Gov. Kay Ivey, left, with UAH President Robert Altenkirch. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

The event Tuesday at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, ceremonial tossing of dirt with silver spades aside, went beyond another building popping up on campus.

The $16 million D.S. Davidson Invention to Innovation Center will not only be a classroom for students at UAH but for businesses seeking new starts or a window to new ideas.

That was a message brought by a series of speakers at the groundbreaking held in front of Salmon Library at UAH - including Huntsville philanthropist and successful businesswoman Dorothy Davidson and Gov. Kay Ivey.

"Right here, future generations of Alabamians will innovate and create," Ivey said. "Who knows what they might come up with?"

Davidson, CEO and chair of the board of Davidson Technologies Inc., donated $5 million to the project that she said will someday shift the nation's focus from California to Alabama on matters of technology and new ideas.

"When we think of innovation, we usually go to Silicon Valley in California," she said. "Years ago, they were the ones. But they are the grandfathers now. The new life and the new way we can show what we can do is right here in Alabama and it's right here in Huntsville and it's right here at UAH."

The three-story, 46,650-square foot building will be located just off Holmes Avenue and adjacent to the UAH College of Business building with second- and third-floor connections.

According to UAH, the three-pronged mission of the center focuses on:

Stimulating growth of new and existing science and engineering high-tech companies

Catalyzing formation of a resilient entrepreneurial econsystem in the northern Alabama and south central Tennessee regions

Building partnerships with various entrepreneurial econsystems and hubs to create pathways that empower, ignite, and motivate the community to make ideas happen.

"When this facility is occupied in early 2019, this incubator will stimulate the growth of new and existing high-tech companies and analyze the formation of a resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem in the north Alabama region," UAH President Robert Altenkirch said. "The D.S. Davidson Invention to Innovation Center is going to play a critical role in increasing the number of inventions that are developed into successful innovations, start-up firms and economic growth initiatives.

"Success of the center is going to be measure by the increased number of high-tech startups, expansion, opportunity for existing high-tech companies and diversification of the employment base to include more private sector jobs. The center will also serve to expand the already strong relationship between UAH and the federal agencies on Redstone Arsenal and numerous companies in Cummings Research Park."

Ivey said, "It's fitting that such a facility like this would be located here in Huntsville - the city that's known as the titan of innovation."

As a piece of Huntsville's innovation fabric, Davidson said the center will be a place businesses can look toward to see the future.

"Years ago, whoever thought that this campus would hold something that would be so great for this part of the world?" she said. "They are now putting innovation centers all over the world - large cities, other countries. But we are going to do the best right here.

"We are going to open up not only a world for people who want to start new businesses and learn, but it's going to be a place for the businesses who are here to come in and find out, What is the latest technology? What are the things we need to do that the public wants to get? We're going to give that to them here at the University of Alabama in Huntsville."

Beyond the donation by Davidson, UAH credited support from local, state and federal entities.

"The groundbreaking of the Invention to Innovation Center at UAH is excellent news for our state" U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said in a statement. "I was proud to support efforts to fund this project, which will focus on removing current barriers to innovation and encourage entrepreneurship throughout the region."

Phillip Paradice, regional director for the U.S. Economic Development Administration, said support through "competitive grants" from the EDA came about only because the project was deemed worthy.

"You have to bring forth a winning project," he said. "It's not just about filling out paperwork."

Ivey said she expected more winning projects from the center in the future.

"We're not here to celebrate just the construction of a building," the governor said. "This is not about bricks and mortar. Rather, we are here to celebrate the commitment of future generations of Alabamians that will innovate and create and they will become the brightest and the best innovators, thinkers, creators and doers."

And that includes women, Ivey said.

"I'm very proud that this facility is committed to new thinking, big ideas and it will be named for a woman like Dorothy Davidson," Ivey said. "Dorothy embodies a part of my own dream - a dream that young women across this state will pursue STEM education and STEM careers. Dorothy has built a legacy for herself for accomplishments in aerospace, cyber and the intelligence worlds.

"Now, she will be building another legacy in the lives of men and women who come and embrace changes and embark on the journey of discovery right here at the D.S. Davidson Invention to Innovation Center."