MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — One of the more prominent active political leaders in West Virginia traveled to Morgantown to see the new location of the facility operated by Leidos.
United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito paid a visit to the company’s 30,000-square-foot facility at the WestRidge Business Park in Morgantown as part of a visit to the state on Wednesday. Capito was shown the rooms that are part of the collaborative floor plan inside the facility that includes labs to support software technology ranging from biometrics to general defense with partnerships with organizations such as the FBI, the Department of Energy, and the Department of War. This continues over 30 years of operation by the company within the Morgantown area.
“I went to their former offices when they were really bursting at the seams, and the way they coordinate with WVU and the FBI Center and the enormous, I think, upside of what we see with the technology that it is advancing, I really wanted to get up here to see,” said Capito. “Not just the facility, but also to meet some of the people.”
As part of the tour, Capito was shown the complex that helps support infrastructure and defense operations across the country as part of Leidos’ multi-billion dollar footprint. This included rooms with a focus on technologies that provide services ranging from aircraft database information for airports and military aircraft to biometric identification frequently used by government organizations such as the FBI and TSA. Technologies that are directly supported within the Mountain State through the help of West Virginia residents.
“If you’re looking at internal homeland security, border security in particular,” said Capito on some of the most notable technologies developed by Leidos at the Morgantown facility. “The ability to use facial recognition, you know, if you have a terrorist watch list or something like that in real time, I think the real-time effects of it are interesting to me.”
Capito also noted that the Leidos facility in Morgantown has continued several local partnerships that were in place when the company first began to work in the Morgantown area 30 years ago. This includes the hiring of students from West Virginia University and Fairmont State University, both as salaried employees and as interns with a chance to be hired directly upon graduation. Partnerships that Capito feels bring more opportunities to keep young West Virginians within the state.
“It’s run out of here with a lot of West Virginia talent, working with Fairmont and WVU, having interns and cooperative arrangements with the universities,” said Capito. “That’s what I think the student is looking for.”
For operations within the Mountain State, the Leidos facility in Morgantown highlights similar investments made in Clarksburg, Bridgeport, and at the National Energy Technology Laboratory. For developments within the Morgantown area, the Leidos facility at WestRidge highlights nearly a half dozen different developments that have been established or are in line towards opening over the past half-decade, coinciding with the Mountaintop Beverage plant at the Morgantown Industrial Park and investments around WestRidge. With economic development in the state ongoing, Capito is appreciative of companies like Leidos for continuing to build with Mountain State residents.
“Anywhere you go in the world, there’s a footprint of something that a West Virginian has done,” said Capito. “And I think that’s a tribute to, obviously, the people that work here, but I think also the educational institutions with which they’re working with.”