The new facility will be located within Richardson’s Innovation Quarter Headquarters, with the partnership including both The University of Texas at Dallas and city, City Manager Don Magner said at the Aug. 19 Richardson City Council meeting.
“Having the city, the university and private enterprise all under one roof, working on advanced technology research and commercial applications, epitomizes what the Richardson innovation quarter stands for,” Magner said.
Two-minute impact
One of the goals for the lab will be testing and evaluating 5G technologies that could be influential in future wireless communications, per the news release. 5G technology is used for the application of autonomous vehicles, smart factories and more.
“This consortium is certain to play a key role in meeting the increasing demand for more resilient and more secure wireless technologies that are so critical to citizens and businesses in the U.S. and around the globe,” said Joseph Pancrazio, vice president for research and innovation at UT Dallas.
The research is funded through a $42 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration sourced from the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The lab will be associated with the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at UT Dallas.
The specifics
To support the effort, the city is providing a rent abatement for a portion of the Innovation Quarter Headquarters that used to house city employees. Magner said the research lab will occupy around 70% of the vacant space on the city’s side of the building at the meeting.
The collaboration will include several other companies from the private sector, including Ericsson and Samsung, in addition to other academic institutions, such as Virginia Tech University and Rutgers University, according to the news release.
The takeaway
Magner said the partnership is part of the city’s economic development strategy, which includes building relationships with companies as they first start.
“We believe that by investing in businesses early on like this, and providing them the kind of environment to develop their advanced technologies and commercialize them, that they will want to remain in Richardson,” Magner said.
