Every Last Word

Dallas Innovates’ signature series capturing what leaders across North Texas are saying — in their own words — about innovation, impact, and what’s next.

The Last Word: UNT Dallas’ Ratna Narayan On Curiosity and Inspiring a New Generation of Scientists and Engineers

The future belongs to the curious, and that's why the University of North Texas at Dallas has teamed up with five local school districts to inspire a new generation of young scientists and engineers through the Science Education Fellowship program.
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The Last Word: Health Wildcatters’ Dr. Hubert Zajicek on Dallas’ Biotech Boom
Dr. Zajicek and three other local biotech leaders—Sulagna Bhattacharya, CEO of Nanoscope Therapeutics; Gabby Everett, director of business operations and strategy at BioLabs Pegasus Park; and R.A. Session II, founder of Taysha Gene Therapies—discussed Dallas' biotech boom on a panel hosted by D CEO Healthcare.
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The Last Word: Dr. Kangkook Jee on How UTD Students Are Making Their Mark in National Competitions
From an NSA Codebreaker Challenge to an offshore wind farm competition to one of the world's toughest-to-crack mathematics competitions, UT Dallas teams keep showing up and making the mark.
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The Last Word: UTD’s Dale MacDonald on How AI Chatbots Could Impact Your Job
by | Mar 29, 2023
MacDonald was part of a panel discussion at UT Dallas, in partnership with The Dallas Morning News, aimed at clearing up misconceptions about ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that’s gone viral. The panel featured four UTD scientists—Xinya Du, Gopal Gupta, Dale MacDonald, and Jessica Ouyang—and was moderated by Adithi Ramakrishnan, science reporter at the DMN.
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The Last Word: How Dirk Nowitski Helped Raise Over $1.3M for Educational First Steps

Educational First Steps is a Dallas-based nonprofit that supports early learning environments for children from birth to age five in North Texas. It delivers professional development, training, classroom resources, and business support to educators to help existing childcare centers achieve and maintain national accreditation. And last week, it got a big assist in doing this from Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitski.
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The Last Word: Repurposed Materials’ Ryan Groth on Finding New Lives for Old Bowling Alley Wood, Conveyor Belts, Street Sweeper Brushes, and More
by | Mar 23, 2023
WFAA's Jason Wheeler checked out Repurposed Materials in Forest Hill and found that it sells old bowling alley wood to be turned into tabletops and shuffleboards; worn-out street sweeper brushes to become back scratchers for zoo animals; and much more.
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The Last Word: Rising Number of First-Time Buyers Enter the Smart Home Market, Report Says
Robotic vacuum cleaners, smart cameras, video doorbells, and smart thermostats experienced higher purchase rates in 2022, according to new insights from Dallas-based Park Associates.
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The Last Word: Perkins&Will’s Ron Stelmarski on How His Firm’s Buildings Are Remaking Dallas
Stelmarksi has been the design director of Perkins&Will's Dallas office since 2011. According to Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster, "nobody has done more to shape the city’s built environment this century."
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The Last Word: Fort Worth’s Pindar Van Arman on AI Art

by | Mar 17, 2023
Van Arman is a Fort Worth-based artist and roboticist who's developed robots that "use deep learning neural networks, artificial intelligence, feedback loops, and computational creativity to make a surprising amount of independent aesthetic decisions." But Van Arman insists that he is the artist—not his robots.
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The Last Word: LCM Group’s David Luttrell on Why Family Offices Should Look at Startups
by | Mar 16, 2023
In our recent 2023 issue of Dallas Innovates magazine, we reported on a panel discussion about family investment offices that was held late last year at the annual Venture Dallas conference. During the panel session, Luttrell spoke about the single-family-office LCM Group, and how it views startups as driving innovation.
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The Last Word: Mansfield Mayor Michael Evans on His City’s 72-Acre Film Studio Development
The city of Mansfield, Texas, plans to break ground this year on Mansfield Super Studios, a film production studio to be built on 72 acres of undeveloped land, with restaurants, a hotel, and retail part of the project's $70 million vision.
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The Last Word: Techstars’ Maëlle Gavet Has Advice for Founders Navigating the SVB Crisis
Maëlle Gavet is the New York-based CEO of Techstars, which kicked off its inaugural Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator last year. Over the weekend, she took to LinkedIn to address the "nerve-shredding" crisis at Silicon Valley Bank for entrepreneurs in the Techstars network "and far beyond."
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The Last Word: Pasos for Oak Cliff’s Jesse Acosta on Brush with Netflix Fame

Acosta and his co-founder, Alejandra Zendejas, are a sneakerhead couple who instill confidence in children across Oak Cliff and Texas by giving them free new pairs of sneakers, with the students nominated by their schools for the nonprofit gifts. According to D's Catherine Wendlandt, Pasos for Oak Cliff has given over 2,100 pairs of sneakers to kids so far. Acosta, a teacher at Kimball High School, co-launched the nonprofit after noticing that many economically disadvantaged students wear worn hand-me-downs.
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The Last Word: Gov. Abbott on Dallas’ Tech Job Growth and More at DRC Luncheon
Speaking to an audience of over 400 business leaders at Dallas' Hilton Anatole, Gov. Abbott delivered a "State of the State" address Tuesday at a luncheon hosted by the Dallas Regional Chamber. "The Dallas Metroplex is ranked number one in the nation for high-tech job growth because of its well-trained workforce, world-class airport, leading research universities, and affordable real estate," Abbott told the audience.
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The Last Word: Grata’s Patrick Brandt on the Lure and Challenge of Running Startups
by | Mar 7, 2023
In December, we told you about a $6 million seed funding round at Grata, a Dallas-based online platform that enables customers to deliver gratitude and recognition to a brand’s frontline employees in real time. With Grata now operating in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida at companies like Tex-Mex restaurant Mesero and First United Banks, Brandt aims to start raising up to $25 million in a Series A toward the end of this year, D CEO says.
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The Last Word: Duncanville HS’s Brian Duncan on Teaching Entrepreneurship
by | Mar 6, 2023
Many school and college programs in North Texas are focused on teaching students to become skilled workers. But Duncanville High School teacher Brian Duncan has bigger hopes for the kids in his entrepreneurship class—and some of them put his lessons to the test recently at Dallas Farmers Market.
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