The Office of Research recently finalized and made seed grant award offers to five UT Dallas research teams. The seed grants were for anchoring a public presence of their research centers at the Richardson Innovation Quarter, or IQ Headquarters.

The City of Richardson (COR) announced the redevelopment and renovation of the building to house the IQ’s headquarters on April 6. The IQ represents a major economic development initiative for Richardson and the North Texas region. The announcement also describes a long-term partnership between Richardson, the IQ, and UT Dallas to support the IQ initiative.

The UT Dallas role in the initiative is directly in support of the University’s current strategic plan and its core themes. In particular, UT Dallas will leverage the COR/IQ partnership to advance research (theme 4) and become an economic engine for the region (theme 5).

Here’s a quick summary of the UT Dallas centers that will have a footprint at the IQ headquarters:

There are two that provide a strong foundation in next-gen mobility and autonomy:

• Center for Smart Mobility (COSMO) – PI, Dr. Rym Zalila-Wenkstern
• Multi-scale Integrated Interactive Intelligent Sensing Center (MINTS) – PI, Dr. David Lary

Together they represent the areas in which UT Dallas has leading capabilities: in intelligent sensing, imaging systems, AI, autonomy, software agents, and more. We hope they will prove a strong draw for other industry collaborators and startups in transportation and mobility — an area we know is of great, shared interest between North Texas officials and industry leaders, as well as UT Dallas.

In the life sciences/healthtech area, we have the third center: Center for Imaging and Surgical Innovation (CISI). The center’s director and PI is Dr. Baowei Fei, who combines hyper-spectral imaging, AI, and other software in promising areas of diagnostics and treatment in several areas.

Finally, there are two centers that are anchored by research leaders in AI:

• Center for Applied AI at the IQ w/ UT Dallas Expertise (CAIQUE) – PI, Dr. Walter Voit, co-PIs, Dr. Latifur Khan and Dr. Sriraam Natarajan
• Center for Applied AI and Machine Language (CAAIML) – PI, Dr. Doug DeGroot, co-PIs, Dr. Gopal Gupta and Dr. Lakshman Tamil

As the leader for the Innovation & Commercialization programs in the Office of Research, I’m personally excited with the prospect for these research centers. I expect them to flourish at the IQ, through interaction and collaboration with the public, civic leaders, and industry.

Further, I invite you to learn how to get involved with the IQ initiative and UT Dallas. The UT Dallas-managed portion of the IQ headquarters building comes with a significant variety of workspaces. They include private offices, large and small conference rooms, a conference center, and lots of casual seating for small group meetings. And, the good news? The majority of it is available at no cost to UT Dallas faculty, students, and staff.

For more information, please contact me.