By JARETT HENSHAW,  WSLS-TV 10

The Instituted for Advanced Learning and Research sits just off of Route 29, but sticks out like a sore, but beautiful thumb in Danville.  It’s a stunning site for Southside.

It grabs your attention as soon as you walk in the lobby and see the monitor made of nine flat screens hovering above.  Paid for from tobacco settlement money, the institute’s focuses on Danville’s future.

“In the past, we’ve relied on textiles and manufacturing.  We know those opportunities no longer exist and the future economy is based on science, technology, engineering, and math so sparking that interest is very important,” says K through 12 Coordinator Nancy Combs.

She says they’re getting kids interested in science and technology at an early age.  She shows us a robot built by students at this past year.  It can flip over and change direction when it runs into an obstacle.

Out in their new greenhouse, Dr. Barry Flinn is bioengineering lilies to make them more resistant to drought.  Four Virginia Tech grad students are also developing sweeter and juicier strawberries.

“One of our goals has always been to create a green hub in the part of the state,” said Flinn.

Then there’s the center piece of the institute, “The Million Dollar Board Room”, that really did cost over million dollars.  With the push of a button, the shades close and plasma screens come out of the ceiling that are connected to cameras in the room.

One of the cool features of the Million Dollar Board Room is there’s a camera at the end of the table that can be focused on whoever’s speaking, so everyone at the table can be seen and heard.

“Our conference center attracts folks to the area.  They have an opportunity to visit this area and consider it a place to live, work, and play and perhaps bring jobs here,” said Combs.

Combs says it fits right in with the overall goal of the institute to help develop the transform the region by focusing on research and technology.  The institute is now accepting applications for its summer camps that range from robotics, to animation, to engineering.