life-long professional goal for Estep , and he says it is a game changer in the making for West Virginia .
“ I believe this is the biggest opportunity the state has ever seen ,” Estep says . “ We spent the last 15 years getting the hard part in place . We are having negotiations with the cloud service providers . We are working very impressively with the state to run the fiber . We need to get these cloud providers here , but that ’ s achievable . Having at least one of those cloud service providers in the park , it is substantially more likely we can capture a significant , if not majority , market share of the projected multibillion-dollar expansion of this industry .”
While the wheels are in motion , Estep still needs the state ’ s help to complete this transformation puzzle .
“ The state needs to help us get at least one of these cloud service providers . I am working with them to try to do that ,” he says . “ The state needs to help us make sure we are establishing a pipeline of innovators and entrepreneurs . That is in motion , too . We need to reach out to the development office . We need a full-blown program to make every climate company aware of what we have so maybe they will relocate .”
Paramount in the project is a workforce ready to jump into big data as entrepreneurs or professional employees .
“ In West Virginia we were training people to work in the mines , which was a great job , but it only required a high school diploma ,” Estep says . “ People look at our workforce and see education is really low because we created no jobs that required it .”
The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission has plans in place to prepare more of the state ’ s young people to work in the knowledge sector . With the West Virginia Board of Education among its partners , the commission ’ s science and research division has compiled Vision 2025 , a five-year plan to accentuate STEM classes and jobs .
“ Computer science and data is one of the four key research areas identified in Vision 2025 ,” says Julianna Serafin , Ph . D ., director of the science and research division . “ That is exactly the kind of background people will need to use this weather data they are accumulating at the high technology park .”
Serafin says the division wants about 30 % of the people who enroll in STEM degree programs in West Virginia to complete the program within four years . In 10 years , they want to double that number to 60 %.
Photo by Sherry Carr .
Successful commercialization of weather data at the I-79 park will bring people to the Mountain State and stop the state ’ s brain drain with professional opportunities it can provide , according to Estep .
“ We want the existing $ 7 billion industry to migrate here , but with this new use of cloud technology , it will double ,” he says . “ I am hoping this expansion from $ 7 billion to $ 14 billion will be indigenous . This is not pie in the sky ; it ’ s here . If we can get at least one of the data centers here , we will see significant movement in five years . We are so close to what could be transformative . This will help diversify our economy and eclipse anything we hoped for . Coal is our past ; data is our future .” •
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