Expanded agreement provides Air Force researchers more access to work on Wright State’s campus

Col. Travis Pond, deputy commander of the 88th Air Base Wing, and Wright State President Sue Edwards signed an agreement that allows Wright-Patterson Air Force Base personnel to work throughout the Wright State’s campus. (Photo by Erin Pence)

Researchers from the Air Force Research Laboratory and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base now have access to work throughout Wright State University’s campus thanks to an expanded partnership agreement.

The new agreement builds on a successful initiative launched in December 2022 that gave Air Force researchers access to office and laboratory spaces in Wright State’s Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base personnel can now utilize other areas of Wright State’s campus, including labs, classrooms, office space and even on-campus housing if the need arises.

Leaders from Wright State, the Air Force Research Laboratory and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base celebrated the partnership during a ceremonial signing ceremony in the Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building on Dec. 12.

The agreement demonstrates Wright State’s commitment to supporting Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the region, said Wright State University President Sue Edwards, Ph.D.

“Wright State, the Air Force Research Laboratory and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base all benefit from our close partnership,” she said. “This partnership offers Wright State students and faculty hands-on experience through internships, cooperative programs and research projects while supporting workforce development for AFRL and WPAFB. By linking academic expertise with cutting-edge research and real-world applications, the collaboration creates a robust ecosystem for innovation, talent cultivation and contributions to national security.”

“Putting people on Wright State’s Campus, working together, getting them outside the fence from an Air Force perspective, is going to allow excellence to happen,” said Timothy Bunning, Ph.D., chief technology officer at the Air Force Research Laboratory. “I think there are wins on both sides.”

Having the ability to work in early-stage science in Wright State’s facilities is critical, Bunning said.

“It allows our researchers to interface with the best of the best at Wright State,” he said. “It allows them to partner completely differently than we would have to on base. We will bring purpose-driven, mission-driven problems that we want to solve on behalf of the defense of this nation. Bringing faculty into those discussions and helping educate the next generation of students that are interested in certain scientific disciplines, I think it can help Wright State raise the bar.”

“We have a great history of leveraging our universities, our industry, to prepare our military-industrial complex to be prepared to face the challenges that we face as a country,” said Col. Travis Pond, deputy commander of the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “That is being revitalized as we enter this next phase of great power competition, and we posture ourselves for what could occur down the road. And nothing’s more important than the foundational research that’s happening here at Wright State with AFRL.”

More than 60 AFRL researchers are actively working in laboratories in Wright State’s Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building, fostering deeper collaboration and integration and more opportunities for students. That research ranges from sleep research, brain stimulation for performance augmentation and cognitive performance monitoring.

The Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building is home to translational research and collaboration with highly integrated laboratories, core resources and interactive student spaces. A full 55,000 square feet of the four-story building is dedicated to research.

This building houses the region’s only advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner dedicated exclusively to research, facilitating groundbreaking work in neuroscience.

The MRI scanner is operated by Wright State’s Center of Neuroimaging and Neuro-Evaluation of Cognitive Technologies, whose mission is to foster a collaborative environment for the Defense Department and academic neuroscience research in the Miami Valley.

The scanner was funded through a Defense University Research Instrumentation program from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the State of Ohio Action fund by leveraging Wright State’s collaborations with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing.

“Research is, for me, the heart and soul of advancement in our community,” Edwards said. “Our Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building is the ideal building for collaborative research to be conducted. And we look forward to furthering our work with the AFRL team throughout Wright State’s campus in the future.”