Published November 1988 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd TRI-Ada Conference '88 Held in Charleston In order to promote new business and industrial opportunities in West Virginia, over three years ago I helped launch and began sponsoring the Software Valley Initiative in our state. Software Valley is a non-profit movement to promote research, education, and the development of a computer software industry and related high-technology businesses in West Virginia. Since 1985, I have sponsored seven Software Valley conferences throughout West Virginia to explain to state leaders in business, government, industry, and education the potential economic opportunities posed for West Virginia by computer technology, and to enlist growing numbers of our state's citizens in developing those opportunities. As a result of those efforts, I have been able to gain a groundlevel position for West Virginia in the "Ada" computer language network that is emerging nationally and internationally. "Ada" is the computer language mandated for use in weapons systems by the U.S. Defense Department, which considers the development of the Ada language vital to our national defense and security. Ada is also becoming the primary computer language used by the Pentagon. Because of West Virginia's growing significance as a software center, I was able to bring the week-long international TRI-Ada Conference '88 to Charleston last month. Estimated to be among the largest conventions in Charleston's history, this seminar and technology exhibition brought together some of America's major computer software manufacturers with leading defense agencies and businesses using the Ada program. More than 2000 computer professionals and experts from across the country attended the convention, with more than 120 companies from the aerospace, defense, and computer industries displaying their technology and wares. Speakers at this Ada convention included representatives from the National Air and Space Administration (NASA), major universities, the Department of Defense, and such major defense-related corporations as Grumman, Rockwell, Honeywell, Unisys, Martin Marietta, and Westinghouse. This was the second time that I have enlisted an Ada convention in meeting in West Virginia, the first occasion being in 1986. TRI-Ada '88, like its predecessor, was a solid success, and should move West Virginia another step forward toward a more prosperous high-technology future. November 9, 1988