The VIPER program provides a mechanical engineering basis for research in the motorsports industry, including a seven-post shaker rig at Virginia International Raceway and use of a 14-by-22-foot wind tunnel at NASA Langley. “I don’t think anybody underestimates the value of partnerships in today’s world,” Virginia Tech provost and vice president for academic affairs Mark McNamee said.

“This is a preview of what we will see in the field of research.” Virginia Tech expects to benefit from the research initiative in Southside, while the region expects to see the benefit of jobs. “You have joined to produce an entity that is unique, certainly in our area, and probably in the world,” Goode said. “This is the bright hope of VIPER … to serve as a beacon to draw companies to Halifax, to Henry County and Martinsville, and Pittsylvania (County) and Danville.” VIPER also receives funds through the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission and through state funding of the institute.

Departments as diverse as education and sociology pay attention to the partnerships as a means of bringing education from the land-grant campus in Blacksburg to Southside, McNamee said. “We feel this is a laboratory environment on a grand scale,” he said. “Multi-disciplinary research … is the only way to make real progress.” The access to NASA’s wind tunnel could provide the racing industry access to simulated speeds greater than those achieved on the speedways, Old Dominion vice president for research Mohammad Karim said.

“VIPER is intended to maintain the youth in this area and to attract others to this area,” VIPER director Mehdi Ahmadian said. “One reason - to create new jobs in this region and to spur the economy.” “We expect it to have a major impact in the economic development of the region,” Langley Full Scale Wind Tunnel manager Jim Cross said. A master’s degree in engineering in motorsports program will be launched with co-location at Old Dominion and VIR, Cross said.