Facebook will help raise Iowa’s status as a technology leader as well as create jobs for technology-related careers.

“We’re excited to have found a new home in Iowa, which has an abundance of wind-generated power and is home to a great talent pool that will help build and operate the facility,” said Jay Parikh, vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook, in a statement.

According to an article in the Des Moines Register, Facebook’s future $1 billion data center will be located in Altoona. The opening of the data center might raise Iowa’s status as a technology leader.

“The center will join others in the state owned by Google and Microsoft,” according to the Des Moines Register.

Professor David Weiss of the Computer Science Department looks forward to the development of more technological jobs in Iowa.

“Software engineering these days is a very desirable profession,” Weiss said. “All of our software engineering graduates, all of our computer science graduates, maybe too for computer engineering as well, have jobs before they graduate. They are offered jobs before they graduate.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, the projected rate of change in employment for software developers will be 30 percent. This is based on the 10-year timeframe between 2010 and 2020. Fourteen percent is the average growth rate for any occupation.

Weiss believes it would be great for the data center to build closer ties with the university.

“We do have some reputation in technology. We are a science and technology school,” Weiss said.

Frederick Dark, chair of accounting and Finance at Iowa State, said this  data center will improve the economy of Iowa overall.

“This will be paying good wages, so Iowa itself gets income taxes from the additional jobs,” Dark said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website states the median pay for software developers was $90,530 per year and $43.52 per hour with a bachelor’s degree, entry-level education, in 2010.

There will be new opportunities for young people around Iowa and also for people from other states helping improve the economy.

“It will also bring some good people from outside,” Dark said.