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 UNT and Inspire Frisco are empowering entrepreneurs
Inspire Frisco — an organization developed through collaboration among academia, local government and industry — is focused on building an innovation ecosystem to nurture the startup community in our region. With UNT's acquisition of Inspire Park in Frisco, UNT is excited to utilize the facility as the home base of Inspire Frisco. Inspire Park provides mentoring, education and networking events for entrepreneurs and companies that work with fast-paced, scalable companies. The collaboration is designed to kickstart the innovation ecosystem for the North Texas region. Since taking ownership of its Inspire Park facility in October, UNT has hosted free monthly talks (IF Talks) for entrepreneurs across industries. The next IF Talk, scheduled for Feb. 13, will feature UNT alum and successful entrepreneur David Gorman. Additionally, UNT experts offer free mentoring sessions every Wednesday in Frisco for entrepreneurs and startups looking to scale their businesses. And don't forget space is available for lease to companies at Inspire Park. Learn more about mentoring services and Inspire Frisco events.
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| UNT to co-host US-China Smart Education Conference |
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Today's students are technology savvy and crave learning experiences that embrace the newest and hottest technology. UNT constantly explores opportunities to use educational technology in a manner that enhances the student learning experience, and we look forward to co-hosting the US-China Smart Education Conference on March 18-20. The fourth annual conference, which will be hosted for the first time in the United States, will bring together hundreds of global thought leaders, technology experts, industry leaders and educators from all learning levels. The conference will feature a pitch competition — Ed Tech Ascend — inspired by the hit show Shark Tank® to encourage creative individuals and teams from the educational technology industry to "sell" their product vision to judges, companies and potential investors.
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Image: iStock.com/LuckyStep48 |
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| Linking blockchain to business |
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Blockchain for Business is back by popular demand for the Spring semester. In the class, which was launched last semester, business professionals and College of Business students learned about the financial, technological, legal and governance aspects of blockchain for organizations and how it can be used to improve processes, lower costs, increase security and speed transactions. The course is just one way UNT's Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences is preparing the current and future workforce. On Jan. 24, one of the course's instructors, Cijoy Olickal, will moderate the TechTitans Blockchain Forum on industry-university blockchain research. The event, hosted at UNT's Inspire Park, will feature panelists from universities in the North Texas region.
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| Building a next-generation Army shelter |
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College of Engineering researchers at UNT built a next-generation tactical shelter for military personnel. The team, which includes undergraduate and graduate students from different departments who were involved from design to construction, completed the two-year project funded by the U.S. Army's Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center to build a prototype of an improved shelter. Using new technologies from thermal performance analysis of the structure and advanced laser-welding connection techniques to vibration suppression will make the shelters not only stronger, lighter and safer, but less expensive to manufacture than current shelters.
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| Squeezing more seed oil from the pennycress weed |
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An acre of the pennycress plant can produce 100 gallons of oil that can be processed into aviation fuel. College of Science associate professor Ana Alonso is leading a research project to optimize the amount of seed oil produced per plant. Alonso, a faculty member in UNT's BioDiscovery Institute and the Department of Biological Sciences, says pennycress also can suppress weed growth, mitigate soil erosion and maintain nutrients in the soil. One day, farmers may grow pennycress as a money crop in winter fields that are normally empty and help reduce the amount of runoff from fallow fields. Alonso's research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
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