A consortium of the Wright State Research Institute and area companies will create 50 full-time jobs with an average wage of about $90,000 a year to work with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to study human performance.
The advanced-degree jobs, in areas such as the neurosciences, will be created in the next 12 to 18 months, says Stephanie Gottschlich, a Wright State spokeswoman. The work will investigate how to improve the performance of both unmanned aerial vehicle operators and analysts, she said.
The Human Performance Consortium, a group made up of the Air Force, Wright State University, and industry, will collaborate on the effort, Gottschlich said.
The project cleared a final hurdle when a state Controlling Board gave a go-ahead to a $3.5 million loan to Wright State Applied Research Corp., the contracting arm of the institute, to pay for research space and equipment.
The loan’s approval was announced by state Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, a member of the board. The state previously set aside $1.5 million for the joint initiative with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Human Effectiveness Directorate at Wright-Patterson.
The money will build the infrastructure needed to support Air Force-funded research of up to an additional $5 million over five years that could help a pilot simultaneously handle multiple UAVs in flight, among other priorities, officials say.
Click here to read the entire article: