“It will be a playground of opportunity,” Tech assistant vice president for university planning Jason Soileau said.

Some research buildings already along Plantation Road will become a part of the smart village, Soileau said. The university doesn’t want to have too many firm plans in place in hopes that students, faculty and industry partners can dream up cutting edge infrastructure and buildings for the smart village.

“We don’t want to lock ourselves in buildings when we might be able to dream up better ones down the road,” Soileau said.

Rikakis said that, like in the Roanoke venture, private partnerships will be key to the success of the smart village and that the university is already in talks with about 20 companies that are interested in investing and using the smart village.

“Our hope is we’ll create industry jobs outside of academe,” Rikakis said.

The university has a goal of raising $100 million for the first phase of the intelligent infrastructure destination area. University officials hope half of that money will be raised through private partnerships.