National Science Foundation

Dallas College Engineering Team Wins Third in U.S. Innovation Challenge With LiDAR-Based Aviation Safety Tech

by | Jun 18, 2025
The student-built startup concept aims to reduce aircraft fatalities—and caught NASA’s eye.
MORE
UTA’s New Wheelchair-Mounted Smart Tech Gathers Real-World Data to Guide Inclusive Building Design
by | Jun 3, 2025
Backed by a National Science Foundation grant, the project’s key innovation is WHEELCOM—a device that captures wheelchair movement data to help engineers design smarter, more inclusive buildings.
MORE
Texas-Based Research Bridge Partners Taps New Board Leadership to Drive ‘High-Quality Investment Opportunities’ in Biomedical Innovation
by | Aug 9, 2024
With a new CEO and three seasoned industry veterans joining its board, Research Bridge Partners is focused on moving university innovations from the lab to the marketplace.

Last year, the Texas-based nonprofit, in collaboration with Lyda Hill Philanthropies, invested $4 million into North Texas’ UT Southwestern Medical Center, bolstering efforts to transform groundbreaking research into viable companies.
MORE

Dallas’ Waymaker Group To Collaborate with the NSF and MIT’s The Engine on $9.5M Innovation Platform

by | Apr 17, 2024
Waymaker Group will collaborate with MIT's The Engine Accelerator as the operational and services partner, and provide NSF's awardees with education, resources, and extensive support services.
MORE
NASA Is Inviting You to Watch the April 8 Total Solar Eclipse at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas
by | Feb 29, 2024
The free "Sun, Moon, and You" event at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas' Fair Park will offer a sky-side seat of an amazing total solar eclipse (fingers crossed for clear skies). Scientists and astronomers will be taking the stage along with space explorer characters from the PBS show "Ready, Jet, Go."
MORE
UTA Research Team Looks at Genetics of How Rattlesnakes Regulate Venom
by | Feb 28, 2024
In an effort to expand the research beyond snakes, UTA Biology Professor Todd Castoe and his colleagues received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will support new statistical approaches to generate, test, and refine hypotheses for how gene regulatory networks function.
MORE
Next Chapter: University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk Announces Plans to Step Down
by | Feb 6, 2024
Neal Smatresk's decade at UNT sparked big changes and growth, boosting its standing in academics and research. From "record-breaking enrollment" to "making UNT the highest-ranked Tier One institution in the North Texas region," his tenure marks transformation across multiple fronts.
MORE

UTA Professor Gets $800K To Develop Drone Computing Platform for First Responders

by | Aug 21, 2023
Electrical Engineering Professor Yan Wan has received $800,000 in National Science Foundation funding to develop an open-networked airborne computing platform for drones used by first responders. Networking a system of "robots in the air" can help find disaster victims, guide rescuers, and more. Her work could also be used for drone delivery and other commercial applications, UTA says.
MORE
[Image: Ryzhi/istockphoto]
AI—Ready or Not?
by | Feb 16, 2023
North Texas universities are gearing up for the AI revolution, readying students for the jobs of tomorrow. Here's a look at what's happening at SMU, TCU, the University of North Texas, UT Arlington, and UT Dallas, as published in our annual 2023 Dallas Innovates magazine.
MORE
The Last Word: UT Dallas’ Dr. Joshua Summers on Tech That Harvests Water From the Air
With mega-droughts drying up lakes out west and "water wars" predicted in the world's future, having reliable access to water is becoming more and more vital. A team at UT Dallas led by Dr. Xianming “Simon” Dai is doing something about it. They're working on a tech platform that could enable anyone to have "an affordable, portable device that could access water anywhere, anytime conceivably using no external energy," according to the university.
MORE
The Last Word: UTA’s Allison Sullivan on Winning a $490K NSF Grant for Her Software Update Study
Sullivan, an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UT Arlington, was recently awarded a three-year, $490,000 grant from the National Science Foundation "to explore testing software updates without testing unchanged parts of the code."
MORE

Qualia Oto Lands New Funding for Its Mission to Restore Hearing in Patients

by | Jul 20, 2022
UT Dallas-based Qualia Oto is developing the next generation of cochlear implants, and has announced closing a Series A preferred round of around $1.64 million. Unlike typical cochlear implants that use bundles of wires attached to a receiver to stimulate the auditory nerve, Qualia Oto’s implant uses thin-film electrode arrays embedded in a polymer, allowing for more contact with the inner ear. That translates to a higher quality and range of sounds that are able to be transmitted.
MORE
Follow the Money: Backflip Lands $35M Funding Package, TPG’s Impact Arm Is Raising New Fund, Mark Cuban Makes Two Investments, and More
by | May 6, 2022
What companies are finding funding or having a big exit? From startup investments to grants and acquisitions, Dallas Innovates tracks what’s happening in North Texas money.
MORE
SMU Study Uses Drones and Machine Learning to Find ‘Infrastructure Desert’ Neighborhoods in Dallas
by | Feb 22, 2022
The study by a team of SMU civil engineering researchers was supported by a five-year, $584,000 National Science Foundation grant. The team hopes that their study will lead to equitable improvements in the identified neighborhoods—with better groceries, internet access, noise walls, crosswalks, hospital access, bike trails, and more.
MORE
s tem, stems, ste m, s.t.e.m, s te m, higher education, highereducation, ph.d, phd, ph.d.’s, phds, ph.d.s, ph.d. ’s, ph.ds, biomedical, faculty member, gov, nih, research projects, research project, research project(s, underrepresented, underrepresen ted, computer science, computer sciences, graduate students, graduate student, graduate student(s, health care, healthcare, national institutes of health,
NSF Awards $100K Grant to TWU Researchers to Increase STEM Recruitment in Indigenous Communities
by | Jan 28, 2021
The project will look at the particular challenges Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Native Pacific Islander students face. The research team plans to develop strategies to recruit and retain more Indigenous students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
MORE