UNT opens research park facility

U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey was the guest of honor and principal speaker at the ceremonial ribbon cutting to open the new UNT Research Park Aug. 14.

The ceremony was held at the former Texas Instruments property, four miles from the main Denton campus near the juncture of U.S. Highway 77 and Loop 288, just east of Interstate 35.

The research park will house the new UNT College of Engineering, research activities and a number of administrative activities that will be moved from the university's main Denton campus. It also will serve as a venue for UNT to form partnerships with high-tech corporations and other businesses in expanding research activities and capabilities in the North Texas area.

"All of us in the UNT System are honored by Representative Armey's willingness to help us dedicate this facility that promises to be a major support for UNT's plans to strengthen its leadership in research," says UNT System Chancellor Alfred F. Hurley.

"Dick Armey is a key figure in the Texas congressional delegation's efforts in the 2003 appropriations cycle to win federal support for UNT System projects — including the upgrading of the former Texas Instruments facility for UNT at Denton and the enhancement of the biotechnology facility at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth," Hurley says.

UNT purchased the TI property, which features four interconnected two-story buildings of some 550,000 gross square feet, for $8.9 million in November to serve as a research park and as the home of UNT's new College of Engineering.

"I applaud UNT's commitment to a college of engineering and its creation of a research park. Both actions are major steps forward in the strengthening of the university and its future impact on the economic development of the entire North Texas region," Armey says.

UNT President Norval Pohl says the facility provides "outstanding potential."

"With authorization from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to initiate an engineering college, UNT is poised to assist the state of Texas in the critical task of widening and deepening the pool of workers in science, engineering and technology fields," Pohl says.

"Our new engineering programs will provide valuable research and developmental expertise to the Texas high-technology industries, and particularly to firms located throughout the North Texas region — which is the single largest population center in Texas," Pohl says.

The UNT College of Engineering is expected to admit its first students in the 2003-04 academic year. UNT expects to have 650 engineering students by 2007 and 1,250 engineering students by 2010. When the college first opens, it will comprise three departments: the Department of Engineering Technology, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

BY RODDY WOLPER rwolper@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Food and fun: Howdy Week welcomes students back to campus Aug. 25-31
• Exhibit of folk art, textiles marks SOVA 10th anniversary
• Talent Search funded for five more years
• Incoming UNT chancellor calls for ideas from faculty, staff to build UNT partnerships
• Stressful life events linked to injuries in football players, according to UNT study
• Faculty members honored at annual convocation ceremony
• National science grant puts students on fast track

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