel,president of the University of Dayton, prepared statement of ........................................................................................................... 39

DeWine, Hon. Kevin, Ohio State Senator, prepared statement of ............... 33

Downie, Dr. Elizabeth, director of the Dayton Area Graduate Studies

Institute, prepared statement of .................................................................. 55

Matthews, Brigadier General Mark, Commander of the Air Force Institute of Technology, prepared statement of ................................................. 22

Schmidt, Hon. Jean, a Representative in Congress from the State of

Ohio, prepared statement of ........................................................................ 7

Thomas, Dr. Jay, vice president of research and Dean of Graduate Studies at Wright State University, prepared statement of ............................. 46

Turner, Hon. Michael R., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Ohio, prepared statement of .................................................................... 4

(1)

THE AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY:

AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL MODEL FOR TODAY’S MILITARY EDUCATION

SATURDAY, JULY 29, 2006

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERALISM AND THE CENSUS,

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM,

Dayton, OH.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 a.m., in Carney

Auditorium, National Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base, 1100 Spaatz Street, Dayton, OH, Hon. Michael R.

Turner (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Turner, Schmidt.

Staff present: Juan Cuaderes, Staff Director, Ursula

Wojciechowski, Professional Staff; Juliana French, Clerk.

Mr. TURNER. A quorum being present this hearing of the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census will come to order. I

want to welcome all of you to the subcommittee’s oversight hearing

entitled, ‘‘The Air Force Institute of Technology: An Intergovernmental Model for Today’s Military Education.’’ I am pleased to

have with us today my colleague, Congresswoman Jean Schmidt,

who sits also on the Government Reform Committee with me. We

are a subcommittee of the full Committee of Government Reform.

Before we begin I want to thank all of you for participating and

I want to also acknowledge the hard work that Congressman Hobson, who is not with us today, has done in ensuring that AFIT have

very quality resources, quality facilities, and provide a quality education for supporting the Air Force and the Air Force’s mission and

the mission of DOD.

We all know that Congressman Hobson has been a strong advocate of AFIT and we appreciate that some of the things that we are

going to hear about today are the result of his hard work and accomplishments.

Congresswoman Candace Miller and Congressmen Thad

McCotter and Geoff Davis from Kentucky who had initially indicated that they were going to be attending had schedule changes.

As you may all be aware, this hearing has changed and moved as

a result of Congress being in session until 2 a.m. last night.

I want to emphasize my sincere appreciation for Jean Schmidt

being here seeing that the House adjourned at 2 a.m. as a result

of passing a minimum wage hike and a State tax relief. As a result

of our staying until the morning, we have lost a few members of

the committee who do have an intent interest in what we are going

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to be talking about today which is the private/public partnership

and the ways in which we can support Federal initiatives.

The Air Force Institute of Technology is an establishment of immense value. It proudly provides the resources and expertise to advance Air Force research and technology at a reasonable cost to

taxpayers. This morning’s hearing is an opportunity to understand

how AFIT interacts with Federal, State, and local governments to

ensure continued support and success.

The subcommittee will also explore the arrangement among the

Ohio-based universities, AFIT, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. This cooperative effort espoused by the Dayton Area Graduate

Studies Institute [DAGSI], creates a synergistic educational environment greater than the sum of the parts. We will examine how

this cooperation maximizes utilization of research resources and

educational expertise, enhances graduate education in the Air

Force and in Ohio, and ultimately benefits the war fighter.

Many of you know that the 2005 Defense Base Realignment and

Closure Commission, or BRAC, targeted the Air Force Institute of

Technology for closure in the Commission’s most recent recommendations. During BRAC hearings last year, testimony was

given advocating AFIT’s numerous contributions. Collectively, the

Air Force, Congress, State and local governments, and local universities convinced the BRAC Commission not to close AFIT.

The 2005 BRAC selection criteria used by the Defense Department to make recommendations for the closure or realignment of

military installations were as follows: The current and future mission capabilities and impact on operational readiness on DOD’s

total force; the availability and condition of land and facilities at

existing and potential receiving locations; the ability to accommodate contingency, mobilization and future total force requirements;

the cost of operations and the manpower implications; the extent

and timing of potential costs and savings; the economic impact on

existing communities; the ability of both existing and potential receiving communities infrastructure to support forces, missions and

personnel; and finally, the environment impact.

In publishing the final selection criteria, the Defense Department

specifically stated that ‘‘the Department must focus on the existing,

demonstrated ability of a community to support its installation, especially as potential investment actions may not translate into reality.’’ I am eager to hear today from our distinguished witnesses

why AFIT must remain at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and

what efforts have been made to meet the Commission’s recommendations.

We welcome remarks from our distinguished panelists. We will

hear from Major General Ted Bowlds, Commander of the AFRL,

and Brigadier General Mark Matthews, Commander of the AFIT.

We will also hear from Ohio State Representative Honorable Kevin

DeWine. Then we will hear from Dr. Dan Curran, President of the

University of Dayton and Dr. Jay Thomas, Vice President of Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at Wright State University.

Last, we will hear from Dr. Elizabeth Downie, Director of DAGSI.

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With that, I welcome my colleagues and we all look forward to

your testimony. I now yield to my colleague Jean Schmidt for any

opening remarks she may wish to make.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Michael R. Turner follows:]

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Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding

this very important hearing and for all of you panelists who have

been waiting patiently for us to get here. As Chairman Turner

noted, we were working on some extremely important issues in the

wee hours of the morning in addition to raising the minimum wage

and helping folks all across the spectrum in working to repeal the

death tax so that farmers and other family businesses can keep

their valued assets and a valued asset to the community.

We also worked on a pension reform plan which I believe helps

folks in the greater Dayton area and certainly helps folks in the

greater Cincinnati area, most importantly Delta.

Speaking of Delta, they are a great airline but sometimes you

have a little mechanical issue and our flight that was supposed to

take off at 6 a.m. took off at 7:30 a.m. so I am a little more tardy

than I had hoped to be but arrived safe here.

I especially want to thank my former colleague, Ohio House of

Representatives Kevin DeWine for coming here on a Saturday

morning and presenting testimony. We used to work together in a

past life and I can tell the folks in his district you can’t have a better champion for your southern Ohio valleys than Kevin DeWine.

Mike Turner and I share Warren County. I am proud to share

it with Congressman Turner because we worked well together on

many, many issues. In fact, I have several constituents that actually work here on this base and I am pleased to work with him on

this initiative.

The Dayton and Cincinnati area with Wright-Patterson and the

GE jet engine facilities in Evandale and Peebles, which is in my

district, is a national leader in aerospace innovation and our highly

educated work force keeps us at the forefront of the industry. The

advancements made at these facilities have spawned many companies creating thousands of jobs and have helped keep the economy

in southern Ohio in better shape than it is in other parts of our

own State.

The Air Force Institute of Technology is a true asset to the area

and I am grateful it survived the BRAC process. With its innovative public and private funding and cooperation between Federal,

State, and local governments it is the symbolism of how federalism

has made America great. Again, I commend Chairman Turner for

pulling an all-nighter with me and being brave enough to stay

awake this morning and I look forward to all of your testimony.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Jean Schmidt follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you, Congresswoman Schmidt.

We will now start with our witness and each witness has kindly

prepared written testimony which will be included in the record of

this hearing. Witnesses will notice that there is a timer with a

light on the witness table. The green light indicates that you

should begin your remarks and the red light indicates that your

time has expired.

It is the policy of this committee that all witnesses be sworn in

before they testify. If you would all please rise and raise your right

hands.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. TURNER. Please let the record show that all the witnesses

have responded in the affirmative. I want to emphasize again my

appreciation for each of you doing this. In addition to your written

testimony and your statements today and the questions that we

have, the importance of this hearing is that the testimony will be

entered into the congressional record of this subcommittee. From

my reading of your written testimony, and I know certainly from

the experience of being in this community and the support AFIT

and the DAGSI program, this is a model private/public partnership.

It goes directly to one of the elements that the BRAC commission

looked at as to a community support for its facility.

It is a great opportunity for the research labs and for AFIT to

again tell the story of their importance and their functions at

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I just greatly appreciate your

doing this and the opportunity for us to highlight this within the

Government Reform Subcommittee. With that I will begin with

you, General.

STATEMENTS OF MAJOR GENERAL TED BOWLDS, COMMANDER OF THE AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY;

BRIGADIER GENERAL MARK MATTHEWS, COMMANDER OF

THE AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; HON. KEVIN

DEWINE, OHIO STATE SENATOR; DR. DANIEL CURRAN,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON; DR. JAY

THOMAS, VICE PRESIDENT OF RESEARCH AND DEAN OF

GRADUATE STUDIES AT WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY; AND

DR. ELIZABETH DOWNIE, DIRECTOR OF THE DAYTON AREA

GRADUATE STUDIES INSTITUTE

STATEMENT OF MAJOR GENERAL TED BOWLDS

General BOWLDS. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of

the committee, Representative Schmidt. My name is Major General

Ted Bowlds. I look forward for the opportunity to speak to you

today. I am the Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory

and have the opportunity to lead a 5,400 person organization with

a $1.4 billion budget in the discovery, development, and delivery of

advanced technologies that ensure the battlefield superiority of the

U.S. military forces. Our mission is greatly enhanced by the close

collaboration with the Air Force Institute of Technology. Both organizations enjoy healthy support from the greater Dayton community.

The Air Force Research Lab, AFRL, and the Air Force Institute

of Technology, AFIT, have a 50-year history of collaborative activiVerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:33 Jul 16, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\35620.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
11

ties and engagement motivated by a common interest in maintaining advancing technology superiority of the U.S. Air Force.

The breadth and depth of cooperative activities is on the upswing. The increase in collaboration has been recently codified with

the consolidation of 10 individual agreements and to a single corporate memorandum of agreement. Disagreement cleared the path

for streamline access and resource sharing among AFIT and

AFRL’s numerous sites across the United States.

Key elements of the agreement include joint development of personnel expertise and competencies and research areas of mutual interest and definition of the support required for major collaborative

research programs and shared facilities.

The agreement also includes regular review and highlighting of

partnership accomplishments along with the identification of opportunities for multi-partner teaming with other organizations to accomplish research objectives. Overall the agreement solidifies the

long-standing relationship and common goals that both organizations share and allows each organization to fully leverage our world

class resources.

AFRL and AFIT take advantage of multiple opportunities to leverage resources. A vital part of the collaboration is the inflow of

AFIT graduates to AFRL upon completion of their basic and advanced degrees. This inflow of students brings program managers,

scientists, and engineers in various stages of their career to work

in AFRL thus providing a critical part of our work force.

One hundred and seven new AFIT graduates were assigned to

AFRL in the fiscal year 2005, a threefold increase from fiscal year

2003 is a trend that we would like to see continued. The exchange

of personnel between AFIT and AFRL has not been a one-way

street. AFRL lab personnel have held adjunct faculty positions in

AFIT, sponsored research, and served as advisers to AFIT on a

wide-range of academic and research issues.

AFRL currently holds 27 adjunct faculty appointments with

AFIT. Three to seven courses are taught by these adjunct annually.

These adjuncts provide guest lector participation and serve on

many thesis committees. Additionally, AFIT students research supports AFRL research programs and AFIT faculty members develop

research and education programs to support the AFRL community.

The two groups co-share libraries and research facilities. Each

organization has interest in enhancing collaboration by establishing a holistic approach including developing repeatable processes

with specific goals that are assessed at a strategic partnership review on a regular basis.

While AFIT and AFRL technology directorates have performed

coordinated research programs for many years, AFIT and AFRL

continue to seek increase in mutual benefits that can aid in our

partnership.

With regard to funding resources AFRL provides AFIT nearly

$4M in annual research funding across our Technology Directorates. This amount has more than doubled over the past several

years. In addition, the AFIT Research Support Fund agreement

provides AFIT with resources that allow AFIT faculty and students

to contribute to the Air Force basic research program. The agreeVerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:33 Jul 16, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\35620.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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ment also facilitates new faculty startups and development of new

areas of research.

As part of that research each AFRL solicits thesis and dissertation topics of Air Force relevance for use by AFIT graduates. AFRL

sponsored 60 plus in fiscal year 2005 and 2006 research projects.

For example, AFRL sponsored 33 theses, four dissertations involving the air domain, 14 theses, one dissertation in the space domain,

24 theses, five dissertations in the cyber domain, and four theses

in the logistics and management. Average cost avoidance per thesis dissertation is about $118,000.

AFRL and AFIT routinely share facilities. For example, AFRL uses

13 of AFIT’s facilities and AFIT uses eight of AFRL’s facilities this

past year for various research efforts. AFRL and AFIT also share

laboratory facilities on the AFIT campus providing 571,000 cost

avoidance by eliminating duplicate journal subscriptions, computer

support and facilities.

Significant sharing of library and laboratory resources between

AFRL and AFIT provide ongoing cost containment for both organizations. Participating institutions are the AFIT academic library

and the AFRL Wright site technical information division comprised

of the technical library and the technical editing groups.

Both organizations encourage ad hoc usage of facilities and

equipment on a non-interference basis with mutual agreed-upon

support and incremental cost. AFRL and AFIT conduct key periodic

events to stimulate constructive interaction between personnel. The

most significant event called the Partnership Summit is an annual

meeting between the AFIT Commandant and the Commander of

the Air Force Research Lab to review activities, assess the progress

of initiatives, and review the appropriate new initiatives.

AFRL and AFIT also hold annual interchange meetings to provide AFRL researchers and AFIT faculty with orientation briefings,

information about concurrent research thrust and new initiatives,

opportunities for collaboration, and facilities tours.

Additionally, Tech Days is an annual event designed for AFIT

students to provide an overview of current AFRL technologies, research agendas, present thesis topic requests, and discuss science

and engineering career management opportunities.

A partnership working group composed of AFRL chief technologists, AFRL chief scientists, AFIT School of Deans and department heads or their representatives review these thesis topics and

presentations, review personnel exchanges opportunities and identify opportunities for collaborative in-house research initiatives and

faculty sharing.

AFIT and AFRL continue to develop third party and local community partnerships. One example is the DAGSI, the Dayton Area

Graduate Studies Institute and Ohio Student Faculty Engineering

Research Group. AFIT faculty collaborated on 35 programs sponsored by DAGSI, most tied to AFRL topics.

Finally, the Advanced Navigation Technology Laboratory has 21

AFIT faculty members from three different departments with 43

active projects and about 30 students with sponsorship from AFRL,

NASIC, and other DOD agencies. Central themes are Inertial Navigation System Exploitation and Precision Navigation—anywhere,

using anything. This will be critical to the Air Force’s new TechVerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:33 Jul 16, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\35620.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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nology Vision to ‘‘anticipate, find, fix, track, target, engage and assess anything, anytime, anywhere.’’

How does this benefit AFRL? By increasing inter-directorate collaboration, promoting external collaboration and, enhancing

AFRL’s in-house research capabilities. The program will also impact AFRL’s Focused Long-Term Challenges. These are the fundamental research efforts that will provide the capabilities to the

Air Force over the mid and long-term.

Technology challenges being solved by ANT include vision-based

navigation, collision avoidance, vision-based control and stabilization, wide-field of view sensing-situational awareness, human supervision of time-critical control systems, agile micro vehicles, and

cooperative path planning in adversarial environments.

A new effort titled the AFIT/AFRL Center for Rapid Product Development is underway to allow graduate students to work on real

Air Force operational problems in conjunction with AFRL scientists. Particular focus areas will be on rapid technology transition and product development cycle-time reduction.

Students will learn the principles of project management and

demonstrate the ability to develop and field new products and systems. This process merges AFIT’s need to educate Airmen on key

problems with AFRL’s new Rapid Reaction Process to provide realtime solutions to urgent warfighter needs within 18 months. Two

pilot efforts are underway and are being successfully demonstrated

today.

The bottom-line is that AFRL and AFIT have a very effective

partnership and are working to make it even greater. Both organizations have a critical role in creating the Air Force of the future,

and together are solving future technological challenges.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts on a vital

teaming between AFIT, AFRL, and the greater Dayton community.

I look forward to your questions.

[The prepared statement of Major General Bowlds follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you very much.

General Matthews, I want to particularly thank you for preparing and attending today, especially recognizing the fact that you

will be leaving AFIT on Monday. Thank you so much as you have

so many other duties and issues that you are preparing for in the

transition that you be present and spend some of your time here

with us today.

STATEMENT OF BRIGADIER GENERAL MARK MATTHEWS

General MATTHEWS. Thank you, sir. I would like to thank all the

members for this opportunity to speak about the institution that

has been an integral part of this country’s air and space dominance

for almost 90 years, the Air Force Institute of Technology, or AFIT.

Despite its history and contributions, however, as was pointed

out, at times some have questioned the need for a defense graduate

school. It was shortly after assuming command of AFIT just over

a year ago that I learned that the Base Realignment and Closure

Commission’s decision to review whether it would be most appropriate to align AFIT with the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey or close it.

While facing potential closure was not the way I would have chosen to start my new job, the review proved to be a great benefit

as it affirmed the unparalleled value of AFIT in providing responsive defense focus education and research to not only the Air Force

but all elements that provide for the security of our Nation including our sister services, coalition partners, and defense affiliated civilians.

Quite simply, knowledge is power and it is knowledge that

makes us the most powerful military in the world. Though validated, other challenges have loomed for AFIT. The cost of the ongoing war and modernization are forcing tough choices most prominently reflected and previously announced Air Force personnel

cuts. AFIT, too, will have to adjust to these fiscal realities.

This does not mean our Air Force leadership is not strongly committed to education. In April of this year Secretary of the Air Force

Wynne and our Chief General Moseley issued a joint ‘‘Letter to Airmen’’ where they stated ‘‘to succeed, our expeditionary Air Force

will need all the cultural, political, and technical skills available.

One of the most effective ways to develop this knowledge is

through advanced education.’’

In fact, AFIT is working with our headquarters to revamp the

system by which we determine those competencies needed by our

Airmen to include advanced education.

In conjunction with this restructured requirements process, we at

AFIT are also pursuing a fundamental change in our traditional

business model as we seek to diversify the AFIT student population

with more sister service, civilian, and coalition partner students.

Not only does this provide our students a richer learning experience but sustains an educational capacity while the Air Force

adapts to a smaller force size.

Supporting this business transformation is an expanded AFIT research program. While AFIT has seen a doubling in its sponsored

research over the last 5 years, thanks largely, as General Bowlds

pointed out, with our special relationship with our neighbors in the

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Air Force Research Laboratory, I think for many reasons we should

do more.

Foremost, we have an outstanding faculty, military and civilian,

who are well versed in the operations and needs of the Air Force

and the Department of Defense. The fruits of their research pay a

direct and immediate dividend to our Nation’s security. Additionally, a strong research program underpins the excellence we bring

to bear in the classroom.

Finally, strengthening AFIT’s reputation as a premier research

organization increases its attractiveness to the potential students

and faculty among whom we find ourselves increasingly in competition from our sister institutions.

By using research funding to sponsor student tuition we leverage

the faculty and facilities of AFIT and AFRL while creating a talent

pool many of whom will elect to continue their efforts right here

in the Miami Valley. Additionally, reaching out more to civilian

students is a natural progression for AFIT as the Air Force continues to transform itself by focusing our military members on expeditionary operations and relying more on the total force including civilians to execute traditional state-side mission.

Here I think our involvement in the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute, or as we all know it DAGSI, is most constructive.

With DAGSI there already exist a structure that provides scholarships and brings students to AFIT. I envision a natural synergy as

we grow research funding to augment DAGSI scholarship funds.

More students means more research and more research funding

which together better enables AFIT to sustain recent growth.

Additionally, the diversity of programs offered among the institutions of the DAGSI coalition provide an opportunity for the Air

Force to broaden the educational experience of AFIT students in

consonance with the Air University goal of producing expeditionary

airmen ready to deploy, operate, and communicate with people of

other cultures in reaching any region of the world.

Let me repeat, knowledge is power. It was knowledge that innovatively married Air Force Combat Controllers on a wooden saddle

with a GPS receiver to guide the devastating destruction of the

Taliban just a few weeks after September 11th. It was that knowledge that found Zarqawi and introduced him to whatever awaits

him in the next life, courtesy of your U.S. Air Force and our Joint

team.

It is that knowledge that will allow us to penetrate and provide

precise combat defense against any future adversary. And it will be

knowledge that will sustain those who follow as they battle unanticipated threats to our Nation’s security whether through the air,

space or cyberspace 90 years hence.

I thank you for your support.

[The prepared statement of Brigadier General Matthews follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. I appreciate your connection of what you do here

directly to what is going on on the battle field of today. When I

read your paragraph making that connection, I got goosebumps and

I did again when you said it. It is absolutely what Americans see

on Fox News and CNN—the advantage the United States has.

Many times we forget that it is the result of direct work that is

being done here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or other research areas that are necessary in order for us to be ahead and in

order to be able to defend ourselves so I appreciate how you are

highlighting that.

Representative DeWine, I thank you for being here also. I know

that not only are you no stranger to testifying. Certainly being in

the House of Representatives you have been a leader in receiving

testimony. I appreciate your commitment to Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base because on a State level you have been a strong advocate for Wright-Patt.

The private/public partnership that represents DAGSI I know is

not the only private/public partnership in which you’re involved in

making sure that the State is a supporter of what is the largest

single-site employer in the State. Your knowledge and expertise

that you have garnered by your work at Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base I know enhances our success at the State level so thank

you for being here today.

STATEMENT OF HON. KEVIN DEWINE

Mr. DEWINE. Super. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Congresswoman Schmidt, thank you for holding this hearing today and for

providing me the opportunity to testify about the Air Force Institute of Technology and its consortium with the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute.

My name is Kevin DeWine and I represent the 70th House District in the Ohio House of Representatives, which includes most of

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base all except for this museum right

here. Mr. Chairman, as the base’s principal representative in the

Ohio House, I want to thank you for your strong record of leadership and support for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, particularly

last year during the BRAC process. I also want to recognize the entirety of Ohio’s congressional delegation, including Congresswoman

Schmidt, especially Congressman Hobson for its tireless work to

protect and enhance Ohio’s varied and diverse military defense installations.

As you may know, and as many of you know, Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base is the largest single-site employer in the State of

Ohio with about 22,000 employees and hundreds of millions of dollars spent every year on construction, equipment, supplies, and

local contracts. The base has an estimated impact of almost $3 billion a year which is why most of us pay a little bit of attention to

what goes on over here.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is no surprise to any of you that Ohio’s

economy is changing. In order to ensure that we are ready to meet

the challenges of the new economy, we need to better prepare our

work force of today and tomorrow by giving the tools and skills necessary to compete for high-tech, high-paying jobs.

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In the legislature my colleagues and I recognize this and we are

actively working to provide today’s students with an education that

prepares them for future success. To that end we are looking at

ways to increase the number of students who pursue degrees in the

STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We know that these fields represent growing trends and by

increasing the number of graduates in these areas we can provide

the types of employees that companies are looking for today and tomorrow. Notably, this is part of DAGSI’s mission.

Since it is creation in 1994 DAGSI’s mission has been to increase

and improve the quantity and quality of graduate, educational, and

research opportunities, particularly in the STEM disciplines, and to

promote economic development in Ohio.

Working closely with AFIT it has become a critical component of

our emerging high-tech economy by providing a needed focus on

highly specialized fields of research.

DAGSI allows member schools to combine resources including

faculty and facilities to meet the evolving needs of the Air Force

and to offer greater value to their students as well as our community.

Since its inception, the State of Ohio has provided more than $50

million for the DAGSI/AFIT consortium demonstrating the deep

and long-term support of AFIT and the Air Force by the State of

Ohio.

The intellectual capital brought to Ohio and developed within

AFIT has become an important resource as we continue the pursuit

of a technology based economy. It is a key asset in our effort to

keep Dayton and Ohio in the forefront of technology development

with its near 1,000 students and a faculty of close to 700.

Keep in mind in this case, a ‘‘student’’ is usually an Air Force

officer and is equivalent to a high-value, high-wage job in terms of

economic development. AFIT’s presence in Ohio represents a significant positive economic impact.

As you well know, and has been highlighted already, AFIT has

been threatened by two previous BRAC processes. In both instances, the base closure commission rejected the proposals to close

AFIT, in part, because we have been able to articulate the success

story that we have created in Dayton for AFIT through DAGSI.

Our success has been rooted in meeting the needs for high-quality graduate technical education while recognizing today’s budget

realities. This unique consortium creates a best of breed education

that meets the changing needs of today’s war fighter while providing significant economic development and intellectual benefits for

our region and for Ohio.

We in the Dayton region, home to the Wright brothers and so

many other technology pioneers, are proud of our heritage. We

know, however, that we cannot rest on the achievements of the

past. We need to show that we are still home to creativity and cutting-edge technologies. The DAGSI and AFIT partnership has a

decade-long track record of benefiting the Air Force and the State

of Ohio. It is in the best interest of all of us that we continue to

foster the success of this partnership now and for years to come.

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Thank you again for holding this hearing on this important component of our Nation’s defense and Ohio’s changing economy. I

would be happy to take any questions when the chairman deems

appropriate. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Kevin DeWine follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you, Representative DeWine.

Dr. Curran, I also want to thank you for taking your time to be

here today, especially on a Saturday. I want to thank you for your

leadership in continuing the history of the University of Dayton

looking beyond its campus.

Dr. CURRAN. Thank you.

Mr. TURNER. Your university has a long history of taking responsibility for ways to contribute to the community. Certainly your

partnership in looking at ways to develop the NCR property around

you is a great example of that, the redevelopment along Brown

Street, the neighborhood redevelopment and revitalization that has

occurred around Miami Hospital and, of course, DAGSI and your

UDRI here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We appreciate you

being here and hearing about your participation in this.

STATEMENT OF DR. CURRAN

Dr. CURRAN. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Representative Schmidt,

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address you this

morning. My name is Dan Curran and I am the President of the

University of Dayton. The University of Dayton is a Catholic University founded in 1850 by the Marianist religious order and, at

over 10,000 students, it is the largest private university in the

State of Ohio.

The university has a well-earned reputation for academic excellence and a national reputation for high-caliber research. It is these

two traits that I would like to discuss with you here today, specifically, in terms of how the University has leveraged these sources

of pride, as well as educational partnerships, to meet the needs of

the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the U.S. Air Force, and ultimately our Nation’s defense.

To speak to the matter before us today, the University is a proud

partner with AFIT. Through the recent BRAC processes, the significance of having an institution like AFIT in our midst became

clear to the entire Dayton region. through making the case to keep

AFIT at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Federal, State, and local

leaders realized that there were numerous educational opportunities to not only strengthen AFIT, but to enhance the learning opportunities for students drawn to the Dayton Region from all over

the country and, in fact, across the world.

The Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute, DAGSI, plays a

central role. DAGSI is a consortium of graduate education schools

including AFIT, University of Dayton, and Wright State. Ohio

State and the University of Cincinnati are affiliate members while

Miami and Ohio University are associate members.

Dr. Downie, the Director of DAGSI, can best answer the questions you have on membership levels.

The University’s educational partnership with AFIT through

DAGSI builds on a long and beneficial partnership with the Air

Force that has taken place since the late 1940’s. In 1956, 7 years

after UD secured the first Wright-Patterson Air Force Base contract to translate aircraft flight-load data, the University of Dayton

Research Institute, commonly referred to as UDRI, was born.

Since then the UDRI has become a globally recognized leader in

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vanced science but benefited mankind. The UDRI performs approximately $70 million in research annually and is ranked second

nationally in materials research according to the National Science

Foundation.

UDRI remains headquartered at the University of Dayton but

has significant operations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

where we have about 140 employees; Robins Air Force Base, Arlington, Virginia; and Washington, DC, as well as Utah. I would

like to take the opportunity to add that the UDRI will celebrate its

50th anniversary on August 23rd.

Through UDRI and the UD School of Engineering the University

has been involved in a number of research areas critical not only

to the Nation’s defense, but the development of new technologies

that can have significant commercialization opportunities. Some of

these areas include nanotechnology, alternative fuels, advanced

materials, computational aerodynamics, systems analysis, electrooptics, non-destructive inspection, and aging systems sustainment.

I think the key to our relationship is what it brings to students.

Currently the UDRI employs about 250 students, 40 percent undergraduate, 60 percent graduate. Dozens of these students are located on the base. The ability to have UD students and DAGSI students to do world-class Air Force research is really the key to

building a high-caliber group of employees in the future.

The presence of student researchers on the base and working on

Air Force initiatives resulted in a number of graduates taking Federal jobs and also jobs with defense contractors in the area. Such

students have experience with Federal Government, work backgrounds specifically related to the research at hand, and often have

the necessary clearances to start working immediately.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been a critical component

for UD, as well as other members of DAGSI, in developing the engineers and scientists to ensure America’s international leadership

in science and technology, as well as to ensure ever-increasing experts in complicated defense areas.

The University looks forward to being a partner in the relocation

of the Air Force’s aerospace medicine operations. Through partnerships built on and around DAGSI’s success, as well as local universities’ longstanding experience in the areas of medicine, nursing,

and human factors and effectiveness, we can mirror the successes

we have seen in other areas in the aerospace medicine area.

In closing, I would like to thank the Ohio delegation, in particular Representatives Turner and Hobson, for all the things that they

have done for the research labs, AFIT, and the base over the years.

Your help has been invaluable, especially last year during the

BRAC process. Once again, I thank you and I look forward to any

questions you have.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Curran follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you.

Dr. Thomas, obviously our focus is on AFIT and the support of

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base but inherent in all the testimony

we have from Representative DeWine and Dr. Curran and yourself

is the impact that your focus has on the economy of our community. Prior to your testimony I just wanted to highlight an example

of the way that is all interrelated.

My sister while attending Wright State University in the graduate masters degree program in biology worked for UDRI in the

labs here at the Air Force Base in the composite area ultimately

graduating from Wright State with her masters in biology and then

continuing to work with UDRI in the labs and working on research

and development with respect to the structure of insects and what

might be learned from material structures and how that might be

applied to airplanes.

As Dr. Curran was saying, one of the most important things that

you do, and that I appreciate also for Wright State University and

the University of Dayton, is the ability for investment in people

and the knowledge base that occurs for our community.

I want to thank you for your dedication to that and it certainly

is inherent in your testimony of the fact that in the end although

we are talking of supporting Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and

the ways that we can have ingenuity, we also are talking about

changing people’s lives and their abilities and their educational

stature. I want to congratulate you and Wright State on your efforts in that.

STATEMENT OF DR. THOMAS

Dr. THOMAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and good morning, Mr.

Chairman and also Member Schmidt. That is a wonderful example.

I will have to capture that for the future.

My name is Jay Thomas. I am the Vice President for Research

and Dean of the Graduate School at Wright State. I am very

pleased to have this opportunity to testify about Wright State, its

interactions with AFIT, and its participation in the Dayton Area

Graduate Studies Institute.

Next year in 2007 Wright State will celebrate 40 years of service

to the Dayton region, the State of Ohio, and the Nation. Wright

State has grown up with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a

supportive neighbor, influencing program development, partnering

in research, and hiring our graduates. Particularly close ties have

developed with AFIT and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

In engineering and computer science these ties have been facilitated and strengthened by the development, beginning in 1994, of

the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute.

Wright State’s College of Engineering and Computer Science offers undergraduate and graduate programs keyed to Air Force

needs. Program such as electrical and mechanical engineering featuring research emphasis such as target recognition and design optimization which have received continuous Air Force funding and

benefited from those close working relationships between Wright

State faculty members and Air Force staff.

Wright State has offered one of the few programs in the country

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chine systems including aircraft pilot performance. Wright State

also has programs in its School of Medicine and College of Science

and Mathematics such as environmental toxicology and cognitive

science that interact strongly with the AFRL. Wright State owns

and operates a virtual environment CAVE which is housed in the

AFRL Human Effectiveness directorate.

You have heard about DAGSI from President Curran. We’ll learn

more from Dr. Downie in the follow testimony. Among the three of

us I am the only one who has been in my position since pre-DAGSI

times—too long—so I can comment on some of the history.

In 1993 the Deans of Engineering at Wright State, the University of Dayton, and AFIT were called together by Dayton region industry leaders and urged to cooperate rather than compete, and to

develop world class programs. We have worked to do so. AFIT has

always offered unique programs keyed to Air Force needs.

Since the 1993 time period, the University of Dayton has become

a national leader in Materials research and Wright State has developed leading programs in computer science and related computational design. These complement each other as well as AFIT

programs providing the region a breadth of programs of recognized

excellence.

At the same time that regional leaders were encouraging cooperation, the Ohio Board of Regents, the State agency that coordinates higher education, embarked upon several initiatives to promote program excellence and collaboration. The OBR realized that

carrots were better than sticks to achieve such goals and had demonstrated a willingness to fund such initiatives.

With this background, the three engineering deans began to

meet regularly, in fact every week for more than a year, to develop

DAGSI. They learned that collaboration is hard work, must be built

on a foundation of trust, and must be win-win for all involved.

Through this process, Wright State, and the University of Dayton,

became much better acquainted with AFIT.

Wright State very much values its interactions with AFIT. These

take many forms. Through DAGSI engineering students at either

school can take sources at the other, courses that would not be

available at their home institution. For doctoral programs, there is

a practice of including an external DAGSI faculty member on each

doctoral student’s dissertation committee.

AFIT faculty members bring unique knowledge and perspectives

to these activities which greatly benefits the student. Such sharing

of faculty expertise also promotes quality of the research and the

overall doctoral experience. At the same time, the interaction of

faculty members around a specific research topic enables collaboration on future research projects.

These programmatic features are of mutual benefit to Wright

State and AFIT. For AFIT, State and regional resources leverage

AFIT’s Federal funding and bring an extra measure of excellence

to AFIT programs.

It has been demonstrated that DAGSI is an effective organization in bringing Ohio University resources together to leverage

Federal resources at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. DAGSI has

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ment such as course sharing, and numerous collaborative programs.

An opportunity over the next several years is the expansion of

aerospace medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as mandated by the recent BRAC Commission along with the establishment of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine to include the Air

Force School of Aerospace Medicine.

Wright State University offers the oldest civilian Master of

Science in Aerospace Medicine in the United States as well as the

Master of Public Health and numerous biomedical science graduate

programs. Wright State University is well positioned to lead an expansion of DAGSI to meet the education and training needs of the

expanding aerospace medicine work force at Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base.

Thank you very much and I look forward to answering any questions you might have.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Thomas follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you, Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Downie, I appreciate in your testimony that you have given

us some great facts and figures on the process and how it works

and its impact. Also you have a great coordinating job to do so we

look forward to hearing about DAGSI and your work with it.

STATEMENT OF DR. DOWNIE

Dr. DOWNIE. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Congresswoman Schmidt. My name is Elizabeth Downie. I am the Director of the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute, which you

have heard a lot about already this morning, and I am here to testify about the DAGSI consortium and AFIT’s role and impact as a

partner of the consortium.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today.

DAGSI is a not-for-profit consortium of graduate engineering and

computer science schools at UD, Wright State, and AFIT. The consortium is unique in that it unites a private institution, a statedassisted institution, and a Federal institution in a successful partnership that has enhanced the educational and research base as

well as the technical work force in the region.

Our impact is not limited to Dayton, however. The University of

Cincinnati, the Ohio State University, Miami University, and Ohio

University are affiliated with DAGSI and our major research program, which supports AFRL, is open to any Ohio research university. DAGSI’s mission is to promote education-based economic development in Ohio through the development and support of worldclass graduate engineering and computer science education and research programs.

DAGSI has been funded by the State of Ohio, through the Board

of Regents, since 1995. DAGSI’s funding supports student and faculty research in technologies aligned with several initiatives critical to the future of Ohio and its economy. We have two major program areas: First, we offer competitive, merit-based scholarships

and fellowships to Masters and Doctoral students in engineering

and computer science at UD, Wright State, and AFIT. We support

part-time as well as full-time students, which means that employers in the region can leverage their education and training dollars

by having their engineers pursue a graduate degree through

DAGSI.

Most of our students are Ohio residents when they apply for a

scholarship, but due to growing awareness of DAGSI out there we

also are drawing students from across the Nation, particularly

through our fellowship program. Typically we support close to 200

students annually.

Second, we sponsor a joint research program between DAGSI and

the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB. Each

year, AFRL provides DAGSI with research topics, and students and

faculty from any Ohio research university may submit proposals for

research on these topics. Students who are awarded a research fellowship are required to work on base in the AFRL labs; therefore,

they must be U.S. citizens. Currently we have 40 active projects in

this program.

DAGSI’s key objectives are: To train and retain advanced engineering students in the State of Ohio, with the goal of creating a

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critical mass of talent in targeted technologies; to fund graduate

students who study and undertake research in areas critical to

Ohio’s future; and to work collaboratively with research institutes,

private and government laboratories, corporations, and others seeking to build Ohio’s capabilities in key technology focus areas.

Let’s look at several aspects of DAGSI and its programs in terms

of the value brought by the consortium to various stakeholders. In

particular, I will focus on AFIT’s participation in the consortium as

well as the impact of DAGSI on the Air Force to illustrate the successes of the program.

One, through DAGSI and our Cooperative Research and Development Agreement [CRADA] with AFIT, civilian students now can

enroll at AFIT. Over the years, 37 percent of DAGSI students at

AFIT have been nongovernment students. These students, who

would be in school elsewhere if not for DAGSI, do research that ultimately supports the warfighter. In DAGSI’s elite Fellowship program, AFIT has attracted an impressive 10 of the 26 students enrolled to date. They make that decision based on their visit to

AFIT. All civilian students with exceptional academic and research

credentials who have chosen to pursue their doctoral studies at

AFIT and contribute to the warfighter.

Two, through DAGSI, engineering or computer graduate students

enrolled at AFIT, UD, or Wright State can cross-register for classes

at the other partner schools. This capability broadens and enriches

the students’ programs of studies and builds in collaboration. Many

AFIT students have taken classes at the other schools and many

students at the other schools have taken courses at AFIT as long

as they are U.S. citizens. Also, AFIT faculty have served as dissertation committee members for UD and Wright State students,

and likewise AFIT students have had committee members from the

other schools.

Here is what one student, now an aerospace engineer employed

by the Air Force, has to say about opportunities arising from consortium collaboration: ‘‘DAGSI’s relationship allowing the three

Dayton-area graduate schools to cross-enroll has been the only way

I would have been able to complete my degree in my field, because

none of the three schools alone offered classes necessary for my

major. With DAGSI’s help, I’ve been able to craft a program that

is unique but valuable to my employer, the USAF.’’

Three, 26 percent of DAGSI’s scholarship awards have gone to

students connected with the Air Force when they start their graduate program and employed by the Air Force when they graduate.

Most are at Wright-Patt so DAGSI has had a tremendous impact

on Ohio’s largest single-site employer.

Four, nearly two-thirds of DAGSI graduates are employed in

Ohio, contributing to the economy with their technology knowledge

and skills. Close to 40 percent of these are employed at WrightPatt or by defense contractors in the region.

Five, DAGSI has sponsored 93 projects in the AFRL/DAGSI research program since the program’s inception 7 years ago. In addition to the seven DAGSI members and affiliates, several other Ohio

universities, Case Western, Kent, Toledo, and Akron, have had

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laborated in 35 of these projects—that’s 38 percent of the total—

14 as the lead institution and 21 as a partner.

Clearly, AFIT has been a vital contributor to university research

collaborations across the State of Ohio. This program not only has

benefited AFRL by effectively expanding the lab’s research base

and tying it to the university community in Ohio, it has fostered

collaboration among individual faculty members from different institutions.

Many of these collaborations have continued after getting their

start in our program, with follow-on funding obtained from the Air

Force and other government agencies. Faculty early in their careers at AFIT as well as the other schools have been able to build

a research base with colleagues in the region, leading to a positive

impact on tenure decisions.

In closing, DAGSI is a model of collaboration that we believe others can look to for replication. Through the success and contributions of our graduates, DAGSI’s impact reaches far beyond the universities themselves. Thank you for providing this opportunity to

give you my perspective on DAGSI and AFIT’s role as an integral,

vital member of the partnership.

[The prepared statement of Dr. Downie follows:]

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Mr. TURNER. Thank you, Dr. Downie.

I realize that we are benefiting from the patience from all the

panel members that we had to move this hearing to a later time

and you have personal schedules so I want to thank you for your

patience and your cooperation.

I have made a commitment to Dr. Downie because of her schedule that we would ask Dr. Downie questions first and allow her to

excuse herself with Dr. Curran and Dr. Thomas filling in for coordinating questions that we might have after its operations. We

will begin first with questions to Dr. Downie from Congresswoman

Schmidt and then I will ask my questions for Dr. Downie and then

you can be excused. Gentlemen, if you don’t mind, we will then

turn to you for questions.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you, and thank you for some very compelling testimony. I have a couple of question for you, Dr. Downie.

Does DAGSI plan to expand the consortium and are there plans to

integrate DAGSI associate and affiliate member schools into the

course sharing program?

Dr. DOWNIE. Well, we have no immediate plans to expand. I

think, first of all, through the AFRL DAGSI program we already

do have an impact across the State through participation by several other universities beyond those in this region. I think if one

divorces the course-sharing capability from the awarding of scholarships, we are certainly open if there is a demand to sharing

courses, cross-registration, among all our members and beyond.

Logistics is the obvious hurdle so there really hasn’t been a tremendous demand for Ohio State students, UC students, to take

courses here and vice versa. We are certainly open to it and if there

is a telling reason, a demand out there, especially perhaps as distance learning opportunities spring up, we would certainly be open

to setting up an administrative process to allow for that sharing of

courses.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you. One more question. DAGSI is a tremendous cooperation. Have other organizations in other States inquired about or followed the DAGSI consortium model to support

their local areas?

Dr. DOWNIE. I believe so, and I am going to need some assistance

maybe from General Matthews. I hope I am not putting you on the

spot.

General MATTHEWS. No.

Dr. DOWNIE. I believe that AFIT has worked with educational institutions around other Air Force bases and have established some

similar working relationships.

General MATTHEWS. Yes. I can address that later, if you like, or

now.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Fine, in the interest of time. Do you have any suggestions, Dr. Downie, on how other organizations in other States

could accomplish the same as DAGSI for the benefit of their State

and local universities and the military?

Dr. DOWNIE. Well, we are happy to provide whatever information

we can on DAGSI and how we got through the blood, sweat, and

tears that Dr. Thomas has spoke about in making this happen. We

have talked, and we have talked very preliminarily but we haven’t

carried it very far yet, but we have talked about capturing how

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DAGSI was established and what was needed to get it going and

what our key value is and sort of wrapping that up as a model to

offer to other organizations to take and run with.

I think there is opportunity there and that is something as we

move forward in the future because we will be revamping our business model, that is something that we are seriously looking at as

a contribution that we can make to other regions. It takes time for

reputations to be built and that is happening with DAGSI. The vision has always been there that we would be a national model for

collaboration and now I think the word is getting out. I think as

that happens it will be an opportune time for us to take that model

and run with it elsewhere.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you. I yield back.

Mr. TURNER. Thank you. Dr. Downie, an important function obviously that DAGSI provides is funding and then the interrelationship between educational institutions. To what extent does DAGSI

operate as a forum for the educational institutions to discuss areas

in which they might have solely expertise or areas in which there

are gaps that they might seek to provide additional educational opportunity?

Dr. DOWNIE. That is certainly a key aspect of DAGSI. It is an

opportunity to take a look at us as a bundle and identify where we

overlap and can be more efficient by eliminating some things where

we do have gaps. If you look at what the focus areas and key majors at each of our institutions are, you do find kind of a natural

grouping that is pretty distinct. We actually haven’t had to do tremendous gap-filling and elimination of overlap because overtime I

am sure it has evolved because of this collaboration to be this way

where we don’t overlap tremendously and we have synergies we

can exploit.

Dr. CURRAN. I would just add, the way I look at it, we are working closely with the labs and working closely with the labs we identify the emerging areas that we have to maintain. I think at that

point all the faculties react to that and hear what the base needs,

hear what the lab needs, and we start moving into that area. That

leads into DAGSI so it is the interaction with the labs that is key

and informs the universities where they have to go, both the members and the affiliates in the research area so it’s a process of close

interaction between the labs, the universities, and DAGSI.

Mr. TURNER. Doctor, the statistics you provided as an appendage

to your testimony, of course, will be part of the record also and they

are very impressive. I just wanted to highlight some of them. I

think in your testimony you had already indicated that over 500

DAGSI students have graduated with advanced degrees.

Then you go on to highlight that close to two-thirds of the graduates remain in Ohio and at least four of DAGSI graduates have

started their own companies in Ohio and you give us the number

of 40 percent as the estimate of those DAGSI graduates that are

either working directly for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or are

working with defense contractors thereby continuing the capture of

that knowledge base and its support for DOD.

As an impressive economic engine you have then performed a return on investment of statistics where you indicate that more than

$18 million in follow-on funding to date is new money to the State

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of Ohio with total project value of $32 million which far exceeds the

investment by the State of Ohio. Could you talk about some of the

ways that you can see the dividends that the return on investment

expands for both our local community and for Ohio as these graduates enter our economy?

Dr. DOWNIE. I think success begets success. As an example, you

mentioned specifically follow-on funding to seed money that DAGSI

has provided through the AFRL DAGSI program. We fund teams

of a certain size to do some preliminary work and get themselves

far enough along to know whether their approach is going to work

and that is going to attract more and more students through our

program.

Then as follow-on funding comes in, the teams will grow. Often

times these ideas will then move closer to a product or service

stage. There may be small business relationships, patents, invention disclosures that come out, and ultimately new business coming

out of what started as a seed project through the DAGSI program.

It is sort of a seed that grows and blossoms over time.

It does take time but certainly as more and more students come

here, we all hope that they continue to stay in the Miami Valley,

or at least in Ohio, and contribute further to the economy but even

though that leave the State it is actually good to export some of

your talent because they take the word out that there is really neat

stuff happening here.

We generate more excitement and more people that want to come

here go to school. Hopefully we’ll keep them here and they will continue to contribute to the economy. I think of it as a seed that is

growing and blossoming overtime and our success will continue to

breed that continued success.

Mr. TURNER. Dr. Downie, thank you for your preparation of your

testimony. Thank you for participating today and for your hard

work at DAGSI to make certain that you contribute to what is a

wonderful public/private partnership that we are highlighting

today.

Dr. DOWNIE. Thank you.

Mr. TURNER. Thank you for being with us.

With that we will turn to Congresswoman Schmidt’s questions

for General Bowlds.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Oh, thank you. General Bowlds, what are some of

the benefits of bringing AFIT graduates to AFRL immediately following the completion of their degrees?

General BOWLDS. The first thing you get from anybody who

comes into the lab fresh out of a degree program is their degree is

fresh. We are dealing with technologies that have certain life expectancy because some of those fields are moving so fast so having

a student who has graduated and their diploma is fresh, they come

right into the lab.

Then you are getting the latest and greatest thinking on whatever technology area they might be in. I look at it as the other part

of the ledger sheet, a return on investment the Air Force makes in

those advanced degrees.

Once you’ve got that advanced degree putting it to work is where

the real payoff is so that is why we enjoy having those folks come.

Plus in many cases they have done research that was for their

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master thesis or their dissertation that was part of the lab so they

get to come into the lab and maybe finish that work that they

started as a student so it’s a very nice way to put that degree to

work.

Ms. SCHMIDT. And to followup on that, does the cooperation between AFIT and AFRL benefit the local work force?

General BOWLDS. I think it does because you get those students

who stay in the area. Obviously that’s people who are contributing

to the local economy. Many times the research that they have

started when they were a student and finished when they come to

the lab is a new field, a new endeavor that takes the Air Force

down a new path that in turn we have to capitalize and build new

lab facilities, bring in new researchers and reach out to the local

university communities you have heard this morning to capitalize

on. It does grow that local community.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Yield back.

Mr. TURNER. I think General Matthews can attest to this. I think

one of the most fun moments, if there are fun moments during any

BRAC review process, was when we went up to the roof of the

AFIT building. When we got up to the top of the roof and we looked

out over the sea of buildings that represent Wright-Patterson Air

Force Base, the discussion turned to the integration between the

research labs and AFIT.

You could hear from the BRAC commissioners that were here the

shift in tone of their expectation because I think that their expectation when they raised the issue of the graduate programs would be

that they might be a stand-alone building with stand-alone programs and stand-alone students that could be picked up and moved

anywhere.

When we got to the roof of AFIT and looked out over the research labs and over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base it was clear

that the campus wasn’t the building that we had our first meeting

on but the campus was Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. There

were several aspects of that which you highlighted in your testimony that I think are important to focus on.

The first thing I am going to ask you is the fact that AFIT students are employed in research functions that are occurring at the

research labs both in directing them in research and thesis they

should undertake. The cost effective benefit of that for the research

labs, in addition to what you indicated, if they come pretrained if

they then stay, represented both an educational benefit and a costeffective benefit for the research labs. Could you speak about that

for a moment?

General BOWLDS. Sure. We would always like to have more research dollars for the lab. The problems that are out there presenting our warfighter and our Air Force far outweigh the amount of

dollars that we have. So for us to be very effective and be very efficient and get the most out of those dollars, we have to figure out

how to do partnerships. We have to figure out how to collaborate

with companies, with universities, with our home court, the students at AFIT.

What I get from that partnership bringing those students from

AFIT into the lab to do research is two things. I get the ability to

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capitalize on fresh, young talent and it doesn’t come out of any one

budget. We share that burden, both General Matthews and I.

The other thing that you really get is some of these things that

we’re asking our researchers to do, some of the fields we are in you

need brand new fresh ideas and the young students who come in

who are at AFIT who come into the lab bring that fresh look to an

old problem that may be the key to an answer.

When you take that fresh young mind and couple it with a mentor who has been around and know where the problems are, where

the skeletons are, things you can’t do, you can really then start to

solve problems very, very quickly. You get to come about with new

technologies that people weren’t thinking about. The sum of the

parts is better than the individuals is what we get by having those

students come into the lab.

And, in turn, having researchers from the lab go into the university to go over to AFIT to teach because, and I’m going to put

words in General Matthews’ mouth, but I am sure he would like

to have more professors than his payroll allows and so it allows

him to get the expertise I got and keep people fresh on both sides

of it. It is both hands scratching each other’s back that we get from

it. I hope that answers your question.

Mr. TURNER. Yes. In fact, you went into what was my second

question and that is the fact that you have staff from the research

labs that then take on professor duties at AFIT itself. One of the

things in addition to just straight staffing, as you mentioned, and

resources that I think might be a benefit from that and I would

like you to speak about is that many times people say that when

you go to teach a subject matter within which you work that you

also not only are refreshed in the review that you undertake in

teaching it but also that you learn more about the process yourself

in teaching it to someone else.

Then there is the important function of the transfer of technology, making certain that the knowledge that you have here of

a work force that has deep experience is passed on as a baton to

the next generation and those individuals who are coming forward.

Could you speak of the importance of that cross-pollination that occurs by your staff taking on teaching responsibilities at AFIT?

General BOWLDS. Certainly. Having a researcher who is fresh in

the field who knowledge base is most current is how we can ensure

that the research they do is then going to be world class. The term

we use in the lab in the game-changing, that we are going to get

game-changing kind of results out of that research.

My experience through colleagues and stuff is that one way a researcher may go and get their knowledge base back up to date is

they take a sabbatical. They disappear for a period of time. Maybe

go to a university or go to an industry and disappear for a year

while they get up to date on the latest and greatest in both the

body of knowledge, the research techniques, and what has gone on.

From the lab perspective I lose that individual for a year. Not

that they don’t come back that much more productive but I lose

them for a year. The better way, or the way that works equally

well, is what you just talked about, is having those researchers in

the lab go over to AFIT and teach the new students into a field of

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materials or electrical engineering because it helps them in their

mind refresh what it is that their expertise is.

They have to get current on the latest body of knowledge because

they are going to teach it. Plus they get asked the hard questions.

They get asked the hard questions from those young minds that

says, just like our children do, ‘‘How come? How come we have to

do it that way?’’ It forces them to be on their toes and sharp. They

do that before they go teach a class at AFIT.

They are gone for an hour a couple times a week plus the time

they have to go to get into it but I still have them in my home

court advantage. They are still doing research back in the lab and

I think that is probably the start of that relationship of bringing

those young researchers, those students from AFIT then back into

the lab to help that researcher move their endeavor along.

Mr. TURNER. Congresswoman Schmidt, questions?

Ms. SCHMIDT. Yes, I would like to go to the Honorable Kevin

DeWine.

Dr. Downie illustrated the fact that 75 percent of DAGSI graduates have degrees and experience directly relevant to the Third

Frontier technologies. As we all know, Ohio has made a commitment to Third Frontier. I have a two-part question. Will this

project benefit from Third Frontier dollars from the State of Ohio?

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman Schmidt, I think

the answer is yes. Whether it is directly or indirectly I might look

down here to my partners to my left on direct benefit. Surely when

we see investments in collaborations amongst universities on hightech, Third Frontier initiatives, those are things that certainly benefit the economy.

They benefit the intellectual capital that exist here. We think

that is a nice partnership, another program that partners well with

the AFIT DAGSI consortium. All of those things are things that are

going on here. There are Third Frontier programs being run

through Wright State, being run through the University of Dayton.

Again, it is the collaboration of the infrastructure of the faculty and

the students and the private sector doing that work here whether

it’s directly through DAGSI or whether it’s through the Third Frontier that I think is acredive to the technological and educational

gain of the region.

Ms. SCHMIDT. I would like another question if I may.

Mr. TURNER. Sure. Please.

Ms. SCHMIDT. As you and I both know, Ohio is a term-limited

State and you have a wealth of knowledge in this which is very

beneficial to this program but, unfortunately, nothing lasts forever.

My concern with projects like this is when the next group comes

in to govern the State of Ohio where are we going to have the security that this level of commitment will continue? Is there any mechanism that you can establish in order to ensure that whoever follows in your footsteps will be as committed to this program as you

obviously are?

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman Schmidt, term limits, as we have often talked about, there’s good and bad. You and

I were beneficiaries of term limits. We were able to get elected in

2000 and be able to spend some time working together in the Ohio

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House of Representatives in part because of term limits. I recognize

that I am in the general assembly today because of term limits.

I also recognize that soon I will be out of the general assembly

because of term limits. I think that is a problem with term limits

that affects not just this program. It affects every last bit of every

program that has any sort of State support. Clearly from the first

time I got elected Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has been something that I have spent a great deal of legislative time both trying

to understand because it is huge.

It is organizationally complex and it is difficult to understand so

you have to commit your time and your energy to be able to understand all the moving parts here. I have spent a great deal of time

doing that. Part of what we have to do is figure out how to continue that. As it relates to DAGSI and the AFIT partnership I

think the great thing is you have wonderful community partners

in the universities who take a very active role in working with

their local members of the general assembly.

So not only does it become my job to pass the baton to whoever

follows me, I think then we also as a community have to rely on

folks like President Curran and Dr. Thomas and the members of

that board, as well as our members of the Air Force to make sure

that things don’t get lost, that things don’t lose priority, and that

we keep a focus on the things that should move and should be supported because they will move our economy forward. That is clearly

the case with this AFIT and DAGSI partnership.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you.

Mr. TURNER. General Matthews, I am going to give you an opportunity to do a commercial. On page three of your testimony you

speak of General Moseley’s statements of the fiscal constraints that

the Air Force will be facing as a result of the ongoing war on terror, modernization, and its impact on Air Force personnel cuts. You

indicated for us that AFIT will have to adjust to fiscal realities.

You also indicate underlying in your comments the importance of

investing in our educational programs. If you would, take a moment and give us your description of why we should, of course, look

first to our educational programs for our future as we look to investment opportunities.

General MATTHEWS. Yes, sir. Again, Mr. Chairman and Congresswoman Schmidt, I appreciate this opportunity to address the

committee because of the education requirements for the U.S. Air

Force are very important to Secretary Wynne and our Chief articulated in their Letter to Airmen back in April.

Again, the top three priorities are, first, to win the war on terror.

Also important is recapitalizing our fleet which is aging significantly. Also critical as part of the transformation year for us is the

development of our airmen of which advanced academic education

is a critical part. I look at it as the seed corn.

I was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. What I witnessed

in the National Military Command Center firmly imbedded in me

an appreciation of the preparation of our soldiers, sailors, and Marines. I guarantee you nobody who was in that National Military

Command Center had gone through a war college class preparing

for that moment for that eventuality.

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What they had gone through was a lifetime of training and education which broadly prepared them for any eventuality which occurred which included that day and they performed magnificently

in taking control of our airways, securing our Nation, and making

sure that we were well prepared for those actions that occurred

just a few short weeks later. I think it is interesting and that is

why I put in my testimony in retrospect to look at how quickly we

were able to quickly react to that situation and take down the

Taliban in Afghanistan, and also prepare forces for the eventual

war in Iraq.

That is why I look at education as being critically important, the

preparation of our airmen because you can’t predict what the future is going to be 10, 15, 20 years from now. I can’t tell you what

September 11, 2011 is going to be like, or September 11, 2021 is

going to be. I will tell you that there will be threats to national security of the United States. The U.S. Air Force will be prepared because of the preparation of our airmen largely through the education of those airmen through advanced education.

The problem we face obviously today is the fact that the Air

Force is downsizing. We have already announced personnel cuts,

57,000 positions, 40,000 full-time equivalence, again is a price that

we feel we must pay now again to pay for the needed modernization of our fleet and also to sustain the ongoing cost of war which

we must win.

What we are working with our headquarters on is a process of

refining exactly what that requirement is and what portion of that

the Air Force Institute of Technology will sustain through our graduate education programs. That is in a state of transition right now.

We were in a program I referred to as Vector Blue that was a vision of our former Secretary Roach and our former Chief of Staff

General Jumper which had a marked increase of the student

through-put through AFIT over the last 4 years or so, over a 70

percent increase in our production.

We have leveled off that program currently which is appropriate

given the fact that we are actually downsizing the force and we are

not going to have the force that existed at the time the program

was instituted. Nonetheless, the Air Force is firmly committed to

the advanced education requirements of the force and we are revisiting exactly what those requirements are and we will continue to

refine them. Again, I see great opportunities in the DAGSI consortium to help provide a new model of how we will provide that education for our airmen in the future.

Mr. TURNER. Since you have had a great deal of experience with

this as a model, can you tell us ways in which DAGSI might be

able to be improved or be more effective in assisting AFIT?

General MATTHEWS. First of all, it has been very useful, as Dr.

Downie indicated earlier, as a model that we have been able to export to other areas. Most notably at Kirkland Air Force Base in

New Mexico, University of New Mexico we have entered into a

DAGSI-like arrangement where we actually provide aeronautical

engineering classes to students at the University of New Mexico to

augment something that doesn’t currently exist within their system. That is a win-win situation for the Air Force because then we

provide that expertise back to the Air Force and their graduates to

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our laboratory and other facilities and defense-related industries in

New Mexico.

We also have entered recently in the DAGSI-like arrangement

with Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles in the Systems Engineering Program where our students at Los Angeles Air Force Base can

take our courses and then transfer those over to their university

for completion of a masters degree which is of great benefit to the

Air Force.

It is hard for me to envision improvements. Perhaps I would like

to see more opportunities to bring even more civilian students into

the Air Force Institute of Technology because, again, I think that

is of benefit to the Air Force and our integration of the total force

which includes civilians. Because of the downsizing in the Air

Force we have a significant need for those in uniform to serve an

expeditionary role which means a lot of deployments overseas often

times into hostile combat arenas.

That has put a pressure on the number of students that were

able to bring to the Air Force Institute of Technology in uniform.

I would envision a time in the future where some of the state-side

requirements for those who are graduates of AFIT programs could

be fulfilled by civilians where they are currently fulfilled by people

in uniform.

We would still like to provide that education because of our

focus, defense focus, military focus, Air Force focus at the Air Force

Institute of Technology. DAGSI is a useful construct to provide

scholarship funds to bring those civilian students to the Air Force

Institute of Technology. Expansion in that area would be of benefit,

I think, to the Air Force and to the country.

Mr. TURNER. Conversely, the Federal partnership and role in this

do you see, especially as you are looking to Monday and the end

of your involvement with AFIT, are there things at the Federal

level that we should be doing differently that would have aided you

or you think would aid AFIT in the future other than, of course,

just funding that you see we might be able to address as either impediment or enhancement to what you do?

General MATTHEWS. As I mentioned in my written testimony, we

are reviewing the business model we currently have at the Air

Force Institute of Technology. We are a fully appropriated activity,

as you know, though we do have a small number of our students

specifically from sister services, Army, Navy, Marines who come

and now because of recent legislation largely sponsored by the Ohio

delegation, we are able to collect and retain tuition from those sister services and roll that money back into the Air Force Institute

of Technology.

I see AFIT transforming similar to Naval Post Graduate School

to where a portion of the school is, in fact, a fee for service. We can

debate about what that percentage actually ought to be but if we

are going to bring more civilians in, I would like a streamlined

mechanism where we able to collect and retain the tuition to offset

cost associated with those students coming into the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Now, exactly what those measures might entail I don’t know

right now. In fact, we have IPT, a pining team together which is

reviewing that and we anticipate bringing forward to our headVerDate 11-MAY-2000 10:33 Jul 16, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00077 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\35620.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
74

quarters a package listing a series of needed changes in policy or

other perhaps restrictions that we currently have to more fully encompass a student body I envision in the future of AFIT so, again,

we can not only educate these folks but we get paid for doing it.

I think that is useful for the Air Force and useful for the country,

too. It would help offset Air Force costs because, again, our resources are very scarce.

Mr. TURNER. That is a very excellent point. Thank you.

Congresswoman Schmidt, do you have a question?

Ms. SCHMIDT. I have one more and it is for Dr. Curran and Dr.

Thomas.

What would happen to your respective universities if this public/

private partnership ended as far as intellectual capacity bringing

in new students to be prepared in science and math for the future,

as well as the financial foundations of the universities?

Dr. CURRAN. Well, I certainly think a relationship with Air Force

Research Labs over the years has led us into areas of research that

the University of Dayton probably would not have pursued. For example, we mentioned that composites were ranked No. 2 in the Nation. I don’t know if we would be as strong in that area because

of something driven by our relationship again with the labs.

I can probably say the same thing for our more currently developed area of a nano characterization, nano research, that we moved

forward with the community and with the base to establish a research program there. That probably would not be at UD campus.

Also, our students who participate through DAGSI get a very

unique exposure to be at the labs, some of them at the labs and

the base. You simply don’t have that opportunity to be exposed to

this type of research.

They learn a lot about the Air Force culture and they are aware

of positions opening up. I think that is one of the challenges that

many of the positions at the base and at the military facilities are

at times classified. The research is not well known. Top scientists

do not get the exposure so through DAGSI and AFIT I think we

get a lot of students in.

Again, I think it keeps you on the cutting edge. Again, in nano

materials I don’t think we would getting the National Science

Foundation Funds we would today if we would not move forward

with the questions by the labs and the various directorates.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you.

Dr. THOMAS. Yes, Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman Schmidt, the

DAGSI program is of tremendous benefit to Wright State, particularly in the College of Engineering in computer science. If that

were to go away or be decreased substantially, it would be a major

impact on our research funding in those areas. We would have to

make up from other sources.

If AFIT were to go away to California or elsewhere, it would take

away from our faculty a large number of very valuable collaborators that help us with our research programs and help our students with their doctorate dissertations. We have heard about the

interaction between AFRL and AFIT. Certainly Wright State Faculty and students benefit from that by working in the teams on

base in AFRL with AFIT students and with AFIT faculty so I think

that would all be very serious for us.

75

Dr. CURRAN. Can I add one thing? I do think you have to take

it a step beyond the universities themselves, again in the area of

composites. Again, we follow the lead. The lab has a discussion. We

establish an expertise in this. We then go after research money at

Federal times, but it’s what happens in the next step.

If you look at logical progression in the date and area, you can

point to the national composite center, something that I do not

think would be in this area if it were not for following the lead of

the labs at the various directorates. I think it is a key step in the

tech commercialization process in this region. Again, there is a

number of companies that are based in composites and other areas.

I think it is very important not for us, the universities, but the

community beyond.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Thank you.

Mr. TURNER. Dr. Curran, Dr. Thomas, I am going to ask you

guys three questions that Dr. Curran can begin with and then, Dr.

Thomas, if you would follow on.

Dr. Curran, you began the discussion of this when you highlighted your national ranking as No. 2 in materials research by the

National Science Foundation. First, do you see that each of your

universities have developed expertise that you believe has distinguished you nationally, thereby attracting students and other interest in the university beyond just the research that is being done

at the research labs and at AFIT? In other words, what is the dividend affect of the specific expertise that you developed through

DAGSI?

Second, will you speak of the coordinated efforts between the two

universities and AFIT as to the type of programming that is provided? Third, in your testimonies many of you highlighted some of

the success stories. Please just give us some of your anecdotal

thoughts on the importance of this program. We will begin with Dr.

Curran.

Dr. CURRAN. I think it has been very important for us to track

students. Again, we have a different portfolio of graduate offerings

than most institutions. Clearly students look at UD to do different

things.

I think it has been equally, if not more, important for the

recruting of top-level faculty to come to the university. Earlier I

referenced the area of nano characterization. We brought in an endowed professor in this area, again, reacting to identified needs by

directorate. I do not think he would have come to the University

of Dayton if he could not have worked with AFIT in the labs.

This was the key to recruting this individual. I can give repeated

examples of that whether it be in fuels, be it in the area of aging

aircraft. It is unique opportunities not only for the students but for

the faculty. It really is an advantage for us out there.

The coordinated efforts between the two universities. There was

a question earlier about can you duplicate this in other areas. I

think we have just a tremendous relationship with Wright State.

We do collaborative research. We recognize each other’s strengths.

We tend to have discussions about not duplicating resources.

Again, I think that is a challenge for higher education in the future.

76

We have this wonderful relationship with Wright State and I

would add Sinclair College also that allows us to talk through

issues and then go out to the community. That is not a group we

talked about a lot. The Dayton Development Coalition and other

entities in the community come together and talk about a logical

progression. Again, it has been a wonderful relationship and continues to be a good relationship. You asked for an area of expertise.

Composites is one again. We have moved ahead. We are nationally known. We are asking important questions. We have been involved in Third Frontier projects. We were the research institute’s

work that I think led to the first commercialization of a project

under the Third Frontier and establishment of actual company

around that. Again, I think it has made us very compositive. Jay

can speak to Wright State’s Third Frontier initiatives.

As a community we look for the possibility of again funding

around aerospace medicine, a mission that is being vetted now.

What can we do to contribute to the advancement of that mission

on the base? Again, it is about cooperation. It is about requiring

researchers who come to DAGSI to be on the base, to teach the

courses with AFIT on the base. That is one of the logistical challenges.

I know you asked about opening this up. I think in the research

area we certainly should be opening up and we do have relationships with universities around the State. But, again, I think we

just have to be responding to this great relationship.

One other question you asked earlier, Representative, you asked

Kevin. What would you do to keep this relationship? Let me respond to it. I would invest in DAGSI. I think the State should invest in DAGSI. If you look at the budget, Liz would never say this

herself but it has been a static budget for a number of years. As

the various missions are bedded down at the base because of

BRAC, I think we are going to have to seriously look at how we

can improve DAGSI and possibly diversify DAGSI. In order for this

relationship to continue, it is that relationship between DAGSI and

AFIT that is very important and what we should be investing in.

Jay, I will turn it over to you.

Dr. THOMAS. I mentioned that the formation of DAGSI was a

win-win since 13 years ago, which is a long time in the history of

Wright State. One of our wins in that process was the establishment of a new doctoral program in the College of Engineering in

six research areas that were key to our interactions with the base

and also with UD, AFIT, and other schools in Ohio.

That program was begun in 1996 and finally approved by the regions in 2001. It now has over 100 students. It is approaching

something like 20 graduates a year. That is a large doctoral program. That has been very important to us over the years.

We are very proud also to have the Wright Center of Innovation

called Data Ohio in data management which has been funded now

for about 3 years. It is a good opportunity for economic development for the region. The Third Frontier is not a research program.

It is an economic development program so organizations like

DAGSI that provide some research funding are very important to

sort of produce the seed corn that leads to the economic development.

77

We have now through the Third Frontier programs and Data

Ohio been able to expand our College of Engineering. We have a

new addition to our Russ Engineering Center of 50,000 square feet

for Data Ohio being open in about 2 weeks. It is just about finished. If you drive down Colonel Glenn Highway you will see a

large glass structure that I think should be a mirror of the technological expertise of the area. We will have a grand opening for that

building on October 27th, I believe it is. You all will hear from us

for that shortly. That’s just a couple of things that have benefited

Wright State through DAGSI and also AFIT partnership.

Mr. TURNER. Thank you. Representative DeWine, I am going to

ask you the question I asked General Matthews which is you have

had just a tremendous amount of expertise as you have made certain you know what is going on at Wright-Patterson Air Force

Base. As you noted, the complexity of Wright-Patt as the different

organizations that are here and how they interrelate. So you have

expertise in not only advocating on the State level successfully for

what the State needs to do, but also knowledge on what needs to

be done on the Federal level.

I am going to ask you the same question that I asked General

Matthews of thoughts you might have of things that we need to do

on the Federal level to support this. After you answer I am going

to give anyone the opportunity who wants to give us closing comments for the record to give us those closing comments and then

we will be adjourning.

Representative.

Mr. DEWINE. Thank you, Congressman. I think I will defer my

remarks to echo General Matthews. I would never pretend to be

more knowledgeable than General Matthews on the things that can

be done to improve to the benefit of AFIT and DAGSI so I will

defer to General Matthews.

I will tell you, though, Congressman, I think this is a good time

and a good opportunity for DAGSI. As Dr. Curran said, this is an

opportunity for us to kind of figure out what the future of DAGSI

is, to diversify it. And I think a good opportunity for us to invest

a few more State dollars into this alliance and this consortium

partly because of what we hear from our partners over here today.

As we have taken some time over the past 2 years in the general

assembly our focus has been very singular, and that is to try to

transform and revitalize Ohio’s economy. Step one has been to try

and change the tax code that has long served as a disincentive for

investment. I believe we have done that so we are creating that environment where people will not be driven away from Ohio because

of things like tax codes.

Our next step, as you and I talked about a little bit before this

hearing got started, I think the next step quite honestly for us is

to focus on the STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineering,

and mathematics. Those are the disciplines that are going to drive

our economy for the future. Those are things that are going to focus

our limited State resources on a growing economy.

I think this is a good time both in terms of getting some attention from the Federal level. I think this is also a good time for

DAGSI to get some attention again from the State level and try to

partner with DAGSI to a greater extent than it has in the past to

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support what we all know are significant resources and benefits to

the Air Force, but also to the State of Ohio as well.

Mr. TURNER. Excellent. Again, I want to thank all of you for both

your preparation, for your time today, and for your patience and

the time being moved as a result of the late night that Congress

had last night.

Whenever we have a hearing, I always want to give people opportunity to put anything else on the record in the form of a closing

comment that they might have. As you have heard other people answer questions, it may have caused you to think of something that

was important that you would like to have added. Or perhaps there

is a question that you had prepared for that we did not ask that

would have been important for us to ask that you might want to

have responded to get on the record of this hearing today. With

that before I close the hearing, I do want to ask if there is anyone

who would like to embellish their testimony today?

General.

General BOWLDS. Just some closing comments. First off, Mr.

Chairman, Congresswoman Schmidt, thank you very much for the

opportunity. What makes Air Force Research Lab a viable institution is the collaboration we do on the DOD level with the national

labs there, the NASA, the Navy, the Army, industry collaborations.

But collaborations that we have talked about here this morning

with AFIT and the collaborations that we get from the local university with DAGSI are very, very important to us to keep our researchers fresh, to keep our ideas fresh and keep the lab an exciting place to work.

You have heard it mentioned several times here today the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, which we are soon to spin up here and

we are in the throes of figuring out how to make that happen, I

believe is going to introduce a whole new chapter to that collaboration. Maybe to your comment, sir, in the change of leadership what

kind of viability does organizations like DAGSI have?

My brief introduction to it is it is a win-win for all participants.

Those kind of organizations have staying power as the leadership

changed because those who come behind them recognize the importance of things like DAGSI, the importance of those partnerships.

When you throw something into the mix like the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, I think that will only accelerate the level of collaboration and opportunity that we will see for the date and region

and for Ohio in general. Thank you again very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today.

Mr. TURNER. Thank you very much.

General Matthews.

General MATTHEWS. Again, Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman

Schmidt, again, thank you for this opportunity to address a committee. My family and I are greatly saddened to be leaving the

Dayton area. It is my first opportunity to visit Wright-Patterson

Air Force Base despite being in the Air Force 20 years. My wife is

a mid-western girl and she especially hates me now that with this

first opportunity we are going to have to leave again. But I am also

looking forward to heading back a little closer to my roots in North

Carolina which is the actual birth place of aviation, I would point

out.

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Mr. TURNER. Now he says that.

General MATTHEWS. Can we get that stricken from the record?

Is that possible?

Ms. SCHMIDT. Is that true?

Mr. TURNER. General, go ahead. We will tolerate that, especially

since you have done such an incredible job.

Ms. SCHMIDT. Mr. Chairman, don’t our license plates say the

birth place of aviation? Didn’t we pass that, Mr. DeWine?

Mr. TURNER. Thank you for giving us that bit of levity. Continue.

General MATTHEWS. I do appreciate and have especially come to

appreciate the genius behind DAGSI over my last year here and

the diversity and the opportunities it provides and marrying my

own graduate educational experience. Even though I was enrolled

in the engineering school I was able to take classes as part of my

major degree in the School of Public Policy which greatly enhanced

my effectiveness in my next assignment working on your staff during the time of the first Gulf War.

In fact, I recently was corresponding to a former squad and commander of mine who was my civil engineering squad and commander and an AFIT graduate who is currently in Baghdad helping rebuild the Iraqi Air Force. The thing that struck me is something that would enhance his capability was the broader appreciation of the environment he works in. In fact, our university initiative I mentioned in my opening remarks is to provide our expeditionary airmen greater skills, language, and cultural awareness.

I think there is an opportunity here for DAGSI, again, because

of the relationship we have. This is not an area of expertise for the

Air Force Institute of Technology. But I do think there is a blending of these skills between science, technology, engineering, and

mathematics along with language and culture which DAGSI offers

a model of how we might be able to bring those skills in without

having to recreate that capability in this operation here. I look forward to those opportunities and the potential for that is something

we will be exploring with AFIT in the future in alignment with our

university initiative in that area.

Again, a small representation of that was a recent competition

we had with our management program where three of our graduate

students in their intermediate developmental education program

participated in a State Department competition which they won

first place in helping the State Department in human resources development case study against universities such as University of

Wisconsin, Georgetown, and a little place up here called Ohio

State. Sorry we beat them out but the fact is we are still an Ohio

institution so the State of Ohio should still be very proud as I am

of our graduates and their time here.

Again, thank you for this opportunity to address you.

Mr. TURNER. I appreciate again your leadership of AFIT. I know

you will fully understand one of my favorite members of the Armed

Services Committee is Representative Hayes from North Carolina.

He and I have come to what I think is a distillation of this dispute

between North Carolina and Ohio and that is that, as we are all

aware, Ohio contributed the intellect and North Carolina contributed the wind. Thank you for your support, though, for North Carolina.

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Anyone else for closing comments?

Mr. DEWINE.

Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman Schmidt, thank you both for

holding the hearing today and coming here to learn a little bit

more about the important relationship and benefits of DAGSI and

AFIT. Thank you both for your commitment and your dedication to

the men and women in uniform. Thank you for coming.

Ms. SCHMIDT. May I add just one thing? Thank you so much for

your commitment to Ohio State and to the Wright Brothers in the

place of aviation.

Mr. DEWINE. Thank you.

Dr. CURRAN. I thank you for the opportunity also. It has been a

pleasure to be here to talk really about a model of collaboration.

This is my 5th year in Dayton and I was surprised to see a community that always came together around issues. This issue in particular the relationship between research labs and the universities

is unique. We identify issues and we move forward. DAGSI and

AFIT then give us the educational opportunities and the research

opportunities, the seed money. We talked a lot about that today.

I think the next step in the process then is so important for the

Dayton region is organizations like the Dayton Development Coalition, Wright Brothers Institute, and certainly our delegation in

Washington and Columbus. These ideas, these opportunities could

pass by certainly if we did not have the followup with the delegations.

The seed money from DAGSI is important for research but the

followup to establish the program in a directorate is very important. Finally, I think our greatest challenge in this area is how we

successfully commercialize that. Again, this will be a reflection of

collaboration also. Again, I thank you for being here and it has

been a wonderful afternoon.

Dr. THOMAS. I would just like to comment that I think we are

facing the next 5 years of tremendous excitement for the Dayton

region as we move through the BRAC process both in aerospace

medicine and censors and to comment that Wright State is fully

committed to supporting the Air Force through these times and

looks forward to increase the interactions with AFRL and future

aerospace medicine and other new units as well as AFIT. Thank

you very much for being here and for your support.

Mr. TURNER. Thank you very much. I would like to thank our

distinguished panel of witnesses for their participation today. I appreciate your willingness to share your knowledge, experiences,

and your thoughts with us. I would also like to thank you for your

participation and, again, your patience for the time being moved.

Clearly there is an exceptional amount of coordination between

all the institutions. As we have heard today, the relationship between the Federal, State, and local governments and the private

institutions is a positive one for the country and Ohio and, most

importantly, our soldiers and airmen in the field. For that reason

it is important that we continue to work together to further the

goals of the Air Force and our local institutions of higher education.

In the event there may be additional questions that we did not

have time for today or the members who were not able to make it

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today, we would like to submit the record will remain open for 2

weeks for submitted questions and answers.

I also want to thank the people of the Air Force Museum for

hosting us today, especially at this time where we have the air

show and they are faced with so many logistics. They have always

been incredibly helpful whenever we have had an event here and

I want to thank them.

With that we will be adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 1:14 p.m. the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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