THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240509
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KATRICE FRANKLIN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 41 lines
A Lockheed Martin manager has been hired by Old Dominion University to develop a technology hub that's expected to attract industry to Hampton Roads.
Thomas W. Mastaglio, now a deputy program manager with Lockheed Martin's facility in Orlando, Fla., will begin work in mid-November as the first director of the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center in Suffolk.
His duties will include starting up the center, identifying suitable industrial projects and serving as a liaison between the center, industry and ODU faculty.
Mastaglio's salary is about $100,000 a year.
Roland Mielke, an ODU engineering professor who participated in the interviewing process, said he was impressed with Mastaglio's experience.
``He had a neat collection of things in his background that makes him ideal,'' Mielke said. ``He was in the Army and has worked with the military. And he has industrial experience. That set him apart.''
ODU began its search for a director last spring after setting aside $500,000 for the next two years to start the center, located at the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College.
The center will work closely with the new Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk, where the military uses computers, models, and simulators to develop, test and study war operations.
The ODU center will help businesses, educators and students tap into the military's vast computing and modeling resources.
For instance, a business could use a computer modeling program to determine if hiring three new staffers would help or hurt the company. A medical school also could use a simulation model to train doctors.
A similar center in Orlando helped that area attract 140 companies and more than $180 million in economic development in eight years.
The ODU center had been in jeopardy after the state failed to allocate the $750,000 that ODU had sought. The Norfolk university had also asked for another $1 million a year to operate the center during the next five to seven years. University officials said they will ask the General Assembly for funding next year. by CNB