Innovation Campus Gets $12.5M Commitment From Northrop Grumman

ALEXANDRIA, VA — As construction gets underway on the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Alexandria's Potomac Yard, the school has received a financial commitment to support quantum information science and engineering research and instruction.

The $12.5 million commitment comes from Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense company headquartered in Fairfax County. The funding will help establish a Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development along with Virginia Tech's own $15.8 million for the initiative.

The emergence of quantum computing will affect all industries and alter the landscape for national defense," said Lance Collins, vice president and executive director of the Innovation Campus in a statement. "This new partnership enables us to expand our work in this field in powerful new ways, and will sponsor a new Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development on the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus that will lead the nation in this area of research."

Northrop Grumman’s support will create an endowed faculty position to help recruit a researcher to head the Center of Quantum Architecture and Software Development, endow five to 10 graduate fellowship positions to recruit doctoral and master’s candidates, build programs connecting Northrop Grumman experts with faculty and support master of engineering programs in computer science and computer engineering. The Innovation Campus will also create or boost programs that provide a path to STEM careers for K-12 students, particularly underrepresented groups.

"Our partnership with Virginia Tech will help support their vision to solve the world’s most pressing problems with ground-breaking technologies," said Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman chairman, CEO and president and a member of the Innovation Campus Advisory Board. "Through partnerships like this, we can build on a ‘better together’ approach to prepare future talent — to help build the next generation of engineers, scientists and technologists – while driving innovative critical research."

The Innovation Campus broke ground in September in Potomac Yard. It will be part of a larger mixed-use development and innovation district planned by developer JBG Smith. City Council gave approval in late 2020 for the first phase of the development to move forward: the first academic building, four office buildings and two residential buildings with retail. The first Innovation Campus academic building is expected to open in 2024.

The first Innovation Campus students are already enrolled and taking classes at Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church. By 2030, Virginia Tech expects to have 770 students in the four graduate programs offered at the campus.