RICHARDSON – The City of Richardson will establish a significant physical presence in the Richardson Innovation Quarter – also known as the Richardson IQ® or The IQ® — by moving its Office of Strategic Initiatives into the dynamic innovation district. Joining the City in the modernized 1302 E. Collins Blvd. facility will be The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), which will place five newly created UT Dallas research centers plus an extension of the university’s Venture Development Center in the heart of The IQ®.

The five new research centers will fall under the umbrella of UT Dallas’ new Center for Emergent Novel Technology at the Innovation Quarter (CENT-IQ). The collaboration establishes a formidable physical and symbolic presence for both the City and the Richardson-based, Carnegie Tier One research university in a showcase “HQ for The IQ®.”

Construction work to reactivate and upgrade the multi-purpose facility will commence this summer, with an opening slated for February 2022. UT Dallas will occupy approximately 10,000 square feet of the 27,500-square-foot facility, and 3,000 square feet will be dedicated for programs, networking and event space that will attract entrepreneurial and startup activity to the area’s thriving tech business ecosystem. The remainder will be occupied by the City’s Office of Strategic Initiatives, which coordinates with partners to promote Richardson’s 1,200-acre innovation district. Approximately 7,000 square feet will be set aside for future expansion or flexible partnering opportunities. The City-owned building also adjoins the district’s newly extended Duck Creek Trail.

“This major knowledge capital investment by the City and UT Dallas is a critical step in realizing the Richardson IQ®’s ultimate vision as the premier tech hub in Texas,” said Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker. “We salute our partners at UT Dallas for thinking creatively about how to bring cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research and hands-on support for entrepreneurs to our opportunity-rich innovation district. We expect this formal, tangible commitment to The IQ® to serve as a catalyst that stimulates business alliances, attracts new jobs and inspires brilliant, new ideas that advance the future of global technology right here in Richardson.”

“The City of Richardson and UT Dallas have long had a deeply intertwined, mutually beneficial relationship focused on tech-oriented research, business innovation and training of bright minds,” said UT Dallas President Richard C. Benson. “With this announcement, we are proud to bring teams from across the University’s eight schools to be deeply, directly engaged in the Richardson IQ® for years to come. Working hand-in-hand with the City, surrounding business community and other institutional partners, we look forward to collaboratively solving some of our nation’s greatest business, medical, transportation and sustainability challenges. This new Richardson IQ® nerve center is the ideal environment in which to do so.”

UT Dallas’ research centers in CENT-IQ will feature a series of co-working, research and lab spaces that represent a range of disciplines from multiple schools within UT Dallas. Each center will focus on forward-thinking solutions developed from its respective technology specialty, which include applied artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), imaging and surgical innovation, and smart mobility.

The five new, multi-disciplinary UT Dallas research centers are:

  • The Center for Applied AI & Machine Learning (CAAIML) is an outward-facing research-and-development center that will partner with companies to apply leading-edge AI and machine-learning technologies to their products, services, and business processes, in order to address strategically important business challenges.
  • The Center for Applied AI at the Richardson Innovation Quarter with UT Dallas Expertise (CAIQUE, pronounced “cake”) is a multi-disciplinary center that will showcase emergent applied AI research to engage companies, win extramural grants, strengthen international partnerships and provide a global network for affiliated students to excel as UT Dallas alumni.
  • The Center for Imaging and Surgical Innovation (CISI) will bring together engineers and computer scientists from UT Dallas and investigators and clinicians from UT Southwestern (UTSW) to develop emergent technologies to solve unmet medical and healthcare problems, while working together on translational research, clinical trials and product commercialization.
  • The Multi-Scale Integrated Interactive Intelligent Sensing (MINTS) Center will build on UT Dallas’ remote sensing and machine learning experience to develop and deploy a cost-effective irrigation decision support tool using super-resolution machine learning and remote sensing imagery from satellites, drones and, optionally, security cameras. The tool is intended for – and will be used in collaboration with – municipalities, corporate campuses and individual homeowners to save money by optimizing their irrigation water usage.
  • The Center for Smart and Connected Mobility (CSCM) will provide advanced solutions for the engineering of smart, multi-modal cyber transportation infrastructures to improve safety and enhance mobility for all urban road users. The center is committed to pursuing community engagement, strengthening industry collaboration, accelerating the research transition into the real world, and advancing education and outreach efforts.

For more information, visit www.utdallas.edu.