Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Inner Banks STEM (IBX STEM) Center kicked off an expansion project on Thursday with a groundbreaking hosted by the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce. 

IBX STEM will soon begin construction of a 13,000-sq.-ft. facility at Washington-Warren Airport in Washington. This will allow the nonprofit to teach more middle and high school students about  Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related topics. 

The goals of IBX STEM are to introduce at-risk youth to STEM related career paths and help them develop life skills through summer camps and workshops that are supported by community members and local organizations. 

“This new Inner Banks STEM Center (IBX STEM) building becoming a reality after all of these years of discussion is a dream come true,” Al Powell, founder and president of IBX STEM told the Daily News. “Our state-of-the-art building will allow IBX STEM to expose students to a variety of career pathways in aviation, boating, drones, and renewable energy/Earth Science. With this larger facility, we will be able to offer year-round STEM activities for students including after-school, weekend, and summer camp activities.” 

IBX STEM hosts summer camps focused on boating, aviation and renewable energy; however, those camps will be canceled this year as the new building is under construction. Construction is estimated to take eight to nine months with a target completion date of November 2025. 

“The new state-of-the-art facility located here will greatly increase our ability to serve the youth and our community even better,” Evan Lewis, IBX STEM Board Chair said at the groundbreaking. 

The facility, according to Powell, will have classroom and dedicated science labs as well as room for IBX STEM’s aviation and boat simulators, planetarium and new above ground pool for programs on underwater drone technology. 

IBX STEM was previously located in a building across from the main airport office. That building is now owned by Beaufort County Community College and is known as the Aviation Workforce Training Center. It is where the college’s Unmanned Aerial Systems program and Digital Bridge program are housed; it will provide space for drone training. For now, IBX STEM and the college will share the building until the new facility is built. 

Beaufort County Community College has partnered with Powell and IBX STEM for at least a decade, President of the college, Dr. David Loope said. “We’re fortunate to have someone like Al Powell in this region. Someone who’s creative, works hard and knows lots of important people and he works for the common good and to get things done for those people who need help the most.” 

Loope continued to say that the community college and IBX STEM share a $375,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration that is used to help middle and high school students become pilots or aviation mechanics. 

“This historic event would never have been possible without the collaboration of State Representative Keith Kidwell, Mayor Donald Sadler, City Manager Jonathan Russell, the Washington City Council and the Washington Warren Airport Authority,” Powell said. 

Jorge Bocanegra, vice chairman of the Washington-Warren Airport Authority, said the new facility “isn’t just turning of soil; it’s the turning of a page of Beaufort County, the City of Washington and a commitment to the future… it’s going to plant the seed of future generations of innovators here in Washington…” 

North Carolina House Representative Keith Kidwell, said Thursday was a big day, because “it’s a footprint in the education system that we need in northeast North Carolina. To bring the children’s skills up to grade with the technology we’re going to be building and to be deploying in Washington, Beaufort County.”