The ITS is a partner with the IT Alliance of Appalachian Ohio (ITAAO), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce and others in assuring that Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia are contributors to the estimated $12 billion produced annually by the global interactive digital technology (IDT) industry.

IDT is the generic name for computer games in all their multiple forms and applications. These are the entertainment games of Atari, PlayStation and Xbox, but also included are serious games such as war games and business simulations, virtual visualizations of surgical procedures for medical students, modeling of public diplomacy strategies, language learning using simulated environments and all sorts of educational and training tools using digital modeling.

Telecommunications School Director Karen Riggs is Project Director of an ARC-funded $286,000 project to establish a facility (The G.R.I.D. Lab) in downtown Athens for research and development related to Video Gaming and Computer Generated Imaging. The G.R.I.D. project will serve as an entrepreneurial test-bed for teams of faculty and students creating digital games and engaging in research related to expanding knowledge about the gaming category.