Dallas-Fort Worth Higher Education Review

DALLAS FORT WORTH HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW

The #1 Region for Higher Education

DALLAS-FORT WORTH IS THE #1 REGION IN TEXAS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

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REGION IN TEXAS FOR HIGHER ED ENROLLMENT AND DEGREE COMPLETION 23% of all students in Texas are enrolled in a DFW college or university.

24% of all degrees completed annually in Texas come from a DFW college or university. That’s more than any other region in the state.

Source: THECB and NCES (IPEDS)

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MORE CARNEGIE-DESIGNATED R1 & R2 RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES THAN ANY OTHER TEXAS METRO The University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Dallas The University of North Texas SMU (Southern Methodist University) TCU (Texas Christian University) Source: The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

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FASTEST-GROWING METRO IN THE U.S. Added 117,380 people in 2019 (322 people a day) Source: U.S. Census

72%

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FOR JOB GROWTH

More jobs created in DFW than any other metro in the U.S. (Dec. 2018-2019) Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

OF DFW STUDENTS STAY AND WORK IN THE REGION AFTER GRADUATION, THE 6TH HIGHEST RATE IN THE COUNTRY Source: Martin Prosperity Institute, 2016

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DFW HIGHER EDUCATION

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CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

DFW is the leading region for higher education in Texas

Higher education matters to business

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POLICY SHAPERS

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MACHINE LEARNING

Colleges and universities are driving change for the greater good

Big Data with higher education fuels private sector innovations

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MEDICAL MINDS Educating and advancing DFW’s massive health care ecosystem

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SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

From nanotech to NASA, DFW universities are on the cutting edge

Solving global riddles in the labs of higher education in DFW

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INDEX

DALLAS REGIONAL CHAMBER | 1

TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY

REGIONAL MAP WEATHERFORD COLLEGE (WISE COUNTY)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

THE DFW HIGHER EDUCATION LANDSCAPE A BROAD LOOK AT THE 70+ INSTITUTIONS THAT COVER THE REGION More than 70 accredited universities and colleges cover the DFW landscape. Students, faculty and other academics are engaged in a wide range of work, from tackling core curricula to developing nanotechnology. The University of North Texas at Denton, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Texas at Arlington are among WEATHERFORD COLLEGE Texas’ eight “emerging research” universities, expanding program capabilities and funding in pursuit of remaining at the top end of research institutions as defined by the Carnegie Classification methodology. UT Southwestern Medical Center, meanwhile, is among the nation’s best in biology and biochemistry research, boasting countless clinical breakthroughs and innovations, as well as six Nobel Laureates.

NOR TEX (FL

TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (NORTHPORT)

TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (NORTHEAST)

TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (CORPORATE TRAINING CENTER)

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON RESEARCH INSTITUTE

TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (TRINITY RIVER)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER TCU AND UNTHSC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON (FORT WORTH)

TCU (TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY)

TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF LAW TERRELL SCHOOL OF TARLETON STATE

SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

TEXAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (SOUTH)

TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY-FORT WORTH

HILL COLLEGE (BURLESON)

SMU (Southern Methodist University)

2 | DALLAS REGIONAL CHAMBER WEATHERFORD COLLEGE (GRANBURY)

TCU (Texas Christian University)

Texas Woman’s University

University of North Texas System

ARLINGTON BAPTIST UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT FRISCO (INSPIRE PARK) COLLIN COLLEGE (TECHNICAL CAMPUS) COLLIN COLLEGE (PRESTON RIDGE)

NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT FRISCO [HALL PARK]

AMBERTON UNIVERSITY (FRISCO)

RTH CENTRAL XAS COLLEGE LOWER MOUND)

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REGIONAL MAP

AUSTIN COLLEGE (SHERMAN)

COLLIN COLLEGE (CENTRAL PARK)

COLLIN COLLEGE HIGHER EDUCATION CENTER - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - COMMERCE - TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY - TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY - UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT FRISCO - UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

COLLIN COLLEGE (ALLEN)

COLLIN COLLEGE (SPRING CREEK) MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY - FLOWER MOUND DALLAS COLLEGE (NORTH LAKE NORTH)

COLLIN COLLEGE (COURTYARD)

COLLIN COLLEGE (WYLIE)

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY DALLAS TEXAS A&M AG EXTENSION DALLAS COLLEGE (BROOKHAVEN)

DALLAS COLLEGE DALLAS (NORTH LAKE CHRISTIAN WEST) COLLEGE

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY COMMERCE (COMMERCE)

DALLAS COLLEGE (RICHLAND) DALLAS COLLEGE (RICHLAND GARLAND)

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX DALLAS CAMPUS

COLLIN COLLEGE (ROCKWALL)

PARKER UNIVERSITY

SMU (SOUTHERN ART INSTITUTE DALLAS COLLEGE METHODIST OF DALLAS AMBERTON UNIVERSITY (NORTH LAKE) UNIVERSITY) (GARLAND) TEXAS TECH UD EVEREST HEALTH SCIENCE UNIVERSITY DALLAS COLLEGE CENTER OF DALLAS COLLEGE WEST COAST UT SOUTHWESTERN (EASTFIELD) UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER TEXAS TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY WOMAN’S DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY COMMERCE MESQUITE UNIVERSITY DALLAS COLLEGE CRISWELL COLLEGE METROPLEX CENTER INSTITUTE (NORTH LAKE ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY AT CITYSQUARE OF HEALTH SOUTH) SCIENCES TEXAS A&M COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY DALLAS COLLEGE (EL CENTRO) UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - COMMERCE (DOWNTOWN DALLAS) AT DALLAS CENTER FOR UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS DALLAS COLLEGE OF LAW BRAINHEALTH DALLAS COLLEGE (BILL J. PRIEST) UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DALLAS AT ARLINGTON UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MCCOMBS MBA AT DALLAS DALLAS COLLEGE COLLEGE (EASTFIELD (MOUNTAIN VIEW) DALLAS PLEASANT GROVE) BAPTIST PAUL QUINN COLLEGE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX ARLINGTON CAMPUS TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE (SOUTHEAST)

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT DALLAS

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DALLAS COLLEGE (CEDAR VALLEY) NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY

TEXAS STATE TECHNICAL COLLEGE (RED OAK)

PUBLIC UNIVERSITY PRIVATE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE University of Texas COLLEGE at Arlington NAVARRO (MIDLOTHIAN)

University of Texas at Dallas NAVARRO COLLEGE (WAXAHACHIE)

UT Southwestern Medical Center

DALLAS REGIONAL CHAMBER | 3 SOUTHWESTERN ASSEMBLIES

DFW HIGHER EDUCATION STRENGTHS

EC O N O M I C I M PAC T

DFW LEGISLATORS MEAN BUSINESS WITH HIGHER ED SUPPORT The DFW Region is consistently first in the country in job growth and holds the greatest share of Texas students enrolled in higher education in Texas. Spending in higher education isn’t just about investing in students, families, and workforce — it’s about strengthening the region’s economy by investing in DFW’s intellectual capital. Legislative support and investment in higher education have a ripple effect on economic growth in construction, research and additional business activity in DFW. That ripple effect is growing. The Texas Legislature has stepped up to the challenge by investing over $2 billion in North Texas higher education, a 6% increase from the last session. This investment doesn’t include the additional $35 million for the Texas Research Incentive Program that uses state dollars to match private donations to a select number of research institutions, of which DFW has the greatest share of eligible institutions. As the next legislative session gears up, DFW legislators are passionate about improving the funding and student experience in higher education.

DFW students don’t just study in the region; they stay and work here. Roughly 72% of DFW students stay and work in the region after graduation, the sixth highest rate in the country. With bright students staying to work for leading companies, the growth of business in the region is undeniable.

The region is booming, both economically and in higher education enrollment growth (more than four times the national average). Additional resources are needed to sustain this growth.

Looking ahead, business and higher education leaders are committed to working together as advocates for this economic growth. Increased funding, policy improvements and additional resources are needed to preserve DFW’s place as the intellectual capital of Texas.

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“Higher education fuels our economy. Employers need a well-educated workforce, and by investing in our outstanding colleges and universities, we will meet the workforce needs of tomorrow and continue to grow our economy. Higher education drives innovation and discovery, enabling our region to lead the way toward new frontiers in technology, health care and more.

Most importantly, we will provide new and expanded opportunity to tens of thousands of our North Texas neighbors, helping them attain the prospect of a brighter future.” – Representative Chris Turner, Chair, Higher Education Committee, Texas House of Representatives “Working with our region’s higher learning institutions on everything from formula funding to student safety has been a privilege during my years in the Legislature, and it will continue to be a priority.” – Senator Kelly Hancock, Chair, Business & Commerce Committee, Texas Senate “Recruiting and retaining a talented workforce is crucial to the DFW Region if we are to meet our expanding needs.

Whether it’s in law enforcement, medical fields or the growing tech industries, we must maintain efforts to keep the best and brightest in Texas, and it starts by supporting our higher education system.” – Representative Lynn Stucky, Vice-Chair, Higher Education Committee, Texas House of Representatives “It is undeniable that a quality education is the portal to future success, and North Texas is blessed to have thriving higher education institutions, including its robust community college systems. As policymakers, we must make certain that our commitment to provide higher education resources remains constant and that every young person who so desires has even greater access to postsecondary opportunities. By working to ensure a qualified workforce, we can perpetuate future prosperity for North Texas.” – Senator Royce West, Vice-Chair, Higher Education Committee, Texas Senate

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DFW HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

$13.3 BILLION IN BUSINESS ACTIVITY FOR THE REGION BY DFW INSTITUTIONS ANNUALLY

$925.5 MILLION ECONOMIC IMPACT (54% RETURN) FROM CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT ($600 MILLION)

$7 TO 1 RETURN ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DFW RESEARCH SPENDING ($810 MILLION)

$67.4 BILLION ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE REGION COMES FROM GRADUATES OF DFW INSTITUTIONS, TOTALING 15% OF THE TOTAL REGIONAL ECONOMY 2019 PERRYMAN GROUP STUDY

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO DFW NOT YOUR AVERAGE COLLEGE TOWN Explore a region where higher education and business uniquely combine to compete globally.

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WELCOME TO DFW

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO DFW

Community members meet with the SERCH Institute at the University of North Texas at Dallas to discuss community needs in southern Dallas.

DFW HIGHER EDUCATION REFLECTS THE REGION’S ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DIVERSITY When roughly 380,000 postsecondary students return to school every fall in DFW, it’s no front-page news, as it might be in Austin or Columbus, Ohio. Make no mistake — Dallas-Fort Worth is no typical college town; yet, aspiring engineers, doctors, architects and scientists are flocking here because of our diverse higher education institutions and the job opportunities that follow.

Nearly 70+ institutions are spread across more than 200 cities that comprise the DFW Region.

“DFW has among the most diverse, growing economies in the United States,” says Dale Petroskey, president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber, citing the most recent Moody’s Diversity Index.

“The region’s higher education scene reflects that.”

That diversity fuels opportunities that might not happen in other metros across the United States.

The typical higher education path of a DFW Region student doesn’t travel from the classroom to a standing desk or to a product team. Long before many graduate, students in DFW are engaging in design thinking, pitching their ideas for new startups and col-

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laborating with major companies on real-world problems.

Where else would students collaborate with the Dallas Cowboys while earning sports-management MBAs? Enroll in a law school geared toward helping secure legal services for all socioeconomic statuses? Receive an anthropology degree and move on to help give Amazon’s Alexa her personality?

Those experiences lead to jobs. Nearly three-fourths of these students will stay and start careers here, providing the talent that propels Amazon, State Farm, courtrooms, health care facilities and other institutions that require the skills of advanced degree holders.

GROWING POPULATION, GROWING ENROLLMENTS More than 7.5 million people live in the DFW Region, which is increasing at a rate of about 361 people per day.

That population increase partially explains the growth in higher education: Over the past 10 years, enrollment increased, on average, more than 3% annually, according to the most recent data from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. That’s quadruple

WELCOME TO DFW

the national 0.8% annual growth rate.

Likely fueling the growth are both the quality of educational institutions and corporate relocations/expansions to the DFW Region, says a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

“The area still attracts business and financial services companies, which have reached a critical mass and can draw on a network of necessary support services,” writes the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in its study, At the Heart of Texas. “Overall growth is buoyed by a well-educated population, a competitive cost structure and the U.S. economy’s strength.”

COLLISION-DRIVEN EDUCATION SYSTEM Because universities, colleges and schools are located in population centers across DFW, collisions with hungry and innovative organizations in their orbits are almost inevitable.

It explains how economist and SMU data analyst Tom Fomby can bump into a UT Southwestern faculty member at a university mixer and then collaborate to develop a way to predict and prevent West Nile Virus outbreaks. It explains how a couple of NASA representatives might land at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) one day and suggest that they consider competing in the Texas Space Grant Consortium (six TWU students did and walked away with first prize, on their first try). It explains how, 50 years ago, Texas Instruments could launch the precursor to the University of Texas at Dallas to ensure a steady flow of educated, creative professionals.

These collisions — intended or unintended — are what helped make DFW what it is today.

billion bond, about half of which will build Dallas College’s stateof-the-art education and innovation hub in downtown Dallas.

This follows the 2017 launch of the Dallas County Promise, which guarantees a postsecondary degree at no cost to high school students across 11 public school districts in the county.

Collin College, meanwhile, is slated to open its $179 million, 340,000-square-foot Collin College Technical Campus in fall 2020.

That facility will serve more than 4,000 students and will offer degrees and certificates ranging from architecture and construction to engineering technology and manufacturing.

West of Dallas, Tarrant County voters passed an $825 million bond proposal to improve, renovate and enhance workforce technology across the six Tarrant County College campuses.

The planned enhancements align with education and training that match local jobs, career opportunities and interests of the regional economy.

Students and faculty at Texas Woman’s University study the science of movement to improve patient care across the country.

CREATING SOMETHING BIGGER, TOGETHER

The University of North Texas has a multi-faceted partnership with the Dallas Cowboys that includes a new online MBA program in sport and entertainment management program in Frisco.

WORKING FOR THE WORKFORCE Just as the visionaries of yesterday, who pushed to create what are now the region’s three Carnegie-classified tier 1 research institutions, today’s leaders are looking toward the future, looking at how they can meet the needs of future students and employers.

A new collaborative hub is being created, further uniting universities with employers to give prospective workers the skills they need.

In spring 2019, Dallas County voters approved the sale of a $1.1

“The theoretical nature of higher education often creates natural partnerships with cutting-edge industries,” says Dr. Victor Fishman, executive director of the Texas Research Alliance. “The inverse is true as well.”

Adds Fishman: “The translation into curriculum of research at the frontiers of science, technology, engineering, math and management makes higher education institutions ideal partners for problem-solving across all industries.”

Because the DFW Region is no typical college town or company town — where no single institution dominates the economy — entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics have connected organically to create something bigger.

In the pages that follow, we highlight how the region’s individual institutions of higher education combine to attract the highest-quality students and companies, allowing the region to compete at a global level.

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WELCOME TO DFW

F E AT U R E

WORKING TOGETHER TO UNLOCK POTENTIAL HOW THE DRC PARTNERS WITH HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERS. It’s 7:30 a.m. on a cold fall morning. The university presidents and chancellors of the largest regional colleges and universities in Dallas-Fort Worth sit in a meeting room at the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC). It’s one of the quarterly meetings of the University CEO Council, a council facilitated by the DRC that brings together regional higher education leaders to discuss pressing higher education issues in the region and ways to collaborate.

It’s no surprise that when the outgoing chairwoman, Dr. Carine Feyten, chancellor of Texas Woman’s University, arrives, she is greeted with handshakes, smiles and a familiar feeling. DFW higher education leaders not only work together, but they share a strong mutual interest in student success that bonds them beyond their institutions. It’s an energy that is clear in every Council meeting.

While during today’s meeting the Council is discussing how to create a regional approach to ease students’ transfer of college credit between institutions, the Council is no stranger to taking on bigger projects. Each year, in partnership with the DRC, the Council collectively weighs in on state legislative issues, participates in a State of Higher Education event with more than 300 business leaders, and finds innovative ways the higher education community and industry can better work together. The inaugural DRC Higher Education Review was the brainchild of the University CEO (UCEO) Council, after DRC members noticed that the full story of higher education in the DFW Region wasn’t being told. “This is higher education in 2020. Working together with current and potential new partners, we are creating the workforce of tomorrow today.

The future is now for DFW,” says incoming UCEO Council chair Lesa Roe, chancellor of the University of North Texas System.

The UCEO Council just scratches the surface of collaboration between institutions in DFW. Combined efforts by the region’s institutions of higher education is proof of the priority of partnership.

A LOUDER VOICE AT THE CAPITOL As each legislative session begins, the flurry of visitors flooding the capitol advocating for change, opportunity and new policies is unmistakable. DFW higher education institutions are no stranger

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The University CEO Council consists of the largest Dallas Region colleges and universities including:

to this biannual tradition, employing institutional government relations staff and advisors to work with state legislators on higher education funding, research and policy improvements. It became clear, through the UCEO Council, that while each institution’s voice was valued in the capitol, the voice of higher education in DFW would be stronger combined. Initially, the work began as simply drafting a list of priorities that regional higher education and business leaders agreed upon for each session and has grown into a working coalition advocating in Austin under one unified voice. This strategy has paid off for DFW. Their influence in Austin has grown. They have seen improved transfer and articulation policies, increased funding for research and funding for capital building projects on campuses.

LET’S BUILD THIS FOR EVERYONE Students, parents and educators have always known the difficulties of students transferring between community colleges and four-year universities. “Trying to navigate what credits transfer, what applies to a degree program and who offers the best scholarships for transfer students is confusing and exhausting,” says DRC senior vice president, education & workforce, Drexell Owusu.

“When education leaders can come together to make systems easier

WELCOME TO DFW

“The culture of genuine partnership, collaboration and openness to new ideas sets DFW apart in the nation.”

Dallas College, SMU, Texas A&M University – Commerce, Texas Woman’s University, the University of North Texas, the University of North Texas System, the University of North Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

for students, businesses also win by getting their talent quicker and with less student debt.” The issue of transfer and articulation has taken on the best of collaboration in the region, including a formal consortia, legislative advocacy and advances in technology.

Created more than a decade ago, the North Texas Community College Consortium’s mission is to provide high-quality, low-cost, close-to-home professional development opportunities for its community college members. What started as a regional networking organization has grown into the creation of the North Texas Regional Transfer Collaborative. The collaborative brings together community colleges and public and private universities across the region to create common templates and guided pathways for students to use in the college advising process. The consortium was the first in the region with diverse institutions coming together and agreeing on pathways for students, making it easier for students to complete college and enter the workforce.

BEST PRACTICES, BEST OUTCOMES “Having time carved out of my month to hear from experts in my field and guest speakers who bring light to the realities of the labor market all while networking with my peers is truly invaluable to my work,” says Keri Burns, director of the University of Texas at

Dallas University Career Center.

“We understand that we are better together, and applying best practices from other institutions helps all students get a good job after graduation.” Burns is talking about her time with the Metroplex Area Consortium of Career Centers (MAC3), a group of 12 DFW Region community colleges and universities joining forces to enhance career services and job opportunities for students. Since its founding in 1994, MAC3 has held joint job fairs, hosted national conferences, connected with employers for site visits and analyzed labor-market information to better translate the talent connections between students and employers.

THE FUTURE OF TOGETHER The strength of the DFW Region lies in its diversity — economically, demographically and in higher education offerings. Over the past 10 years, leaders in the region have witnessed the fruits of their labor through collaboration and partnership. Now is the time to look to the future and build on best practices that create optimal outcomes for students, institutions and the workforce. Future projects include a downtown Dallas hub that will physically co-locate K-12, community colleges, four-year universities and businesses to build an innovation center focused on aligning workforce needs and student outcomes; a new blockchain technology that enables student credentials to be sent with a touch of a button; and creating lasting private-public partnerships (3Ps) with multiple institutional partners.

FASTESTGROWING PUBLIC DOCTORAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE U.S.

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UTD

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UTA

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TAMU COMMERCE

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UNT DALLAS UNT DALLAS, THE FASTEST-GROWING PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN TEXAS (20182019 TEXAS HIGHER EDUCATION COORDINATING BOARD)

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WELCOME TO DFW

TEXAS RESEARCH ALLIANCE

TEXAS RESEARCH ALLIANCE CONNECTING RESEARCH & INNOVATION IN DALLAS-FORT WORTH

Texas Research ALLIANCE Founded in 2014 by four Chambers in the DFW Region, the Texas Research Alliance (TRA) is a not-for-profit that builds industry, government and university research and innovation partnerships.

There is no cost for TRA’s assistance to find the key regional partners to help meet your research and innovation challenges.

TRA projects have included recruiting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Statistical Research Data Center to the DFW Region; partnering on the City of Dallas’ smart-city initiative; connecting companies with key researchers at area universities; and developing a long-term strategy to build DFW resources in defense, health care, education and information technology.

HOW THE NONPROFIT BUILDS INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENT AND UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS

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INDUSTRY OUTREACH

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Objective: Meet industry research and innovation needs through partnerships with small to midsized businesses and universities.

Process: Work with each company, fully understand its research and innovation needs and convey them, in nonproprietary formats, to qualified growth/startup companies and university faculty.

Objective: Identify, qualify and engage regional resources that meet industry research and innovation needs.

Process: Identify and engage members of the growth/startup communities and universities with the staff/faculty, facilities and desire to meet the need of the regional industry partners. Bring the research and innovation providers together with the industry champions for assessment and engagement.

Note: This can be done under nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with TRA or through TRA-facilitated interaction between the company and qualified small TRA companies and university faculty.

CONSIDER A CAPSTONE PARTNERSHIP 10 | DALLAS REGIONAL CHAMBER

THE REGION HAS A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL NATIONAL MODEL OF BEST PRACTICES AT UTD AND UNT. THIS LOW-COST, DEFINED COMPANY-UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION PROVIDES IP PROTECTION, INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT TEAMS AND HIGH SUCCESS RATES.

CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

DEFINING THE WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE HIGHER EDUCATION MATTERS TO BUSINESS

The DFW Region is home to more than 100 corporate headquarters and campuses, creating a community of business leaders dedicated to building the future workforce. Here we showcase a few leading initiatives where corporate leadership has driven improvements in workforce development and research.

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CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

Q U I C K H I TS

Dallas College Chancellor Joe May shaking hands with Google CEO Sundar Pichai after Google announced its new IT Cert program with the district

Robots and humans team up at the University of Texas at Arlington

AHEAD IN THE CLOUD AMAZON AND GOOGLE ARE OFFERING ONE OF THE NATION’S FIRST DEGREES IN CLOUD COMPUTING FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES Cloud-computing-related jobs include software engineers, software architects and data engineers — all growing professions in the workforce — and both Dallas College and the state of Texas recognize the earning potential for graduates. Amazon and Google have joined local initiatives to upskill Texas workers and students to meet industry needs.

In collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), beginning spring 2020, every community college and technical school in Texas will have the option to offer an associate of applied science degree in cloud computing.

The offering marks one of the nation’s first associate of applied science degrees in cloud computing offered by a community college. The two-year program is in response to what AWS and Dallas College recognized as a lack of trained talent in cloud computing across the state. Contemporary IT approaches say “cloud first,” but it became apparent to business, political and academic leaders that Texas’ emerging workforce did not yet reflect this shift. (“Cloud computing” is the delivery of on-demand computing services — from applications to storage and processing power — through a cloud services platform via the internet.)

“Our partnership with Amazon Web Services will introduce a wide array of students to the world of cloud computing, while equipping them with the education and skills necessary to prove

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successful in today’s workforce,” says Dallas College chancellor Dr. Joe May. The program aligns with the needs of the industry and includes opportunities to earn industry-recognized credentials targeted at highgrowth areas in the local economy. Students will be introduced to cloud computing technologies such as gaming, artificial intelligence and medical applications.

Google Launches IT Cert Program In January 2018, Google started an IT Support Professional Certificate program at the college district to prepare students and workers for entry-level roles in information technology support in six months without prior training.

In a visit to Dallas College El Centro campus, Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the program will grow from 30 to 100 community colleges nationwide by the end of 2020. El Centro, an early adopter, began offering the program in fall 2018.

The program features five modules designed to teach the key areas of knowledge needed for entry-level IT positions, including technology support and computer networking.

“Our goal is to make sure the opportunities created by technology are truly available for everyone,” Pichai says.

ON BOTS AND BOEING WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BOT ACTS NOT ONLY AS AN ASSISTANT BUT A KEY TEAM MEMBER? Almost half of all existing jobs may be replaced by automation within the next 20 years, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University. How will humans interact with their bot counterparts?

Which functions are best performed by artificial intelligence versus humans?

These are the questions being explored by George Siemens, executive director of the University of Texas at Arlington’s (UTA) Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge (LINK) Research Lab. Siemens and other researchers at UTA are working with a grant from Boeing to help the company understand future learning environments where new technologies such as bots, robots and artificial intelligence

CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

are active participants in teams, alongside workers.

“A lot of companies are facing a challenge to reskill their employees for an environment where they need to collaborate with technology, not just use it,” says Siemens. “This information will be important to all organizations.”

Smart bots like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri are already being incorporated into social environments as both a resource and support in the daily lives of millions of people.

Siemens sees artificial intelligence working hand in hand with human customer service.

“You may find that in some areas a customer would much rather have an automated process and another area that may want a human process,” he says. “So, how do you intelligently make those decisions, as a corporate entity?”

Siemens says his research is fueled, in part, by data generated by students who work with UTA’s free online course offerings on its platform edX. As artificial intelligence improves, these bots are expected to be working with employees in integrated teams, with the bots able to act not only as assistants but as key team members, providing analysis and input.

“It will be like human-plus, a resource with more capacity than only humans working as part of the team,” Siemens says. ”Whole new skill sets will be needed for employees.” Siemens and his team are developing a series of papers and reports for Boeing on how new knowledge and learning technologies are being developed and deployed at both universities and corporations.

REAL JOBS. REDUCED TUITION. HISTORIC IMPACT. J.C. PENNEY CO., OMNI, ONCOR, PEPSICO. AND OTHERS ARE SUPPORTING THE LAUNCH OF THE FIRST RECOGNIZED URBAN WORK PROGRAM IN THE COUNTRY When Paul Quinn College (PQC) President Michael Sorrell decided to convert the school’s football field into an urban farm, people thought he was crazy. The “WE over ME farm” has since set a national best-practice standard of taking institutional resources, listening to the needs of the community and supporting students — many of whom were suffering from food insecurity while enrolled.

Now the innovative leader has launched an initiative to become the first recognized urban work program in the country, a seal of approval that the Department of Education gave PQC in 2017, becoming the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) to ever receive the recognition.

The PQC work program is one of a kind, in terms of community and corporate partnership. The model provides a low-cost, structured work program where students learn new skills and receive coaching and evaluation from industry experts. The program requires students to work 10 to 20 hours a week, reducing student tuition by almost $10,000 annually. Employers not only pay students for their work but also help fund tuition. Companies supporting the program include J.C. Penney Co., Oncor, Omni Hotels and PepsiCo. Other designated work colleges have some version of this program, but they lack the industry access that PQC students have in the DFW Region, because other schools are in mostly rural areas. Though PQC is located in southern Dallas, the program has expanded to other areas of the region, including Plano and Frisco, increasing student access and participation in diverse industries while providing growing diverse talent to the companies throughout the DFW Region.

Paul Quinn College students, business leaders and College President Michael Sorrell (third row, center right) mark – mark an expansion of PQC’s Urban Work College Model

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CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT

Q U I C K H I TS

THE COALITION ON Y’ALL STREET HOW PARTNERSHIP, NOT COMPETITION, IS HELPING DFW’S FINANCIAL AND INVESTMENT HUB FORGE AHEAD As the largest investment services firms began landing in DFW, competition on the self-proclaimed “Y’all Street” in Westlake, Texas, was inevitable. Financial and investment companies have historically fought for the same clients, real estate and talent.

Then change occurred in DFW. Leaders from Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, JPMorgan Chase, TIAA and the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) converged to create the North Texas Investment Services Coalition (NTXISC), proving that working together can be more fruitful than battling each other. The coalition consists of the organizations’ market leaders, meeting in person or via phone, every month to work on shared, coalition-established goals for DFW investment services firms.

One of the largest areas of collaboration stemmed from the need for new talent and education partners to build the talent of existing team members. With facilitation from the DRC, the NTXISC began to meet with Tarrant County College (TCC) to develop a completely new credential focused on in-demand/highgrowth entry-level investment service jobs. TCC brought in staff with a business background, an expertise in teaching “soft skills” and other professional skills while building curriculum with the NTXISC companies, ensuring every student who completes the course will be eligible to work for the companies and take the entry-level licensing exam. In the program, students will be exposed to the NTXISC member companies through site visits, internships, mentoring and guest lecturers. As TCC is building the program — slated for a late-2020 launch — the investment services firms are working with internal HR and hiring managers to influence and understand the program to give applicants with the credential a legup in the hiring process. The NTXISC/TCC credential showcases the leadership of both the financial/investment services industry and the higher education system, specifically when meeting the needs of talent in the region.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY - COMMERCE HAS THE LARGEST ONLINE MBA PROGRAM IN TEXAS IN SPRING 2019, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT RANKED THE SMU COX EXECUTIVE MBA 23RD IN THE NATION, THE ONLY EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAM IN TEXAS THAT RANKS IN THE TOP 25.

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STUDENTS CAN EARN A DEGREE IN CREATING FLAVORS WITH THE RIGHT CERTIFICATIONS, THEY’LL BECOME ONE IN A BILLION What gives orange juice its sunny zing?

Texas Woman’s University (TWU) flavor chemist Dr. Xiaofen Du explains it this way: “Generally, if you eat something, you identify three to four flavors. But if you get trained, you will pick up much more and become sensitive [to taste].”

It’s Du’s job to study the chemical breakdown of foods, finding the individual components that make up taste and aroma. Once known, she can replicate flavors in the lab to find ways to amplify natural flavors or create entirely new ones.

Her research skills spurred a partnership with Keurig Dr Pepper that resulted in the creation of TWU’s flavor chemistry program. Du, who

joined TWU in 2017, is passing on her expertise to students in the school’s program, which started the same year she arrived at the university.

It’s the only flavor-chemistry-focused university food science program in the U.S., according to Shane Broughton, chair of TWU’s Nutrition and Food Sciences Department.

The Denton university also has one of the few flavor chemists in Texas.

Prior to coming to TWU, Du worked as a senior research scientist in China at Firmenich Aromatics, the world’s largest privately owned flavor and fragrance company, with numerous research and development awards to its name, including a Nobel Prize in chemistry.

“It’s not easy to learn,” Du

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WITH HELP FROM HIGHER ED, L3HARRIS IS SENDING ITS EMPLOYEES BACK TO SCHOOL A Q&A WITH TAMU - COMMERCE DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT, SHANAN GWALTNEY GIBSON, PH.D.

Texas Woman’s University researchers launch the first flavor-chemistry food science university-based program in the nation.

says. “We deal with a lot of compounds you have to memorize. You have to connect those chemicals to real perceptions.”

Becoming a flavor chemist, or flavorist, requires rigorous training, including a seven-year apprenticeship. Broughton says there are currently only hundreds of certified flavorists in the world.

At TWU, students can earn a master’s degree in flavor chemistry or a Ph.D. in nutrition with an emphasis in flavor chemistry. It’s the background that students would need to eventually become certified flavorists if they choose.

Broughton says, “We want to make sure we are training them according to what the job-market needs are in this immediate environment.”

How did L3Harris connect with the College of Business (CoB) to create the program?

The program was conceptualized by L3Harris VP of Human Resources Tom Brown and a business area VP, Jack Cooke. Mr. Cooke was on the Business Executive Advisory Board of the CoB. Upon his retirement from L3Harris in 2009, he joined the full-time faculty of the CoB and initiated the cohort program with the assistance of Dean Dr. Hal Langford.

Is the cohort-based management degree available solely to L3Harris employees?

Yes, students are selected by L3Harris management for the cohort. L3Harris pays for all tuition, fees and materials required. Right now, the MS management class has about 115 students enrolled.

What sorts of theories, scenarios and lessons are in the curriculum?

The curriculum is essentially the same as the Master of Science Management degree for other graduate students of the college, with the addition of a graduate course in business law that has been taught by an L3Harris corporate lawyer.

The electives are, in actuality, prescribed and include courses in human resource management, managing groups and teams, leadership theory and practice, and transforming organizations.

The cohort approach allows the instruction to be tailored to L3Harris by teaching generalized theory and then mapping it to company practice.

Cases, class projects and the participation of L3Harris executives and midlevel managers are included in the lectures.

Do these classes help student employees advance in the L3Harris organization? How? Yes, the students have previously been identified

by L3Harris management in their human resources review process as candidates for development and advancement. The degree is just one step in a program that includes in-house mentorship and instruction to prepare candidates to assume management positions within the corporation.

A number of the graduates have been promoted to project and functional management positions within the company.

Is this scalable?

Yes, we are looking to expand this model and make it available to other organizations that see benefit in a program that includes a strategic partnership with an AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business)-accredited college of business.

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COLLABORATION CREATES VIRTUAL SHIPS, REMOTE SURGERIES, ‘AWARE’ SYSTEMS

The SMU AT&T Center for Virtualization creates digital solutions to overcome the limitations of hardware

WHAT IF ACCESS TO MORE COMPUTING POWER, DATA AND SOFTWARE WERE NO LONGER A PROBLEM? Advances in computing power and data storage are two developments that have brought us to where we are today: carrying around smartphones more powerful than the on-board computer that sent Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon, with enough memory for 12,000 books. Yet, developers often hit a wall with modern-day, on-site computing performance, data-flow speeds and hardware limitations.

What if access to more computing power, data and software were no longer a problem? Surgeons living in Dallas could remotely perform surgeries in operating rooms on the polar opposite end of the Earth. Devices could gauge your physical and mental condition and alter the performance of your phone (or other device) accordingly. Entire virtual battleships — right down to their individual

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components — could be conjured into cybernetic existence.

That’s what Suku Nair — director of the SMU AT&T Center for Virtualization — his colleagues and industry partners are working on. Aside from AT&T, Nair is collaborating with Google, Ericsson and L3Harris on a number of projects.

Virtualization, simply put, is the creation of devices, machines and systems in software, resulting in simulated, yet real-world, behavior. Nair says the center is currently working on virtual solutions that would impact the telecom industry, for enterprise applications (such as the surgical example above) and for improved user experiences. Virtualization is already occurring at SMU at the university level — Nair is working with scientists and PhD students across the campus.

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ACCORDING TO NAIR, SOME OF THE MORE NOTABLE PROJECTS OF THE CENTER INCLUDE: The Virtualization of Communications Telecom companies — in general — are working with virtualization to make their networks more efficient, adaptive and durable. Currently, many networks are set up with a large, complex system of routers and switches that make the decisions for connections. Virtualization – directing the intelligence and software to the cloud would create software-defined networks. Such capabilities will likely be essential for the successful deployment of 5G networks.

In days past, telecoms built networks by dispatching trucks every few months or years packed with replacement switches, routers, etc.

It was laborious and slow.

“We don’t have that luxury anymore,” Andre Fuetsch, president, AT&T Labs, and chief technology officer at AT&T, said during the 2016 launch of the center. “We’re virtualizing those specialized network appliances and turning them into software running on servers and other standard hardware. You can add, shift and upgrade capabilities at internet speed. It’s the future, and this new AT&T Center for Virtualization will help us get there faster.”

Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Virtual reality and augmented reality are becoming ubiquitous, turning up in classrooms, theaters and even at jobsites for employee training. SMU’s advanced videogame development program Guildhall is collaborating with the Virtualization Center to develop software and to speed up networking performance, with the goal of creating a high-quality VR/AR experience.

Creating “Aware” Systems While the center is focusing on applications of tech involving cybersecurity, software, machine learning, algorithms, etc., Nair says researchers are also developing solutions to specific problems and situations.

For example, if a device can tell its user is operating at less-than-peak capacity — Nair cites an example of a person’s fatigue — their device performance will change to meet those needs.

“You might be looking at an app on your phone screen,” Nair says.

“We will look at the dimensions of your pupils, and based on the input, we can change the interface for you. If you’re up to your full potential, you’ll see all the bells and whistles — or fewer.”

Another example Nair cites is that if a device detects someone behind its user, the device’s screen might autonomously darken, to hide the data from prying eyes. What, if anything, might limit virtualization?

“Obviously performance [in the speed of data flow] is a key requirement when we try to mimic reality,” Nair says. “We need to figure out which part of the virtualization takes priority. For example, if the DoD [Department of Defense] wants to build digital twins [of hardware] with identical behavior,” he says. “A ship is a complex system. How do you virtualize all of [the ship’s workings] at the same time? It becomes a big problem.”

LEADING THE U.S. IN HISPANIC STUDENT INITIATIVES Founded in 2018, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s University Partnerships initiative works to build a robust college-to-career pipeline between Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) and corporations. Together, HSIs, the private sector and the Foundation work to enhance career readiness for students, all while building an employable talent pool.

When initiative organizers were looking for the foundation’s first chair, they looked to a long-time leader in Hispanic higher education at one of DFW’s HSIs: the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Michele Bobadilla, assistant provost for Hispanic student success and senior associate vice president for outreach services and community engagement at UTA, has proven to be more than up for the challenge.

“The initial focus of University Partnerships will be to identify strong regional matches between universities, community colleges and businesses working with Hispanic chambers of commerce across the state and begin to network the entities and leverage shared resources,” Bobadilla says in an article on UTA’s news website. “There are multiple reasons why UTA is the right institution to spearhead this effort.”

UTA serves more Hispanic students than any other four-year public university in DFW and is one of only 10 universities in the nation to achieve the designation of both HSI and R-1: Highest Research Activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Bobadilla says she has already begun working with industry leaders to cultivate paid internships and experiential learning opportunities.

“Internships are critical for career success and must be paid in order for students, many of whom are first generation and working their way through college, to be able to afford the opportunity,” she says.

Nina Vaca, chair of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation, adds, “I am so proud that the USHCC Foundation has embarked on this legacy initiative with two such distinguished partners. With Texas as our launching point, our goal is to expand the University Partnerships initiative nationwide and to include as many university and corporate partnerships as possible. Our ultimate vision is to permanently impact the career trajectories of the next generation of Hispanic entrepreneurs and corporate leaders.”

The DFW Region is home to four Hispanic- or minority-serving institutions: the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas at Dallas, Texas Woman’s University and Texas A&M University – Commerce.

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The University of Texas at Dallas Capstone students resolve seemingly intractable problems facing industries

TAPPING CAPSTONE PROGRAM FOR STUDENT BRAINPOWER, PERSPECTIVES MEET THE TEAMS OF STUDENTS WHO ARE READY TO SOLVE YOUR BUSINESS PROBLEMS 18 | DALLAS REGIONAL CHAMBER

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Artificial Intelligence guru Dave Copps was stumped. The cornerstone of his new company, Hypergiant Sensory Sciences, was based on teaching computers to see things the way humans do.

Copps was trying to develop a quick, inexpensive way to obtain a three-dimensional scan of a real-world setting.

“We wanted the ability to walk around the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) campus, for instance, to wave your phone around, to generate a 3D model,” Copps says. “We didn’t want to buy a $50,000 scanner.”

Copps then turned to the UTDesign Capstone program that, for a fee and on certain conditions, will connect senior-level engineering students and a faculty member with companies looking to solve problems.

“For $8,000, you can have a group of students, led by a professor, working on a problem you’d like to solve for your business,” Copps told a room full of business, tech and government leaders who gathered at a June 2019 DRC event that explored artificial intelligence. “What we did is, we took a problem that we didn’t think was solvable. We figured we might have some fun with this and make these students really frustrated. But … they came back with an answer.”

He says the UTD grad students proved to be valuable because they provided a vision for what the future looks like — not just an academic understanding of what artificial intelligence is.

“The result was spectacular,” Copps says, in later hindsight. “We ended up hiring one of the students who worked on the project.

He’s now full-time.”

“We went up there on the first day, had a three-hour meeting with them on what we wanted to do,” Copps says. “We really briefed them on the concept and the project. We gave them a clear vision of what they were going to work on. We checked in with them every couple weeks and brought them into our office. It was very collaborative and very interactive.”

Copps is one of hundreds of industry leaders to take advantage

IN THE U.S., UTD IS RANKED

#

3

FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

#

7

FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

“… We took a problem that we didn’t think was solvable. We figured we might have some fun with this and make these students really frustrated.

But ... they came back with an answer.” of UTDesign Capstone program. Students finishing out degrees in bioengineering and mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science take part in the program.

“Not including this semester, we’ve had 702 corporate-sponsored projects,” says Rod Wetterskog, assistant dean of the Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and coordinator of the UTDesign Studio, adding that nearly 3,800 students have completed projects since the program started at UTD in 2009.

UTD teams have dominated competitions against other Capstone programs across the years.

In June 2019, UTDesign scored its fifth consecutive first-place prize at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, hosted by Penn State Behrend. Since 2014, UTD engineering teams have received top honors in student project competitions at the biennial Capstone Design Conference.

One of the higher-profile companies to use the program is State Farm, which sought out talent for its Drive Safe & Save initiative, and other projects.

State Farm leases space on the UTD campus in Richardson, where students work at company-branded workspaces, access them through passcards and log their hours like employees. The State Farm/UTD collaboration has been in place since 2015. Roughly 15 students have internships per semester.

Some of those students helped State Farm develop the aforementioned Drive Safe & Save program, which gives drivers a discount based on their driving. The app also scores drivers, letting them know how they can improve.

“They’ve worked on a number of projects, including in the [State Farm] telematics space,” says Mike Fletcher, enterprise technology executive at State Farm’s CityLine campus in Richardson. “We have given them a topic to help stretch us a bit. It’s been fascinating.”

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PROVIDING A TALENT BOOST LEVERAGING A NEW $535M CAMPUS, A “PROMISE” AND BLOCKCHAIN TO PREP A NEW GENERATION FOR THE WORKFORCE With thousands of jobs moving to the DFW Region and being created each day, the hunt for top talent is ever-growing. Companies need good talent — and they need it fast.

In Dallas County, tech and community college thought leaders are approaching the problem in design-thinking fashion: understanding the problem, empathizing with those involved and not being afraid to pull the trigger on unconventional solutions.

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HIGHER EDUCATION INITIATIVES IN DALLAS COUNTY Solution-centered, userfriendly higher ed initiatives in Dallas County include: • Tuition-free community college for every high schooler in the county • Building a $535 million education and innovation hub in downtown Dallas • Developing and using a form of blockchain technology — called GreenLight Credentials — to give employers the power to locate people who have acquired the exact skills they need to get the job done

Community leaders, students and educators come together to celebrate the successes of the Dallas County Promise for low-income students

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‘PROMISE’ OF FREE HIGHER EDUCATION Nearly 2,000 high school students attending one of nearly 60 high schools in Dallas County have joined the Dallas County Promise program, which guarantees free tuition at any Dallas College campus and additional scholarships for free tuition at participating four-year institutions, which include UNT Dallas, SMU, Texas A&M - Commerce, Texas Woman’s University and Austin College.

“The point of Promise is to let these young students know they have options when it comes to attending a university,” says Laura Flores, an academic coach at Dallas College. “When you tell a student that, yes, college is for them, it not only impacts the student’s life, it changes the lives of their parents and the community in a very positive way.”

Promise is funded by federal financial aid dollars and the Dallas College Foundation, effectively removing financial barriers that keep Dallas County students from attending college. The program was launched in 2017 and has expanded to 57 high schools across 11 public school districts and will eventually encompass all high schools in Dallas County.

A NEW KIND OF DOWNTOWN CAMPUS Perhaps the largest single demonstration of support for upskilling Dallas County’s workforce in recent memory occurred during the May 2019 election. In that election, nearly three-fourths of all votes cast in Dallas County approved the sale of a $1.1 billion bond, about half of which will build a state-of-the-art education and innovation hub in Downtown Dallas.

The hub is a brainchild resulting from DFW bids for corporate HQs, creating a campus that includes community colleges, four-year universities and industry all utilizing the space as a cohesive workforce pipeline. “Not every HQ happens,” Dallas College Chancellor Dr. Joe May said in an article in D Magazine, “but we still believe very strongly that what we need is an active, robust spectrum of learning opportunities.”

May says that the college district is growing fast enough to justify the new space. From fall 2013 to fall 2018, enrollment grew by 13 percent, from 73,206 students to 82,800. The district projects 92,000 students by 2030. The growth, May says, comes in large part from increased partnerships with regional school districts, many of which now allow students to earn Dallas College credit while still in high school. The district also works with local employers to create and grow targeted programs to the area’s labor-market needs.

“We’re looking at the building creating a flexible environment that we can adapt as we need to make changes in the programs to best fit the needs here,” says May.

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“The point of Promise is to let these young students know they have options when it comes to attending a university.”

CONNECTING THE DOTS FOR CREDENTIALS, HIGHER EDUCATION AND EMPLOYERS The GreenLight Academic Credentials initiative is quickly gaining traction, according to its founder, Manoj Kutty.

“More than 10,000 students and alumni from Dallas College have already taken ownership of their credentials and started sharing them with academic institutions across the country,” he says, adding that more than 200 educational institutions nationwide are using GreenLight.

So far, Kutty’s team has migrated 1.7 million user records to GreenLight. More than 10,000 students have given GreenLight permission to release their transcripts.

Here’s how it works: First, students must give consent to having their academic records incorporated into the GreenLight database; the platform then acts like a sort of LinkedIn but with credentials that have been verified by estabTHE DALLAS lished institutions (goodbye, padCOUNTY ded resumes).

PROMISE Kutty and GreenLight Chief Product Officer Shikant Jannu IS FUELING foresee the day when the platDOUBLE-DIGIT form is adopted by institutions GROWTH FOR of higher education nationwide.

GreenLight is a particularly powREGIONAL erful tool for employers that are HIGHER seeking people who have learned EDUCATION niche skills under specific instructors or programs; it’s also ENROLLMENT an effective recruiting tool for universities that are seeking apFROM LOW-INCOME plicants by particular academic SCHOOLS, THE DALLAS category or credential. And a COUNTY PROMISE IS growing number of Dallas CounLARGER THAN 17 U.S. ty high school students are inSTATES IN TERMS OF creasing their credentials through THE NUMBER OF Dallas County Promise.

STUDENTS SERVED.

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HIGHER EDUCATION WITH HEART A CLOSER LOOK AT HOW DFW INSTITUTIONS ARE SERVING THE COMMUNITY

SERVING FUTURE U.S. HISPANIC LEADERS – DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY “The lack of equality is the biggest problem in our educational system today,” says the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) at the National Hispanic Education Summit on the campus of Dallas Baptist University (DBU).

The two-day conference in October 2019 featured a schedule of presentations and panel discussions with perspectives

from college students, academic officials, university presidents and church leaders centered on the theme “Commitment from the Boardroom to the Classroom: Advancing University and Faith Community Practices for Hispanic College Completion.” The goal of the annual summit is to bring higher education leaders and the church together to address best practices for successfully recruiting, retaining and graduating Hispanic college

students while empowering churches to effectively counsel their Hispanic students toward the completion of higher education.

“By bringing together Hispanic leaders from a variety of industries who share a common faith, the Faith and Education Coalition, once again, empowered participants to take keen insights back to their communities …” says Dr. Nick Pitts, executive director of DBU’s Institute of Global Engagement, in event

coverage on DBU’s campus news website.

DBU, a private university, is located in southern Dallas and combines faith and academic instruction to empower students to have a strong focus on increasing the number of students of color attending and completing higher education. The university often hosts national conferences focused on aligning their faith-based mission with real-world issues.

STUDENT GRANT-WRITING TRAINING THROUGH NONPROFITS – AUSTIN COLLEGE Career-connected learning can deeply impact a student’s outlook on their career path, but it can also help those who are doing the most good in the community. At Austin College, students in the Social Entrepreneurship for Poverty Alleviation (SEPA) program receive grant writing training, then go to work as interns for nonprofit agencies in the region and put that education into action. SEPA is a collaborative program between Austin College and the Texoma Council of Governments designed to engage students in community development through grant writing as an entrepreneurial en-

deavor. Students learn technical aspects of grant writing and get hands-on experience in the world of nonprofits.

“Each time I have an intern [from Austin College], I personally benefit from [having] someone that can help share the burden of work. [The student] helped me to make new forms, gathered new information, and made numerous contacts. Most importantly, she was able to write the case statement portion for our food assistance program, using the structure that I had already created. Her writing will easily be incorporated into what I’ve already done,” says Julie Rickey

of Master-Key Ministries in a testimonial for the program.

These internships are about more than just gaining workplace experience for the students; since the program began in 2012, Austin College SEPA program interns have helped raise over $1.1 million in grant funding for the 66 local agencies served. It is not only the nonprofit agencies who are seeing the value of the program. “I loved this project.

I learned so much about the non-profit world! I have definitely become extremely aware of the concerns of mental health in southern Oklahoma, and I hope that one day I will be able to make

an impact in the lives of those I saw in the crisis units and clinics.

In the future, I will definitely consider doing something in the mental health field as a medical doctor,” says Austin College student Helen Nguyen in a testimonial about her experience as a SEPA intern.

Finding opportunities for higher education, community organizations, and students to collaborate for impactful career-focused learning creates a win-win-win situation. “Rising tides lift all ships,” goes the old adage, which applies to the SEPA program at Austin College.

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SERVING A COMMUNITY BY JOINING THE COMMUNITY – UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT DALLAS The University of North Texas at Dallas is the only public university in Dallas, and the only university that focuses on urban Dallas students. With a soaring enrollment, UNT Dallas is recognized as the fastest-growing public university in Texas.

UNT Dallas is committed to creating pathways to socioeconomic mobility by decreasing the economic disparity that exists in higher education.

By offering high-quality degree programs at low tuition costs, plus scholarships and financial aid, UNT Dallas limits burdensome student loan debt upon graduation.

A student body that is 85% Hispanic and African American, UNT Dallas boasts the most blended diversity in Texas.

A majority are first-generation

college students who come from modest economic backgrounds in urban Dallas County.

A Backbone for the Southern Region UNT Dallas’ connection with southern Dallas communities includes unique partnerships and programs. Its Urban Institute focuses on projects that improve the social, economic and community well-being of Dallas’ southern region.

Leveraging the university’s intellectual capital and academic expertise, the Service, Education, Research, Community, and Hope (SERCH) Institute provides objective data to policy makers and community leaders while also building the capacity of individuals and organizations in the region.

UNT Dallas faculty, staff and

students play a vital role in SERCH initiatives. The institute serves as a key strategic component in fulfilling the university’s mission to be a catalyst in the community’s transformation.

“The SERCH Institute gives us the ability to acquire the true needs of the community,” says Keith Vinson, vice president of operations at YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas. “Through the support of the SERCH Institute, we are helping the YMCAs in South and West Dallas make programs and services accessible to all.

Working with the institute to complete a community needs assessment survey gives us true data directly from residents regarding their wants and needs.

This information allows us to set our future priorities for programs and services. The SERCH Institute

is truly an inspiring collaboration.”

If We Don’t Have It Let’s Build It SERCH is a leader in the community, taking ownership of ongoing projects, like managing the AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers for the City of Dallas’ GrowSouth initiative.

SERCH works with the community to better understand where efforts should be focused, and then UNT Dallas answers the call.

When SERCH found that southern Dallas didn’t have adequate access to healthy foods, a partnership was formed with Toyota, DART, and local vendors and organizations to create a “mobile market” to sell fruits, vegetables and other nutritive foods to residents who lack access to grocery stores.

LEADERSHIP FOR THOSE WHO SERVE – UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS AT DALLAS The Caruth Police Institute (CPI) at the University of North Texas at Dallas is a partnership with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute that will serve as the state’s premier police training, policy analysis, technical assistance and research organization.

This one-of-a-kind collaboration between mental health

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care, higher education and public safety was founded in 2009 with a $15 million grant from the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Initially, CPI’s goal was to fulfill the complex leadership needs of the Dallas Police Department through rigorous leadership programs, workshops on health and wellness, and academic research on best practices in policing.

Today, CPI serves police departments across Texas. A dozen police chiefs from departments throughout the state serve on an executive advisory board that oversees the mission to formulate solutions to the most complex issues facing police departments, such as increasing workforce, improving community relations and reducing police suicides.

“CPI represents a unique academic-practitioner model in police science,” says CPI interim executive director B.J. Wagner.

“CPI combines expertise in police policy with the ability to conduct research, evaluate programs and improve police operations, making it one of the finest law enforcement institutes in Texas and the country.”

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DFW INFLUENCES THE NATION AT LARGE

DRIVING CHANGE FOR THE GREATER GOOD Higher education institutions are deeply embedded in the DFW community, taking leadership to drive important policy changes at the local, state and national level. Through diverse industries and pathways, DFW higher education is leaving a lasting impact on the world.

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Q U I C K H I TS

Texas Woman’s University invests in the leadership of its female students from business leaders to those running for public office

PREPARING WOMEN TO LEAD THE JANE NELSON INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP EMPOWERS FUTURE C-SUITE EXECS, ENTREPRENEURS AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS Women hold 5% to 12% of top executive positions in U.S. corporations, according to the Pew Research Center.

The number of women in the U.S. Congress, meanwhile, is at an all-time high at 24%, but women make up 51% of the U.S. adult population.

Texas Woman’s University (TWU) is aiming to change these dynamics.

Building on historical strengths and contemporary potential, TWU is focused on preparing women to lead. In 2018, the university established the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership — the first of its kind in the state — to prepare more women to take on successful roles in business and public service. Through the institute’s three specialized centers — the Center for Student Leadership, the Center for Women Entrepreneurs and the Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy — TWU ensures women have the education to establish careers as successful C-suite executives, the skills for building entrepreneurial businesses and the framework needed to run for public office.

TWU students and regional communities are given opportunities to dig deep into pressing issues for women in diverse industries,

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leading innovation and change. The Center for Women Entrepreneurs awards microgrants to women entrepreneurs in the region while educating ambitious women in entrepreneurship.

The university has graduated founders and CEOs of successful companies such as BuzzBallz/Southern Champion, a company that started as an MBA capstone project for then-high school teacher Merrilee Kick and, in 10 years, has grown into the only womanowned winery/distillery in the U.S. with annual revenues of $50+ million and 100 employees in 300,000 square feet of operations space. The Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy aims to address the “ambition gap” between men and women considering running for office. Through research, leadership development and “political boot camps,” the center creates a talent pipeline of female elected leaders. Students learn from political industry experts, faculty and successful formerly elected women on opportunities in the political industry.

While the institute is young and growing, the opportunity and need for diverse women leaders in entrepreneurship, business and public policy are also growing. TWU’s leadership in the space shows the importance of diversity and leadership in DFW.

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BRINGING BACK TEXAS A TEAM OF UNT FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS WORKING TO RESTORE DFW PRAIRIES

The University of North Texas students take part in the “rewilding” initiative sweeping the U.S.

The Advanced Environmental Research Institute (AERI) at the University of North Texas (UNT) has been established as an Institute of Research Excellence. AERI touts a multidisciplinary team of researchers committed to collaborating on large research projects with an emphasis on application of research findings to the solutions of our most pressing environmental issues. One of the most interactive projects is the restoration of North Texas prairies.

Think of it as a sort of landlocked Noah’s Ark. A team of University of North Texas faculty, staff and students led

by Jaime Baxter-Slye, Ph.D., an instructional laboratory supervisor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has reconstructed a native Texas tall grass prairie that has become a magnet for biodiversity.

More than 200 species of plants, insects and birds have been

documented at the prairie, including four to six species of native grasses, 20 species of native Texas flowering plants (including rare Maximilian sunflowers) and at least six species of predatory birds.

“From an ecological standpoint, having predatory birds means there are enough plants and habitat with insects and other animals that the birds eat,” says Baxter-Slye. “It’s functioning as an ecosystem, which is what we wanted.”

With existing prairie plants on site, Discovery Park provided an ideal location for the prairie, which was funded by the We Mean Green Fund. The habitat is located on a patch of land at Discovery Park, a nearly 300-acre, UNT-owned research park located five miles north of the main campus in Denton.

Native Texas tall grass prairie habitats are the most endangered habitat types in the Lone Star State. DFW was once home to about 40,000 acres of productive prairie land and was covered by more than 2,200 species of native plants.

Today, less than 1% of prairie ecosystems remain.

Approximately 1,500 undergraduate students and several community groups have visUNT HAS ited and studied the Pollina19 PROGRAMS tive Prairie’s 8,000-plus plants RANKED IN THE since its opening, including 400 students enrolled in a newly introduced environmental science lab.

Members of the departments of Biological Sciences, Philosophy and Religion, Engineering, and Art have partnered for the project, as well as IN THE NATION several student organizations.

The project is also organized in association with Bee Campus USA, Texan by Nature, the

BY U.S. NEWS & Xerces Society Million PolliWORLD REPORT nator Garden Challenge and the Monarch Wrangler program.

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DATA DRIVES CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM A Q&A WITH PAMELA R. METZGER OF THE SMU DEASON CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM CENTER Tell us about the Deason Center.

The Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at the SMU Dedman School of Law collects, analyzes and assesses data to drive smart, sane and sustainable justice policies. The center then uncovers, recounts and amplifies the individual stories that bring the data to life. Together, these stats and stories make a compelling case for compassionate criminal justice.

What was your background before becoming the center’s director?

As the center’s director, I am known primarily for my defense of more than 8,000 incarcerated defendants who were left without legal representation after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The Deason Center’s research director, Dr. Andrew Davies, co-founded the Indigent Defense Research Association, the nation’s first research organization devoted to empirical study of public defense services.

What are some of the center’s projects?

Indigent Defense The Deason Center has been retained to identify and promote data-driven best practices for the delivery of federal public defender services. This is believed to be the first research-driven effort

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to systematically identify which public defender practices improve case and client outcomes across multiple jurisdictions.

The Initial Appearance Project Across the United States, newly arrested people languish behind bars for days, weeks — or even months — before they see a judge or an attorney.

The Deason Center’s Initial Appearance Project documents these delays in initial appearance and assesses how they impact criminal defendants.

The project includes a multistate survey of initial appearance laws. The project also supports legislation and litigation that advance the right to a prompt postarrest judicial appearance with the assistance of an attorney.

The Prosecutorial Charging Practices Project Local prosecutors decide whether or not to charge a person with a crime and decide what charges to file. The Deason Center’s Prosecutorial Charging Practices Project explores how prosecutors engage with police, consider evidence, and assess the public’s interest in prosecution or dismissal. At the conclusion of the project, the research team will provide the participating office with key insights about its internal processes and recommendations about best practices.

Dallas County District Attorney Partnership The Dallas County District Attorney, John Creuzot, is working with the Deason Center to explore whether or not new prosecution policies create a smarter, safer and more equitable criminal justice system. The first phase of the partnership will examine the impact of reformed misdemeanor prosecution policies, comparing data from the three years prior with data from Creuzot’s first two years in office (2019-2020).

Future studies will include cost-benefit analyses, assessments of access to justice and research into the efficacy of diversion programs.

THE ‘SECRET SAUCE’ IN TEACHER SUCCESS THREE LITTLE WORDS Nearly half (44 percent) of all teachers quit their profession within the first five years of starting their job, according to a study by Richard Ingersoll and his team at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

That statistic is appalling for administrators, students and parents alike, who benefit as teaching effectiveness grows with each passing year.

Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU - Commerce) appears to have cracked the code on surviving the initial teaching hump, posting an 85 percent retention rate for teachers in their first five years.

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Business students from around the world come to Texas Christian University to compete in the “do good” pitch competition

IT’S LIKE SHARK TANK, BUT WITH HEART TWO-DAY COMPETITION THAT’S LAUNCHED 160+ COMPANIES

Mentors and classroom work boost workplace retention for Texas A&M University - Commerce teaching grads

“Texas A&M-Commerce still prides itself on a prolific production of high-quality teachers,” writes Mark J. Reid, Ph.D., associate dean at the College of Education and Human Services. “Over the last five years, the university has produced an average of over 450 new teachers each year.”

One key ingredient in the high-retention-rate secret sauce: in-class experience.

“New teachers hit the public schools ready for success because of a robust experience they obtain within a full year school internship and residency semesters,” Reid writes.

That and other preparation also contribute to a 97 percent passing rate for the initial statewide teacher certification exam-

ination, he writes.

Teachers carrying TAMU Commerce degrees are making a strong impact on the region.

An analysis by the Center for Research, Evaluation & Advancement of Teacher Education found that TAMU - Commerce teachers were employed by 140 school districts and 45 charter schools within a 75-mile radius of the university.

“Notably, 85 percent of the teachers produced by A&M Commerce find initial employment within this zone,” Reid writes. “This trend has resulted in 26 districts that have a majority of their teachers who are graduates of the university including 173 teachers out of the 257 in Sulphur Springs ISD.”

Each year, students from across the globe travel to Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Richards Barrentine Values and Ventures© Competition to pitch ideas for conscious capitalism ventures that turn a profit while solving a problem.

It’s like Shark Tank but with a heart.

The two-day competition, annually presented by the TCU Neeley Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, produces nine winners, three special-place awards and six awards for the Elevator Pitch, with prizes ranging from $500 to the grand prize of $100,000 to launch companies. Since its inception in 2010, more than $1.2 million in sponsorships and in-kind support and $600,000 in cash prizes have been awarded to more than 138 competing universities.

From the competition, 160-plus companies have been launched; 66 are fully operational.

Winning companies include innovative practices such as Spring Back Recycling, which employs disenfranchised and homeless people to deconstruct and recycle mattresses to reduce waste, W.E. Do Good, which provides a low-cost, human-powered machine to improve agronomic practices and reduce poverty in Ethopia and other countries, and the most recent winner, Celise, which produces biodegradable alternatives to plasticware and straws made with cornstarch and almost identical in feel and performance as plastic.

“A lot of people think business ideas are just about making money, but there are a lot of us out there that want to do a lot more than that. We want to make more than money; we want to make a difference ... With the Values and Ventures Competition at TCU, you do well by doing good,” says a TCU student in a video describing the competition.

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The University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law students get real-world experience working with DFW highneed communities

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UNT DALLAS, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE LAW SCHOOL STATUS QUO

Part of higher education’s purpose is to meet the needs of the surrounding community, whether that be businesses, students, parents or the public at large. In DFW, two universities listened to their communities to create law schools with innovative programs that reflect the communities they serve.

The University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law (UNT Dallas) is recognized as the third-most diverse law school in America, with a strong emphasis on client advocacy and legal

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public service to the surrounding community. Texas A&M University, meanwhile, has grown a school of law providing diverse learning opportunities through cutting-edge clinics and training in intellectual property, energy, health care, and other key areas of study, all while going from unranked, to a top-60 law school in six years.

WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER LAW SCHOOL?

In a region that is home to toptier public institutions and the

highly ranked, private Dedman School of Law at SMU, many were skeptical when state Sen. Royce West, former state Rep. Dan Branch, and then UNT System Chancellor Lee Jackson announced the drive to create the UNT Dallas College of Law. The number of law school applications had been declining since 2011 nationally, according to the Law School Admission Council. The number of firstyear law students had dropped dramatically, due to rising

tuition costs and a perceived lack of legal jobs. Even still, the founders of the UNT Dallas College of Law argued that it was the perfect time to open a new school — one that didn’t replicate what was already being done. The UNT Dallas College of Law trains attorneys who will go back to their communities to provide legal services that many people can’t afford. The cost of law school has contributed to what Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht warns

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is a dangerous, widening justice gap. “See, we’re at a strange place,” Hecht says in a D Magazine article. “We have lots of lawyers looking for jobs, and we have lots of people who need lawyers. But they can’t get together because of the cost.”

UNT Dallas College of Law believes that it can churn out a new crop of attorneys, less driven by debt, more driven by purpose.

Since its founding in 2014, UNT Dallas College of Law has designed every element of the school — admissions, coursework, experiential learning The Texas A&M School of Law continues to grow in rank, size, programs, and areas of strength opportunities and the student population — around its mission to promote justice and to advance Students can even experience human potential through the enterprise of legal education. From global lawyering, through field the community-centric clinics for students housed in the south study courses in Cambodia, and southern Dallas area to meeting future clients in their homes Ghana, Mexico, Scotland and to utilizing virtual reality in order to create crime scenes to learn other countries. how to interpret evidence, UNT Dallas College of Law is fulfilling In accepting the job of dean of its mission to be a different kind of law school. Named among the Texas A&M School of Law, THE DEDMAN the 20 Most Innovative Law Schools by PreLaw, a National Jurist Robert B. Ahdieh said, “I believe SCHOOL OF publication, UNT Dallas College of Law is living up to the recognition. no law school in the country has traveled further, in so short a LAW AT SMU time. Nor does any have more NEW, AMBITIOUS AND ENTREPRENEURIAL IS RANKED From the outside, the Texas A&M School of Law looks the same upside potential, going forward.” as it did six years ago, when it was Texas Wesleyan Law School: a Top priorities for the Texas two-story block of faded brown concrete in downtown Fort Worth. A&M School of Law in the But inside, the school has gone from unranked to one of the top 60 coming years include continuing in the country, hiring top new professors, improving job placement to build a world-class faculty; numbers and putting itself on par with longstanding law schools ensuring that faculty have the IN THE in the state. resources necessary to produce COUNTRY “Texas A&M is an incredibly ambitious university,” former Interim research of consequence and sigDean Thomas Mitchell told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “So when nificance; extending the audience they acquired a law school that was unranked, that was not the end for a Texas A&M legal education

BY U.S. NEWS & goal — just to have a law school. It was to have an outstanding law beyond students seeking a threeWORLD REPORT school.” year Juris Doctor, including Leaders at the Texas A&M School of Law — which was acquired through fast-growing non-lawyer from Texas Wesleyan University in 2013 — aren’t preoccupied with programs; and enhancing the rankings. Instead, they have focused on recruiting a strong and scope of the law school’s external diverse student body and providing their students with the skills nec- engagement through outreach to essary to navigate new and established areas of legal practice. From the community, graduates and the Entrepreneurship Clinic and the Medical/Legal Partnership with colleagues in legal academia.

Cook Children’s Hospital, to the Patent Clinic and the Trademark & Combined, the UNT Dallas College of Law and the Texas A&M Copyright Clinic, students serve and engage the community, even School of Law are changing the landscape of legal education — not as they develop their capacity to succeed as lawyers and leaders. just in the region but at the national level.

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REDEFINING LIBERAL ARTS THESE DFW SCHOOLS ARE CHANGING OUR PERCEPTION OF LIBERAL ARTS INSTITUTIONS AUSTIN COLLEGE “Austin College is a small liberal arts college where big things happen,” writes Austin College President Steven O’Day in a letter from the president’s office. “Since 1849, Austin College has maintained an unwavering commitment to the transformative power of education, not only for the individual but for our communities and our world. We are committed to the breadth of a liberal arts education and equipping students with the ability to think critically and [problem-solve] and communicate effectively so that they can succeed today and in the rapidly changing world of the future.”

Located about an hour north of

downtown Dallas, Sherman, Texas, is home to one of the premier liberal arts colleges in the Lone Star State.

Liberal arts colleges differ from the traditional two- or four-year higher education institutions by being smaller in size and focusing on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences. The liberal arts college model believes that while graduates have different majors of study, developing intellectual and leadership capacities with broad general knowledge creates well-rounded students ready to take on leadership roles in any discipline.

But don’t let the word ‘arts’ in Austin College’s description fool

you — Austin College is home to excellent STEM programs and touts a 90% acceptance rate for students applying to health science professional schools. The difference at Austin College is the approach to rigorous academics supported by individual attention, one-to-one faculty mentoring, and access to academic resources, as well as internships and the opportunity for undergraduates to conduct research alongside faculty. National recognition by the awarding of prestigious grants includes the $1.2 million Noyce grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for STEM education and an additional

$650,000 granted from the NSF for the “ACCESS” (Austin College’s Career-Empowering STEM Scholars) program for academically talented and financially needy students majoring in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics in preparation for STEM careers.

Austin College is a historical liberal arts college that has built on already innovative students, faculty and staff to blend an old model with the new demands of technology and industry — educating lifelong learners who are ready to take on the challenges of the growing DFW Region.

Dallas areas. The Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business, officially named in 2013 with a $12 million donation from the Guptas (UD Graduate School of Management alumni), offers numerous business degree programs for undergraduate and graduate students. The college is also designated a Center of Academic Excellence by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security for Cybersecurity. Program offerings include Doctor of Business Administration (the only one in Texas), Master of Business Administration and Master of Science degrees in accounting, business

analytics, cybersecurity, finance, and information and technology management, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in business.

While the business school has garnered national recognition, the academic rigor and mission-driven core curriculum are what make the institution stand out in the DFW Region. UD holds one of the nation’s highest percentages of National Merit Scholars enrolled, as compared to other Catholic colleges and universities. All undergraduates participate in the nationally recognized Core Curriculum, a two-year, 60-credit sequence of classes focused on

the Great Books of Western literature and culture. The intentionally designed student-faculty ratio of 10:1 means that Core classes are kept small, allowing students to participate in thoughtful, meaningful dialogue with their peers and their professors, both in and out of the classroom.

UD is modeling how a historic liberals arts college can build on core values to create market-driven courses in business, cybersecurity and IT that ensure its students are filling the needs of regional employers and earning a high postgraduate wage.

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS With a liberal arts core curriculum that builds on real-world business- savvy courses, the University of Dallas (UD) has created a “secret sauce” in cultivating the next brilliant minds in business and the liberal arts.

First founded as a small Catholic university in 1910, UD has grown with the DFW Region. As more Fortune 500 companies relocated their headquarters to DFW, UD met the call and created a stand-alone business school — outside of the traditional undergraduate liberal arts programs — to meet the needs of the top-tier businesses relocating to the Irving-Las Colinas and

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TECHNOLOGY MEETS HUMAN DESIGN DATA DRIVES DESIGN

Researchers in DFW are building real-world solutions with data.

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HI-FI HEALTH CARE UT Southwestern built a 49,000 sq ft, sensor-laden facility to boost med training

HIGH-FIDELITY SIMULATION IS MODERNIZING MANIKIN-TRAINING TO SAVE LIVES IT’S ONE OF THE MOST ADVANCED, IMMERSIVE FORMS OF INSTRUCTION AVAILABLE IN MODERN MEDICINE More than 2.5 million lives have been saved since the first CPR training manikin — known as Rescue Annie — came into use in 1960.

Fast-forward to 2020, where the UT Southwestern Simulation Center is using cutting-edge technology and advanced teaching methods to train thousands in a host of life-saving skills and medical procedures.

Since its opening at the end of 2018, the 49,000-square-foot center has provided more than 16,000 interactive training sessions, in a variety of health care environments, such as in-patient visits, operating rooms, clinics, trauma centers and intensive care units.

The facility — one of the largest medical simulation centers in the United States — has become a regional hub for training health care professionals and students. Among them are roughly 1,400 residents and fellows, 1,000 medical students and about 150 students from the UT Southwestern School of Health Professions.

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The center offers one of the most advanced, immersive forms of instruction available in modern medicine: high-fidelity patient simulation (HFS). HFS incorporates human behavior and anatomical functions into manikins, such as crying and secretions from the eyes, ears and mouth, and can even respond to medical care, such as chest compressions and defibrillation. HFS spaces at the center include an emergency room, an intensive care room, and a labor and delivery room. Other simulation areas include two large operating room suites, three robotic-surgery-training spaces, a laparoscopic training and suturing lab, and 20 patient exam rooms.

“There was a vision by UT Southwestern Medical Center to create a state-of-the-art center, which would be a resource for all learners, trainees and employees, promote best-practice education, inter-professional activities and focus [on] better patient care,” says Dr. Daniel Scott, Director of the UT Southwestern SIM Center, describing what spurred the center’s creation.

MACHINE LEARNING Industry, higher education and student outcomes; how to help a community through data

MAKING STUDENT DATA MEANINGFUL SMU’S BUDD CENTER AND FIDELITY INVESTMENTS TEAM UP TO DECIPHER DATA

Identifying a dip in grades before it’s too late can make a difference in a student’s future.

A collaboration between the Budd Center at SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development and more than 10 Fidelity Investments data analysts brought education and data experts together to crunch numbers and better inform educators of academic performance.

Regina Nippert, executive director of the Budd Center, has worked with over 30 nonprofits and 13 schools in West Dallas, a transitional, industrial area west of downtown Dallas, since 2007. The Budd Center is charged with bringing West Dallas schools and nonprofits to one table, where they share information and collaborate to improve educational outcomes for West Dallas students. Part of what they do is analyze data, identify students who are at risk and implement effective strategies to meet the students’ needs.

“We get the data from Dallas ISD,” Nippert said in a recent interview.

“But it takes 50 hours every six weeks to take this data and crunch it back down into meaningful information.”

One of the Budd Center partners, Readers 2 Leaders, helps Dallas ISD students ages 3 to 12 who are not reading at grade level. The nonprofit offers in-school tutoring, an after-school program, summer camps and parent education programs.

“We have the student data that comes in a spreadsheet with hundreds of columns and rows,” says Lisa Dickerson, Readers 2 Leaders vice president of programs. “It is very hard to read and understand.

Without the data, however, we do not know if our work is truly making a difference to that child.”

In 2018, the Budd Center was accepted as one of the organizations

Fidelity Investments helps in its annual one-day Technology Impact Day. Fidelity analysts teamed up with the Budd Center and its nonprofit partners to devise user-friendly ways to interpret student data, such as grades, attendance, behavior, reading progress and test scores.

After Technology Impact Day, both the Budd Center and Fidelity agreed more collaboration was needed to develop a user-friendly dashboard of student data. With the help of SMU’s Office of Information Technology, Fidelity and the Budd Center undertook a four-month project to streamline the way student data was transmitted and presented to its nonprofit partners.

The project created and launched a user-friendly student data dashboard for the Budd Center’s nonprofit partners. The dashboard enables the nonprofit partners to track students’ progress and quickly respond to reading challenges, slipping grades or absenteeism with research-based interventions. The ease of using a dashboard enables nonprofit professionals and educators to spend more time working with the students and less time trying to translate complex documents.

Now the Budd Center is developing training modules and materials to share how to make student data more user-friendly with other communities and nonprofit organizations.

“We are finding that better use of the student information database is really shifting the dial of our collaboration with our nonprofit partners,” says Dana Stoltz Gray, the Budd Center’s director of community collaboration and evaluation. “They are very intentional about engaging in successful, evidence-based programs.”

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INTENTIONAL FUTURE-MAKING STUDENTS EXAMINE THE INTERSECTION OF CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY The role of technology in culture, work and regional economies has become more important and complex in the last two decades.

Leaders at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) saw the need for greater research, workforce training and programming to ensure the DFW Region is leading the way in future work.

In 2015, UTD created the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (ATEC) to engage artists, designers, scientists, researchers and reflective practitioners across multiple disciplines in collaborative activities to create new knowledge, explore the expressive possibilities and assess the cultural impact of emerging technologies.

“Our goal in ATEC is to encourage students to think complexly about technology, about culture and about the many ways in which the two are inextricably entangled,” says Dr. Anne Balsamo, dean of the school, Arts and Technology Distinguished University Chair, and Arts and Humanities Distinguished Chair, on the program website.

Students, faculty and researchers collaborate on Intentional Future-Making through the creation of new cultural forms, the design of new technological experiences and the transformation of the culture industries. The cross-discipline work at ATEC has already created recognized technological advances.

The Center for Modeling and Simulation and the Virtual Humans and Synthetic Societies Lab, both led by ATEC professor Dr. Marjorie Zielke, have developed an emotive “Virtual Reality Patient,” in conjunction with Southwestern Medical Foundation, that medical students are able to use to improve patient communication skills.

The center also has received a clinical trial planning grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore virtual reality graded exposure therapy for those with chronic back pain.

ATEC’s success with 3D VR gained notoriety and created opportunities for partnerships and grants from top national intelligence organizations. The First Person Cultural Trainer project teaches soldiers the values and norms of Iraqi and Afghan cultures, develops the Army’s soldier and civilian leaders, and is supported and sponsored by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command G-2 Intelligence Support Activity.

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DFW UNIVERSITIES REV UP CYBER CURRICULA FILLING THE TALENT VOID WITH EDUCATION AND EXCELLENCE A heatmap — built by Cyberseek to illustrate the need for cybersecurity talent — shows Texas ablaze with nearly 25,000 cybersecurity openings, among more than 300,000 open jobs nationwide.

“This chart doesn’t [even] reflect the fact that many security programs are underfunded,” writes Wayne Reynolds, advisory chief information security officer at Kudelski Security Inc., an international cybersecurity firm that has substantial operations in Dallas. “Sadly … organizations wait for a breach, then when that ‘large emotional event’ happens, they knee-jerk and overspend on security.”

Universities in DFW are working to fill that talent void.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS: CYBER SECURITY RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INSTITUTE UTD’s Computer Science

Department serves as the base for the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute, which comprises one of the nation’s largest research groups dedicated to cyberprotection. The institute has garnered nearly $50 million in extramural funding for research and education in the last 14 years. The institute team serves as a national resource by conducting advanced research in cybersecurity threats and solutions, offering an education in all aspects of cybersecurity, and training students with the capability to carry out cyber operations.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON: FLAGGING CYBERSECURITY If triathalons measure athletic fitness, Capture the Flag competitions — where online security savants attempt

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computer security, information assurance and cybercrime.

UNT’s cybersecurity research and education is recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research, as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

to outwit and outhack each other — represent a team’s fitness in the cyber arena.

UTA hosts and competes in hackathons across the state and DFW Region — and has done extremely well.

A team with UTA students Aaditya Purani and Jonathon Kirkpatrick finished sixth in the world at the Cyber Security Awareness Weekend cybersecurity Capture the Flag finals in November 2019.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS: RECOGNIZED CYBER DEFENSE EXCELLENCE Much of UNT’s cybersecurity work is carried out on campus by the affiliates of the Center for Information and Cybersecurity. The center brings together individuals and organizations with an interest in information security,

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-COMMERCE: RISING STARS IN CYBERSECURITY TAMU - Commerce has assembled a team of the rising stars in cybersecurity teaching and research. TAMU - Commerce’s faculty has industry and teaching experience that gives it the background to tackle the gnarliest problems, particularly in the areas of resilience, cyber-physical security and risk awareness.

SMU: EDUCATING CYBER DEFENDERS As a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyber Defense SMU is committed to helping close the 21st century cyber security skills gap. Cybersecurity research and education have long been a focus of SMU’s Computer Science Department, bolstered by the launch of the Darwin Deason Institute for Cyber Security in 2014. The institute researches new ways to secure information technology, even as the nature of this technology continues to evolve.

THE 5-STAGE PROCESS SPARKING CREATIVE LEARNING TCU’S IDEAFACTORY: BRINGING DESIGN THINKING TO HIGHER EDUCATION “There’s an old story of a university architect who waited until the students had worn paths in the grass before adding sidewalks to the campus, quite literally following their footsteps. That’s human-centered design: understanding how people behave and think, then create something with their choices in mind, not your own,” says Corey Landers, graduate of the Texas Christian University (TCU) Neeley School of Business and product designer at Argo Digital in New York City.

“TCU has always been a campus focused on the student experience, and now it has the TCU IdeaFactory to empower students to utilize human-centered design in all disciplines.”

The TCU IdeaFactory — a unit of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies — supports the innovative ideas and creative spirits of TCU students and the entire TCU community by providing an environment, frameworks and resources to advance new ideas and drive creative solutions. The program supports ideas from initial concept to prototype or beyond, by offering mentorships, resources and building teams of university faculty and community members.

Students in TCU’s IdeaFactory are encouraged to solve problems by following the five stages of design thinking (empathizing, defining, ideation, prototyping and testing). In that method, faculty and coaches walk students through the entire process of creating and launching a new product. From conducting market research to prototyping and testing to finally preparing for a venture capital pitch competition, the TCU IdeaFactory team is focused on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Higher education is not checking off a series of boxes to get a degree, but it’s actually lining TCU MBA RANKS up or stacking a set of boxes to reach new heights or new plac# es,” founding IdeaFactory director Eric Simanek says in a TCU IN THE WORLD FOR FACULTY QUALITY 360 article.

BY THE ECONOMIST Borrowing Simanek’s analogy, the IdeaFactory is open to students from across the TCU camTCU RANKED pus, encouraging them to use their powers of critical thinking so they # can stack their sets of boxes to be more prepared for constantly FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP BY THE PRINCETON REVIEW evolving careers.

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THE ‘ART’ OF KNOWING WHAT’S IMPORTANT GIVEN THE RUSH TOWARD TECHNICAL AND DATA-DRIVEN SKILLS, WHAT’S TO BECOME OF CHAUCER? “Many people make the mistake of thinking that a liberal arts degree will not help them in the business world,” writes Brian Sullivan, who received his bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and his master’s degree in English literature at the University of North Texas (UNT).

Sullivan — director of design strategy at Southlake-based Sabre, a developer of technology for travel companies across the globe — could be considered a poster boy for the power of a liberal arts education in the tech economy.

“At the time (in the mid-1990s), I was studying at UNT,” he writes. “We did not have the explosion of smartphones, streaming services, same-day delivery services, app stores,

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and so on. We live in an attention economy, with so much data generated and sent out every minute of the day. It can be hard to organize, analyze, and distill what is important. How do you ignore the noise? How do you determine what’s important? Can you communicate this information quickly and efficiently?”

Sullivan gained those tools — analyzing, condensing and prioritizing reams of information into what’s important — over countless hours of reading, researching and, yes, thinking.

Both at UNT and at UTA, where he studied political science.

“Corporate America is a real-time, everyday case study in political science,” he writes. “People have hidden agendas. They form tribes and alliances. You have to navigate difficult conversations.”

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It seems UNT boasts a plethora of liberal arts graduates, aside from Sullivan, who have gone on to make a global impact: • J ournalism grad Wende Zomnir launched a worldwide initiative for equal pay, education and fair treatment for women, funding seven nonprofits across the world in the process.

• Marketing grad Kathleen Wayton harnessed the problem-solving skills she honed at UNT to become the chief information officer at Southwest Airlines.

• Toni Reid — who is in charge of Amazon’s Alexa voice-driven app and its Echo devices — guided Alexa’s development, even including a “smart, humble, helpful, sometimes funny” personality, she told Variety in an interview that was published in June 2019.

“Toni Reid’s degree is in anthropology,” writes UNT Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jennifer Evans-Cowley. “It was her ability to imagine how people could interact with technology that has allowed her to lead Amazon’s Alexa. Liberal arts majors are able to understand people and society in a way that can enable technological innovation to positively impact society.”

Realizing the humanities/tech connection, UNT and other

universities are beginning to launch initiatives that combine liberal arts degrees with technical degrees to combine the best attributes of STEM and liberal arts educations, according to Evans-Cowley.

An analysis by Forbes cites the crucial role that liberal arts thinkers play in connecting products and services with consumers. Industry observers are increasingly pointing out the value of empathy, understanding of humanity, and perspectives that liberal arts graduates bring to tech.

“Chaucer is still relevant,” Evans-Cowley writes.t Our world is propelled by good storytellers.”

TOYOTA PARTNERSHIP WITH UNT TO LEVERAGE TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM CONTINUOUS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT BENEFITING STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF AND THE COMMUNITY. THE UNT-TOYOTA PARTNERSHIP WON A NATIONAL BEST PRACTICES GRAND FINALIST AWARD FROM THE SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OFFICERS.

GET CREDIT FOR WHAT YOU KNOW TAMU - COMMERCE OFFERS THE FIRST COMPETENCY-BASED BACHELOR-LEVEL DEGREE PROGRAM If you were a medic in the military for 10 years, why is it that you need to take a freshman-level Anatomy 101 course to complete a bachelor’s degree after transitioning from the workforce? Or maybe you have been a bookkeeper in a small business for years but never got around to finishing your college degree — should you have to take low-level accounting classes? These are the real-life examples of working adults who did not take the traditional path

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straight to college out of high school but hold relevant skills and competencies that transfer into core learning outcomes in higher education. The leadership at Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU - Commerce) saw the talent in these learners, as well as the barriers, which led it to create the Texas Affordable Baccalaureate program, a BAAS in Organizational Leadership — the first competency-based bachelor-level degree program. The

program provides opportunities for students to receive credit for what they know and can do, allows students to accelerate completion of their degree, and because it is fully online, students are able to plan their study schedule around the rest of their work-day to complete the coursework. “It has been my miracle because it fits into what my life is now: a full-time employee, a wife, a mother …and now a student,” says student Maranda about the

competency-based education program at TAMU - Commerce in a testimonial on its website.

From the success of the competency-based education (CBE) framework, TAMU - Commerce created the Institute for Competency-Based Education to provide formal resources and dedicated time for faculty to do research, host national CBE symposia and develop new competency-based education programs and practices.

MACHINE LEARNING

Southern Methodist University students are exposed to learning the power of data across disciplines

THE MAN WHO SHARED HIS SUPERPOWER FROM BUSINESS TO HUMANITIES TO ART, DATA IS DATA, AND IT’S POWERFUL For decades, Tom Fomby has carried an obscure but powerful multitool in his intellectual toolbox. It lets him predict West Nile disease outbreaks. It let him determine that financial literacy can substantially reduce food insecurity (by up to 24%). It’s letting him determine if straightforward corporate scandals — as reported in the media — directly impact company stock prices.

Fomby didn’t want this multitool to remain obscure: He knew data analysis could answer a host of questions, regardless of the subject. It would be at least three decades before his fervor for data analysis would sweep across the SMU campus.

MACHINE LEARNING

F E AT U R E S

“Data is data,” says Fomby, a professor of economics at SMU. “You’ve got a toolbox. You can jump from doing economic research to [doing an analysis at] UT Southwestern. That training allows you to jump around and look at several things.”

Fomby had been “beating the drum” (as he puts it) to encourage fellow academics to adopt data analysis in their particular disciplines since 1984. Perhaps one of Fomby’s most noteworthy analyses involved the aforementioned West Nile study. In that study, he worked with researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas County Health and Human Services to create a system to identify the best timing and locations to intervene and prevent infected mosquitoes from propagating.

It might be notable that Fomby — an economist — hadn’t done any analysis involving public health data but for his adage: Data is data.

Now SMU’s supercomputers are being put to work on problems in a wide variety of subject areas — from mathematics to business (looking at firm response to mandated greenhouse gas disclosures) to physics (SMU physicists used earlier supercomputers to identify the Higgs boson particle).

SMU humanities professor Jo Guldi mined text from 100 years of British Parliamentary debates to get a better understanding of the history of eviction.

Dedman College seismologist Dr. Heather DeShon and fellow researchers are using SMU’s supercomputer — ManeFrame II — to study the triggers behind North Texas earthquakes, many of which have been tied to deep-well injection of wastewater from oil and gas production.

Fomby’s push toward data analysis at SMU spurred a 2017 task force that examined the prospects of how the research and teaching of data science could be expanded and coordinated at SMU. “In the course of doing that task force, we were amazed by the breadth of activities, in data analytics,” says James E. Quick, SMU associate vice president for research, dean of graduate studies and professor of earth sciences James E. Quick. “From the business school to humanities to the arts.”

“In the course of doing that task force, we were amazed by the breadth of activities in data analytics.”

Having already secured one of the most powerful supercomputers in academia, SMU is now going about the work of establishing a center for high-performance computing, which will operate in conjunction with a data science institute.

The purpose is to facilitate access to high-performance computing, Quick says. “We’ve realized we’ve got a lot more going on with data. The data science institute’s goal is to get [the work] more coordinated — and more visible.”

SMU’S GUILDHALL IS RANKED

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IN GRADUATE SCHOOLS FOR GAME DESIGN FOR 2019 THE PRINCETON REVIEW

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MEDICAL MINDS

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE, DFW ADVANCES MEDICAL CARE EXCELLENCE IN HEALTH CARE

Health care is one of the top industries in DFW, contributing billions of dollars annually to the regional economy. Not only does the region train and retain excellent health care practitioners, but in the Region researchers are engaged in cutting-edge medical research.

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MEDICAL MINDS

Q U I C K H I TS

Identifying genetic variations may be key in fighting cancer at the North Texas Health Science Center Genome Center

DNA RESEARCH REDUCES OPIOID DEPENDENCE IT COULD LEAD TO DOCTORS PRESCRIBING FEWER OPIOIDS One in five adults in America suffers from chronic pain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet modern medicine is far from solving the riddle of eliminating such pain, especially in the lower back.

“By far, the two most commonly used drugs for back pain are opioids and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and they both may be associated with problems,” says John Licciardone, DO, MS, MBA, professor of family medicine and the Richards-Cohen Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC). “Based on the data we collect, we can look at the genes that control how these drugs are metabolized and predict who is at the greatest risk for side effects.”

Dr. Licciardone is leading a statewide effort to collect data for the PRECISION Pain Research Registry: the initiative that allows researchers at UNTHSC to analyze the char-

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acteristics of the DNA of people who suffer chronic lower-back pain. The DNA-collection initiative went statewide in May 2019 and had 650 participants as of November 2019.

On one end of the patient spectrum are people who metabolize opioids, such as codeine, very quickly, which puts them at high risk for serious side effects, such as respiratory depression.

At the other end are people who are poor codeine metabolizers and are unlikely to experience pain relief.

The goal will be to decipher which patients are likelier to respond to specific drugs, such as opioids.

“If doctors have access to that information, it could lead them to prescribe fewer opioids, which can improve outcomes and reduce addiction,” Dr. Licciardone says. “So we are studying how we can we use the DNA information we have to tailor a particular treatment to an individual patient. That’s really the essence of precision medicine.”

GENOME CENTER TARGETS DISEASE AT THE GENETIC LEVEL ITS RESEARCH COULD AFFECT NERVE REGENERATION, CANCER DIAGNOSIS AND MORE Since the North Texas Genome Center opened in spring 2018, researchers have sequenced more than 100 DNA genomes, bringing science closer to heading off genetically related health conditions.

The center, a research and medical lynchpin at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), features two NovaSeq6000 gene sequencing systems, which is the most powerful line from Illumina, the worldleader in genome sequencing technology. As one of the only a few centers in the central United States featuring NovaSeq6000s, the NTGC, a partnership between UTA and Texas A&M University, has the capacity to sequence more than 10,000 whole genomes annually.

MEDICAL MINDS

UT Southwestern has cracked the code on increasing cancer survival rates for patients

‘A BENCHMARK FOR CANCER SURVIVAL’ UT SOUTWESTERN’S CANCER CENTER OFFERS CALCULABLE HOPE

In their genomic analysis, researchers have taken steps to identify rare genetic variants underlying human diseases, have identified genes and patterns of gene expression that may cause brain and nerve regeneration, and have identified a link between ethnicityspecific expression of regulatory genes that may be important for personalized cancer treatment.

“Going forward, we will develop the [genome center] as a hub to connect academic research with clinical medicine to catalyze discovery, innovative treatment, and personalized medicine that is relevant regionally and globally,” says Jon Weidanz, founding director of the center and UTA’s associate vice president of research. “Our work could break down barriers to personalized and precision medicine related to the acquisition and analysis of Big Data genomics.”

The Genome Center is working toward achieving accreditation PHASELLUS under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments and ELEMENTUM the College of American Pathologists. Receiving those regulatory accreditations will allow the center to provide sequencing of patient genomes for clinical and diagnostic purposes and introduce new innovations into DFW health care while broadening the center’s existing research-based mission, according to Weidanz.

For an institution to receive a Lead Academic Participating Site grant for cancer research, it has to demonstrate its ability to enroll high numbers of patients into National Clinical Trials Network trials and scientific leadership in the design and conduction of clinical trials.

Only 32 have done so in the U.S. Among those is the UT Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center in Dallas.

North Texas cancer patients are benefiting as a result, based on a Dartmouth study. That study showed a 25% decrease in one-year mortality rates for patients diagnosed with lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer and treated at National Cancer Institute (NCI) care centers. Recipients of the NCI grants effectively become a part of the National Clinical Trials Network.

“Patients increasingly seek performance ratings to guide their decisions in health care,” wrote Dartmouth researchers, in their paper, which was published in 2013. “NCI centers appear to be benchmarks of cancer care for survival. Further investigations of the aspects of care at cancer centers that afford this benefit would assist other institutions in improving their care.”

The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center has 257 cancer clinical trials in 25 disease categories, according to its director, Dr. Carlos L. Arteaga.

The Simmons Cancer Center involves two Specialized Program of Research Excellence Awards: one in lung cancer — one of the largest thoracic oncology efforts in the U.S. — and the other in kidney cancer, one of just two in the nation in that field.

The center receives nearly $460 million in funds from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, as well as funding from the National Institutes of Health and philanthropic funds.

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MEDICAL MINDS

Q U I C K H I TS

BIOENGINEERS DEVELOP PAIN-FREE GLUCOSE-LEVEL MONITORING NO BLOOD OR TEARS — JUST SWEAT Diabetics must endure several daily, painful pinpricks to learn their glucose levels and monitor their blood sugar levels.

Dr. Shalini Prasad and her team of bioengineers at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) have developed a scientific workaround: a wearable sensor that measures glucose through tiny amounts of human sweat.

“Fitness trackers that monitor heart rate and step count are very popular, but wearable, noninvasive biosensors would be extremely beneficial for managing diseases,” says Prasad, professor of bioengineering and department head at UTD. To receive reliable glucose measurements, researchers designed the device to ensure low amounts of sweat could be used to “generate a strong enough signal,” as well as combat factors such as pH swings and varying acidity levels in sweat.

“Our modifications allow this material to entrap glucose oxidase molecules, which effectively amplifies the signal,” Prasad says. “We did it this way because we are thinking about possible commercialization — to make these, we need a fabrication process that is not complex.”

The amount of sweat measured amounts to less than three hundred-thousandths of an ounce.

“In our sensor mechanism, we use the same chemistry and enzymatic reactions that are incorporated into blood glucose testing strips,” Prasad says. “But in our design, we had to account for the low volume of ambient sweat that would be present in areas such as under a watch or wrist device or under a patch that lies next to the skin.”

The glucose monitoring technology is in the process of becoming commercially available; human subject testing is still ongoing, say UTD spokespeople.

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DFW HIGHER ED SUPPLIES FAST-GROWING HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS WITH SKILLED PROFESSIONALS AS THE INDUSTRY GROWS, THE NEED FOR TOP MEDICAL TALENT IS IMPERATIVE Health care is a fast-growing, significant industry in the DFW Region.

In a 12-month period between 2013 and 2014, the health care industry and the industries that support it generated $52 billion in total revenue in the DFW economy, according to the most recent University of North Texas analysis available.

That places health care among the largest industry sectors in the region, representing about 15% of the economic activity, according to the report.

Since 2014, the number of health-care-related jobs grew by about 13%, comprising a total of nearly 478,000 jobs as of January 2019, according to EMSI, a labor market analytics firm.

As the industry grows, the

need for top medical talent is imperative. Two medical schools produce the bulk of physicians for the DFW Region; the region is also home to some of the top institutions producing world-class nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists.

NURSING DFW offers three highly regarded baccalaureate and graduate degree programs in nursing. Texas Woman’s University (TWU) has educated nurses for more than 65 years, with a Dallas medical district campus focused on health care practitioner academics and clinicals. The University of Texas at Arlington is the largest nursing program at a public university in the United

MEDICAL MINDS

UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF THE BRAIN LEADERS AT UT SOUTHWESTERN PREDICT A GROUNDBREAKING DECADE FOR BRAIN SCIENCE

Nursing students at Texas Christian University are given experiences in hospitals and with high-tech teaching practices to create the health care workforce of the future

States — it’s the fourth-largest producer of minority nurses.

Texas Christian University is the only nursing program in the nation with a designated Oncology Emphasis track and offers numerous graduate programs in nursing. Dallas College provides key pipelines to the programs through Nursing Assistant degree programs and partnership with universities and hospital systems.

PHYSICAL THERAPY (PT) AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY (OT) The two medical centers in the DFW Region — UT Southwestern and the University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Health Professions — offer doctorate programs in physical therapy, educating students and hosting clinicals for PT students across the county.

The TWU School of Physical Therapy is a nationally recog-

nized leader in professional and postprofessional physical therapy education and has ranked repeatedly among the top 10% of PT schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. TWU’s School of Occupational Therapy also is a national leader in the delivery of health care, according to U.S. News & World Report, and a network of more than 4,000 OT alumni make significant contributions to the OT profession by providing leadership in practice, education and research. Additional OT training can be found through Parker University, a predominantly chiropractic institution in Dallas.

Dallas College provides PT Assistant/Tech and OT Assistant/ Tech credentials, filling the middle-skills workforce needs while creating a pipeline for future PT/ OT leaders.

Speaking to legislators on the Texas House Committee on Public Health in 2017, Dr. Marc Diamond described the scene when he arrived at UT Southwestern: “When I arrived in 2014, I was given the opportunity to build a truly multidisciplinary research team to attack this problem of Alzheimer’s disease,” he says, “which I envisioned much like the Manhattan Project of World War II.” Five short years later, Diamond is one of more than 2,000 faculty and staff at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, where they work to treat and find the root causes of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, epilepsy, and peripheral nerve injuries.

The institute launched in 2015 with a $36 million gift from Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr.’s foundation and, in short order, joined Harvard, Yale and 22 other institutions as a clinical trial site in the Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials Center.

Diamond was named director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the institute.

Years before, Diamond and fellow researchers earned acclaim for research that identified how a particular protein — tau — triggers dementia occurring with Alzheimer’s disease. The condition afflicts more than 390,000 Texans and 5.8 million Americans. More specifically, Diamond’s lab was able to describe how tau proteins aggregate in one brain region and how they move like a virus, infecting healthy cells and triggering dementia.

Now he and others at the institute are working with peers to develop — at genetic, molecular and systemic levels — ways to predict if certain diseases will afflict healthy brains, how to prevent brain injury, ways to disrupt brain diseases, and methods for restoring brain function caused by injury or disease.

Leaders at UT Southwestern predict that the next decade will be as significant in brain science as the 1980s were for cardiovascular research with the discovery of statins — those cholesterol-lowering drugs that have helped tens of millions of people around the world — and led to UT Southwestern’s first two Nobel Prizes. They foresee the day when scientists in the region will earn similar recognition for unraveling the mysteries of the brain.

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MEDICAL MINDS

F E AT U R E S

The brainpower behind the drive to advance scientific breakthroughs at UT Southwestern.

WHERE SCIENCE IS THE THING: UT SOUTHWESTERN PLANTS ITS FLAG ON DISRUPTIVE MEDICAL RESEARCH A CLOSER LOOK AT THE HOME OF SIX NOBEL LAUREATES

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MEDICAL MINDS

The University of Texas Southwestern (UT Southwestern) Medical Center has become the only academic medical center in the world to serve as home to six Nobel Laureates for one reason: Science is literally woven into the institution’s DNA. “I wanted to develop a genetics program for the Department of Medicine,” says the late Dr. Donald Seldin, speaking in archival footage, dating back to the 1960s, not long after the school moved from its Army barracks-style campus. “There was very little clinical genetics in the United States. And we had an outstanding medical student — Joe Goldstein. I talked to him and tried to encourage him to go on a program of genetic training and to come back to the medical school and to set up a program here. He encouraged a colleague of his, Michael Brown, to join him.”

Of course, Brown vetted Seldin and the medical school staff before following Goldstein to what was then known as Southwestern Medical School.

“When I met Dr. Seldin and the faculty here, I was just amazed at how focused they are at the science of medicine,” recalls Michael Brown in a separate interview. “Everyone on the faculty was a scientist as well.

The level of discussion, about patient problems and diseases, was at a much more sophisticated level than at Harvard Medical School. It’s pretty shocking, but it’s true.”

Since Brown and Goldstein won their Nobel Prizes in medicine in 1985, research spending at UT Southwestern has more than quadrupled, even adjusted by inflation. Between 1984 and 2018, faculty have spent more than $8.6 billion on research, largely fueled by the successes of its scientists.

Goldstein and Brown earned their Nobel honors through their breakthrough research on cholesterol metabolism. That work served as foundational for the launch of cholesterol-controlling statin drugs such as Lipitor, which is one the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world.

But Seldin did more than create a team of scientists who would help change the course of modern medicine: He created a place where intellectual curiosity and medical science would remain the thing, even after his passing in 2018.

Since the school’s founding in 1943, the institution’s faculty has received six Nobel Prizes and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine and 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty prides itself on its ability to translate its research quickly to new clinical treatments.

UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL SCHOOL IS RANKED AMONG THE

TOP 20 MEDICAL SCHOOLS FOR PRIMARY CARE AND THE TOP 30 FOR RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES, ACCORDING TO U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT’S 2020 BEST GRADUATE SCHOOLS RANKINGS.

UT SOUTHWESTERN RANKED 18TH FOR PRIMARY CARE AND 26TH FOR RESEARCH.

Research at UT Southwestern has extended the lives of millions of patients across the globe

“‘I was just amazed at how focused they are at the science of medicine.’”

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F E AT U R E S

MEDICAL MINDS

RESEARCH-DRIVEN INNOVATION AT UT SOUTHWESTERN $500M

$400M $

$350M

$ 440,620,000 431, 883,000

$300M $250M $200M $150M $100M

$

118,398,000

Nobel Prize Award at UT Southwestern (Year)

2 0 18

2 0 16

2 0 14

2 0 12

2 0 10

2008

2006

2004

2002

2000

19 9 8

19 9 6

19 9 4

19 9 2

$ 62,907,000 46,671,000

19 9 0

$

19 8 4

0

19 8 8

$50M

19 8 6

(Total Research Expenditures at UT Southwestern)

$450M

Total Research Expenditures at UT Southwestern

“I think a lot of people in Dallas who are the true giants in medicine, and myself, we’ve sort of planted our flag out there,” UT Southwestern lead researcher Eric Olson tells The Journal of Clinical Investigation, in the organization’s Conversations with Giants in Medicine video series. Olson and his team at UT Southwestern helped develop a way to use DNA-splicing technologies to disrupt a form of muscular dystrophy called Duchenne’s dystrophy, which afflicts 300,000 boys around the world. “And this is the place that we want to make great. And I’m proud of being a part of that.”

Olson co-founded Exonics Therapeutics, which was sold to Vertex Pharmaceuticals for $245 million, and future payments, which might add up to nearly $1 billion, if Exonics meets regulatory and clinical milestones.

FAR-REACHING IMPACTS The research by Olson and his 40-person team could cure up to 80% of all Duchenne’s cases; their treatment method is being tested on beagle dogs that suffer from the debilitating effects of Duchenne’s. The dogs “showed obvious signs of behavioral improvement,” Olson says in the 2019 issue of Southwestern Medical Perspectives magazine, “running, jumping. It was quite dramatic.”

Goldstein and Brown’s statin research impacts 200 million people annually, reducing the mortality rate of coronary heart disease by more than a quarter.

Work by Dr. Bruce A. Beutler — who won a Nobel Prize in 2011 — might lead to a cure for a variety of autoimmune diseases, such as gout, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Autoimmune diseases afflict roughly 50 million Americans.

Beutler chose UT Southwestern twice in his career, first based on the school’s reputation for academic rigor and a second time

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for its support of its scientists.

“I had some choices [for my medical residency],” recalls Beutler, also speaking in the Conversations with Giants in Medicine documentary series. “I ranked UT Southwestern first, because I thought if I was going to do a residency, I thought I’d do a tough residency, where I would really be challenged, and I’d learn all I could about internal medicine and neurology in the shortest possible time.”

In 1983, after two years of residency at UT Southwestern, Beutler became a postdoctoral fellow and then worked as an assistant professor at Rockefeller University. At Rockefeller, he isolated a type of protein (called tumor necrosis factor, or TNF) that plays a crucial role in the existence of cells, such as proliferation, survival and death.

Beutler returned to UT Southwestern in 1986 to further that work as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and developed recombinant antibody inhibitors of TNF, which are now widely used in the treatment of hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. That research earned him and two of his colleagues the Nobel Prize in 2011, the same year he returned to UT Southwestern, after conducting further genetic research at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

“I was chair of a small department of genetics [at Scripps], but I had in mind to make a department on the genetics of immunity, to capitalize on the mutagenesis effort that we had started,” Beutler recalls in an interview with the Nobel organization. “But it didn’t seem possible at Scripps. There was no money to recruit faculty.

I thought I didn’t want to preside over something that wouldn’t be successful. I began looking around … and received offers from several of them, and UT Southwestern was one of those. And it seemed to me to be the best scientifically and also, in terms of the plan I had in mind, the place with such a strong genetic heritage.

Also, I was very familiar with it.”

UT Southwestern biochemist Zhijian “James” Chen — the 2019 recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for discovering the cGAS enzyme, which launches the body’s immune defense against infections and cancer — put it this way: “To make these discoveries, sometimes, it takes a long time, it takes a lot of hard work, it requires patience, it requires a very supportive infrastructure. And UT Southwestern has all that.”

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UT SOUTHWESTERN RANKED TOP INSTITUTION GLOBALLY FOR PUBLISHED RESEARCH IN NATURE INDEX “HEALTH CARE” CATEGORY

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

DIVERSE ECONOMY DRIVES DIVERSE DISCOVERIES

INNOVATION IN SCIENCE The DFW Region is a diverse economy, representing a spectrum of industries.

This breadth of industry diversity is represented in the research innovations found at institutions of higher education across the region.

From space suits to wind energy, the Region is driving innovation in science.

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SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

Q U I C K H I TS

A PATH TOWARD SUPERFAST COMPUTING UTD’S ATOM FABRICATION CENTER IS BLAZING THE TRAIL

Texas Christian University students studying the impacts of wind farms

HOW STUDENTS ARE HELPING POWER THE REGION NEXTERA WIND RESEARCH INITIATIVE Texas has long been the country’s capital for oil and gas. However, the state is experiencing a different kind of energy boom that has nothing to do with oil.

“People think Texas is all about oil and gas and ‘drill, baby, drill,’” says Michael Slattery, director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth in a TCU publication. “But we now lead the country in wind energy by a long way.”

In 2019, Texas had the most installed wind power capacity in the United States with more than 27 gigawatts — far more than second-place Oklahoma and third-place Kansas, which have between six and eight gigawatts combined, according to the American Wind Energy Association Market Report.

With the growth in wind energy, TCU began a partnership with NextEra Energy Resources and Oxford University to study the social and economic impacts of wind farms. The researchers focused on how wind farms could be integrated into the existing power grid and how the turbines themselves impact the environment, including animal fatalities and aesthetics.

The chance for TCU students to conduct hands-on research in the field and work with scientists from all over the world melds perfectly with the university’s goals, says Chancellor Victor Boschini in TCU Magazine. “Our mission for students is to educate ethical leaders ideally suited for an interconnected, rapidly evolving, post 9-11 world, and this will help us do that,” he says.

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Some might recall episodes of Star Trek that feature the use of “replicators,” which can create almost anything (even fried catfish), seemingly out of thin air, with the touch of a button.

Being able to construct objects at the atomic level would change everything.

That’s what Reza Moheimani and his team at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Center for Atomically Precise Fabrication of Solid-State Quantum Devices are working toward: developing the tools and process for manipulating matter — in his case, silicon atoms — to allow for the construction of quantum computers, which could solve problems exponentially faster.

But before quantum computers can exist, people like Moheimani, who serves as a mechanical enigneering faculty member and James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair, must develop equipment that can construct extremely precise microscopic silicon circuits that convey minuscule levels of electrical current involved in quantum computing.

One of those in the private sector working with Moheimani is John N. Randall, president of Richardson-based Zyvex Labs, which specializes in nanotechnology. Randall — also a founding faculty member of the center — equates

today’s computers with the vacuum-tube-operated radios of the 1920s and ‘30s.

To build a quantum silicon circuit, scientists start with a flat silicon surface, bathed in hydrogen atoms; then they use a device informally called a scanning/tunneling microscope to remove some hydrogen atoms from the surface of the silicon, replacing them with a different element — sulfur, for example.

“The basic [tunneling microscope] instrument hasn’t been changed since it was invented” more than 30 years ago, says Randall, an adjunct UTD faculty member.

“In some ways, it’s a [poor] microscope. It has horrible distortions. It is very unreliable. But money hasn’t gone into improving it. We’ve made some great strides” in improving the scope, he says, adding that Moheimani and his team have played a key role in those improvements.

While existing microscopes tunnel at the atomic level, the devices — and the atoms involved — lose stability during the process, Randall explains.

Moheimani and his former Ph.D. student, Dr. Michael Ruppert, wrote an award-winning paper that spelled out a way to build a better-performing device with much greater precision.

SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

THE PLANT-BASED OPIOID ALTERNATIVE THAT COULD SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES ‘SNOW ON THE PRAIRIE’ IS NATIVE TO THE REGION AND FULL OF POTENTIAL According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 Americans die every day from opioid overdose. Researchers and graduate students at Texas Woman’s University (TWU), however, may have found a plant-based alternative that could result in saving hundreds of lives.

Euphorbia bicolor is the plant’s scientific name. It is better known as “Snow on the Prairie” and is native to the DFW Region, Oklahoma, parts of Arkansas and Louisiana and is the focus of research for TWU botanist Dr. Camelia Maier and TWU neuroscientist Dr. Dayna Averitt, alongside TWU alumna Dr. Paramita Basu. “It doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world,” says Maier.

Maier is one of the first scientists to study the plant and says Native Americans used Snow on the Prairie for pain relief, which led her to study its effects for modern medicine.

TWU researchers have discovered a chemical inside the plant’s sap that, when used on tissue samples from animals, immediately stopped pain signals at the source of an injury — unlike opioids,

UTD VENTURE DEVELOPMENT CENTER MERGING SHARED WORKSPACES WITH SCIENCE Shared workspaces — WeWork, Common Desk, Serendipity Labs, etc. — have become de rigueur in the modern economy.

The University of Texas at Dallas’ (UTD) Venture Development Center takes the phenomenon a step further, with a shared workspace that includes full working wet laboratories, complete with chemical catch tanks and fume hoods, as well as dry labs.

“I think [other co-working spaces] really missed the boat on specialized labs or other types of equipment that people just can’t get access to,” says Paul Nichols, executive director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The center is part of the institute.

The center is also open to all UTD students and faculty, creating the potential for creative collisions.

“When you look at other universities and their corporate innovation and entrepreneurship program, it usually belongs to one

Researchers at Texas Woman’s University with the revolutionary “Snow on the Prairie” plant

which change the chemistry of the brain and can lead to addiction.

“We’re trying to target the signals as they make their way to the brain,” Averitt explains. “So if we can turn them off like a light switch for a long period of time, the brain doesn’t even know about it and you don’t have that pain.”

Don’t try to pull sap from the plant on your own, researchers warn the public, because the sap is toxic and cannot be ingested.

If used for medical purposes, it would be injected into the site of the pain — directly into an aching back or a burned arm, for instance.

The TWU euphorbia bicolor research has been published but still faces challenges before clinical trials.

“We need to make sure it doesn’t hurt other cells,” Averitt said.

“You’re harming nerve endings, which we want to do, but we want to make sure it isn’t acting as a toxin on other cells as well.

“You can’t help but look to the future and be excited, like maybe this could be something that could be a real breakthrough.”

college,” Nichols says. “We work with any department in the university. That’s a real strategic asset for the university. That’s where the center fits in; we have students and faculty across the campus who can use that space.”

The center has been the launch pad for numerous successful launches — among them, ophthalmic medical device maker Vital Art and Science LLC, which was purchased by Genentech, and Vigilant Labels, which developed a medication labeling system being used in more than 100 operating rooms in 14 hospitals.

More telling is the center’s rapidly expanding footprint since it opened in 2011: “We were at 10,000 square feet, with eight offices, and four labs,” says Kim Warren, manager of the center. “Then, we went to 15,000 square feet. Then, we added 10,000 square feet. After the next addition, we will be [at] 32,000 total square feet.”

Rent ranges between $125 per month and $1,000 per month.

But what in the world would an entrepreneur want with a wet or dry lab?

“Materials developers are developing their ‘goo’ — their word, not mine,” Warren says. “For the chemical [experimentation] processes.

We have another [user] that’s biomedical, that uses the wet lab for the fume hood” [and chemical capture tanks.]

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SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

KINESIOLOGY TEAM TACKLES SPACE PAIN BECAUSE LOWER-BACK PAIN IS UNIVERSAL

Turns out, space travel can be a real pain. In the lower back, more specifically.

Some Texas Woman’s University (TWU) kinesiology students tackled the problem and received national recognition in the process.

“According to NASA’s research, we found a high rate of occurrence of low-back pain in astronauts,” says Arianne Scheller, a TWU student who is now earning her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at the university’s Houston campus.

“In physical therapy, neuromuscular electric stimulation has been shown to help with pain in large muscle groups, so we looked at existing data and created a design that would effectively provide coverage with electrodes integrated into the garment.”

“The team created an undershirt that holds electrical simulators for muscle activation, which ultimately alleviates the pains micro-gravity can have on the lower back.”

The analysis and design by Scheller and her fellow teammates proved successful, and that took an entire room full of competing scientists and researchers by surprise, was entered in the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge for the first time and won.

QUICK-SOLVE ARTISTS This Texas Woman’s University team resolved a space-travel-related pain issue in less than six months

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SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGHS

F E AT U R E S

HOW IT BEGAN “In May 2017, a couple of NASA representatives visited Texas Woman’s University in Denton and suggested we look into joining the Texas Space Grant Consortium,” says Donna Scott Tilley, vice provost of research at TWU. According to Tilley, the consortium offers numerous opportunities for undergraduate students, including scholarships, mentoring and competitions such as the design challenge. Tilley attended the consortium in the fall of 2017 and saw that the design challenge seemed to focus solely on engineering and technology.

She saw opportunity in looking at the human aspect of space travel.

“I gave [the representatives from the consortium and NASA] examples of how kinesiology and nutrition could play an important role [in] astronaut health,” she says. “They were intrigued and invited TWU to send a team to the [2018] competition.”

Yet, the team — consisting of the aforementioned Scheller, Alexis Quintana, Audra Roman, Charles Swieczkowski, Curt Neeld and Miranda Moore — would need to find a human-related space-travel problem.

HELP FROM ABOVE Neeld, who received his undergraduate degree in 2019, and is pursuing his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at TWU’s Dallas campus, recalls that the team’s NASA mentor, Dr. Baraquiel Reyna, played a key role in finding a problem that their team could best solve.

“Dr. Reyna … suggested that our team work to address issues listed on the NASA Human Research Program website,” Neeld recalls. “Our team then worked INSTITUTIONS individually to determine the injuries with highest incidence IN THE U.S. listed in the Evidence Report of OFFERING A PH.D. In-Flight Medical Conditions IN PHYSICAL and potential methods of addressing them.”

THERAPY According to the 2017 report, which documents injuries and illnesses reported during missions ONLY TEXAS INSTITUTION involving the U.S. space shuttle TO OFFER THE PROGRAM program, the Russian Mir program and the International Space

TWU IS 1 OF 6

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This team of Texas Woman’s University kinesiology students won best overall team accolades at the Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge Showcase in Houston in 2018

Station, space travelers experienced back pain at a higher incident rate than nearly any other medical condition, except headaches.

“With the help of our team adviser, Dr. Rhett Rigby, our team utilized research and concepts accumulated to narrow our decision to a specific injury and the most plausible mechanisms of prevention, mitigation and/or treatment. This became the launch point for our project,” Neeld says.

IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING A PROBLEM IN 6 MONTHS FLAT Rigby recalls: “Over the summer [of 2018], the six students researched various health issues experienced by astronauts.

“Then, they developed a project objective and the approach to this problem. But rather than sticking just with the research and concept, they went all the way and developed the prototype garment — in just six months!”

To expedite the process, the team used 3D modeling software to create a design that relieves lower back pain for astronauts.

The team also received help from the rehabilitation community along the way, working with REACT Neuro-Rehab in Addison to find clients to test the garment. PlayMakar, a Southlake-based manufacturer of athletic training and recovery devices, provided the wireless Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) unit incorporated into a design of the shirt that was developed by another TWU team.

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

BUILDING TOMORROW TOGETHER BUILDING SOLUTIONS DFW higher education institutions thrive when they’re solving problems. Through various industries, regional institutions are engineering new ways to address old problems. From ending urban blight to using robots to predict sewer-line failures, engineering students in DFW are forging a new future.

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

Q U I C K H I TS

The University of North Texas researchers are reexamining the fundamental questions of materials fabrication

FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION BEGINS TRANSFORMING HOW THINGS ARE MADE Imagine transforming how things are made. That’s what the University of North Texas’ (UNT) Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing aims to do.

Launched in 2018, the center is honing manufacturing technologies to better build complex 3D objects, with the goal of creating viable market-based solutions for almost every industry, from operating rooms to oil fields, while producing practically zero waste and substantial cost savings.

Since it opened, the center has become one of the most advanced university research facilities in the nation for materials analysis, allowing collaboration among students, faculty and industries.

Additive manufacturing may sound complicated, but the theory isn’t. Instead of building a sandcastle by subtracting sand away from a pile until the structure appears, imagine adding sand beginning at the bottom and moving up layer by layer until a castle is built. In the application of additive manufacturing, the grains of sand would be placed one at a time in a specific order, predetermined by an enhanced computer design.

“Additive manufacturing is a new area of engineering,” says Ra-

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jarshi Banerjee, Regents Professor and director of UNT’s Materials Research Facility. “As such, there are many unexplored areas and unanswered questions. For example, we are finding that the structure of certain metallic materials has fundamentally changed after going through this process. The aluminum alloy powder used to create a component using additive manufacturing technology may look the same and be chemically similar to those produced using traditional manufacturing, but it has a different microscopic structure and properties. The question we are trying to answer is ‘Why?’” Most additive manufacturing involves plastics and polymers; UNT has expanded the materials involved to include metals, ceramics and metal-ceramic composites. Due to the change that occurs to materials during processing, Banerjee’s research also involves the creation of additive-manufacturing-specific alloys. These alloys are better adapted to additive manufacturing processes and provide for a consistent end product.

The center received a $10 million boost from the 86th Texas Legislature, further advancing its work — dubbed “a fourth Industrial Revolution” — the fusion of manufacturing design, process and production.

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

CROWDSOURCING SOCIAL MEDIA DATA FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES TOGETHER, SMU AND WAZE ARE HELPING FIRST RESPONDERS Social media is more than just a way to blow off a little steam or to peruse family and acquaintances’ goings-on. It also provides a window into how things work.

Barbara Minsker, civil and environmental engineering chair at SMU Lyle School of Engineering, and her research team are using social media platforms and Big Data to improve the sustainability and resilience of complex environmental and human systems.

One of their research projects uses crowdsourcing data from Waze, the GPS navigation software app owned by Google, to assess street-level flash-flood risk and locate the safest routes for first responders during intense rainfall. The project is funded by a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the Public Safety Accelerator Innovation Program.

“Right now, the first responder’s routing algorithms assume roads are empty, which is never true in Dallas,” Minsker says.

“With the Waze data, we want to provide real-time information to Dallas Fire Rescue by estimating the risk of delay or accident when they send out fire trucks to rescue people.”

Crowdsourcing comes into play when people post street flood alerts on Waze. Minsker’s team identifies where the Waze flood alerts have been report-

ed over a several-year period, compares that data to how much rainfall is recorded and factors in other road characteristics.

“By combining the Waze data with topography and land characteristics, we were able to identify how reliable the Waze flood alerts are and found that 90% are located within 100 feet of depressions that could be prone to flooding,” Minsker adds. The team is now building flood risk models that can then be used for mapping safer routes. Future work with the City of Houston will also incorporate traffic camera videos for further verification of the Waze flood alerts.

Minsker and her students completed another research project that explores how social media data and online stakeholder input can support the design of urban green infrastructure, such as rain gardens. “Social media postings are used to identify where new green infrastructure is located and what people like and don’t like about the installations to help better design green infrastructure spaces,” Minsker explains.

The opportunities for using data like Minsker’s are endless.

She and her team have only scratched the surface of how her research can impact social, policy and economic issues in the DFW Region.

Robotic assistance from the University of Texas at Arlington is curbing high-dollar sewer repairs

PREDICTING SEWER-LINE FAILURES WITH ROBOTS UTA IS REVOLUTIONIZING CITY MAINTENANCE When a 66-inch sewer line broke in Arlington, Texas’ Interlochen neighborhood in 2016, the city decided that rather than tearing up miles of sewer mains and a community, it would partner for a smarter solution.

City of Arlington workers teamed up with the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to deploy a sensor-laden floating robot to scan the sewer system and gather data that was then analyzed by researchers at UTA. The research team, led by UTA civil engineering chair Ali Abolmaali, developed software that allowed the team to predict the remaining lifespan of existing pipes.

The system saved the city roughly $17 million, Abolmaali

estimates.

“Before, if they doubted [the integrity of sewer lines], they would replace the entire line,” he says.

The sewer robot drone was also deployed in the mains in Arlington’s entertainment district, which includes AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Park, the new Texas Rangers stadium.

The City of Houston has signed a contract to deploy the robots to analyze portions of its sewer system, says Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, retired city water utility director of the City of Arlington. Pishkur says the program could revolutionize how city sewer lines are maintained.

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

F E AT U R E S

STRENGTH IN PREDICTING WEAKNESS STUDENTS ARE HELPING BOEING AND THE AIR FORCE SAFELY LEVERAGE LIGHTER AIRCRAFT

Since the 1800s (at least), the formal trial-and-error method has been the go-to discovery process for inventors.

Along the way, mostly since the 1960s, the aerospace industry started replacing metal parts with composite materials. In doing so, it’s been able to reduce aircraft weights by 20% to 40%.

The downside?

Science’s ability to develop advanced composite materials has outpaced its ability to quickly and inexpensively test them for safe use. The process of identifying and predicting weaknesses in advanced composite materials is still a work in progress. An unsettling thought, considering they’re used in both advanced military aircraft and commercial airliners.

That’s where the University of Texas at Arlington’s (UTA) Advanced Materials and Structures Lab (AMSL) team comes in.

“A known weakness of the existing progressive damage analysis methods is the lack of effective techniques to predict ultimate failure,” AMSL Director Andrew Makeev and fellow researchers Yuri Nikishkov and Dr. Guillaume Seon write in an article published in the April 2019 Journal of the American Helicopter Society.

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

The University of Texas at Arlington students get “hands on” with advanced materials

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

F E AT U R E S

• S ikorsky Aircraft Corp., which in 2015, awarded a $1.35 million grant to improve designs of composites to increase their durability • Boeing, which in 2017 awarded AMSL a $600,000 grant to help Makeev and UTA Professor Endel Iarve further develop protocols for determining when composite components might fail. Iarve, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in UTA’s Institute for Predictive Performance Methodologies, is serving as that project’s co-principal investigator.

Research on synthetic composites at the University of Texas at Arlington is capturing international attention

Makeev and his team at UTA have spent years developing a new methodology that allows them to predict how certain composite materials will be affected by stress and fatigue, particularly in rotorcraft, such as helicopters, whose components experience severe stress. These predictions are based on advanced 3D CT scans and computer-generated structural-failure models.

The team presented its preliminary findings at the 72nd American Helicopter Society Forum on May 18, 2019, along with representatives from Sikorsky Aircraft and the U.S. Army Aviation Development Directorate.

Those results were part of an initiative by AMSL to form a Vertical Lift Consortium, which included experts from Sikorsky (a Lockheed Martin company) and was funded by the Army National Rotorcraft Technology Center.

“AMSL has been taking essential steps toward improving confidence in material qualification [safety testing] for laminated composites,” the team’s paper states.

The work of Dr. Makeev and his team at AMSL since roughly 2010 has attracted the attention and collaboration from several organizations, including: • T he Office of Naval Research, which in 2018 awarded the team two grants worth nearly $1.5 million; of that, a $930,000 grant will pay the team to study how the laws of physics impact manufacturing defects in composite materials; the other grant upgrades UTA’s scanning equipment, allowing AMSL researchers to examine material characterization at up to 1-micron resolution (a human hair, in contrast, is 75 microns wide)

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“At the end of the research, Boeing and the Air Force want to understand and have confidence that our analysis can be used to predict the remaining useful life of composite airframe structures,” Dr. Makeev says in the spring 2018 issue of The University of Texas at Arlington Magazine.

The advances by AMSL and Makeev hold tremendous promise for the future of aviation, says Erian Armanios, chair of the UTA Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Armanios, in a news release, says that Makeev’s work helps the aircraft industry by improving sustainability, maintenance and life-cycle management.

“What Dr. Makeev is doing could have significant implications on aircraft design and certification,” Armanios says. “DeUTA IS THE veloping a capability to predict composite airframe strength and durability is bound to have industry-wide implications.”

Peter Crouch, dean of the RANKED UTA College of Engineering, FOUR-YEAR also in the news release, says, “It’s important for university INSTITUTION researchers like Dr. Makeev to FOR VETERANS work hand-in-hand with comIN 2020 panies to ensure that their work has impact beyond classroom walls, including helping our students land important jobs

BY MILITARY in those industry sectors.”

TIMES

#

1

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

INFRARED SENSORS ILLUMINATE HUMAN MOVEMENT ANALYSIS SELF-OCCLUSION MAKES TRACKING JOINTS TRICKY BUT MAYBE NOT FOR LONG

The University of North Texas researchers created more sophisticated fitness monitors

Fitbits and pedometers didn’t do it for the University of North Texas (UNT) researcher Xiaohui Yuan.

So, Yuan began developing a more data-driven method to detect and track human move-

ments, for use in technologies involved with at-home personal training via online platforms.

Then, the computer science and engineering associate professor realized that the technology had many more applications.

As part of his work, he uses an infrared sensor similar to radar technology to create a 3D video.

Using that video, he and a group of graduate students track the movement of human joints in relation to other parts of the

body, including the fingers, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, toes and top of the head.

“Movements can essentially be broken down into different poses,” Yuan says. “There has been a lot of research about tracking movement to estimate what kind of action a person is performing. But that estimation is often inconsistent.”

He says that because the human body is three-dimensional, tracking joints can be difficult due to self-occlusion, an issue in virtual environments that occurs when part of an object overlaps itself.

“As I swing my arm, the inside of my elbow is visible. Then, as my arm bends upward, my inner arm is no longer visible and is replaced with a view of my outer elbow,” he says.

That overlap of images — also known as self-occlusion — results in a 3- to 4-centimeter error when trying to track a continuous motion, according to Yuan.

“We want to track a point consistently throughout a movement,” he says.

He believes the technology has applications in helping people do physical therapy without needing to travel to see the therapist in person, in personal fitness and in potentially improving augmented reality.

“We want to move the technology toward creating a true environmental representation in augmented reality,” Yuan says.

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ENGINEERING THE FUTURE

F E AT U R E S

Dr. Qing Gu at the University of Texas at Dallas is a pioneer in studying light and microchips

SHINING NEW LIGHT ON MOVING DATA ON MICROCHIPS THE THREE-YEAR PROJECT THAT WILL CONVEY LIGHTBORNE DATA A torrent of information blazes past most of us unseen, at the speed of light.

It is light — traveling through fiber-optic cable, conveying data at 186,000 miles per second.

Then comes the slowdown: That light must be converted to electricity, to allow traditional hardware to use the data.

Qing Gu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas’ (UTD) Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has launched a three-year project to research a way to develop microchips that will convey lightborne data.

At first, Gu considered using nano (i.e., tiny) lasers to do the job.

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Now she’s developing nanoscale light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emit light when voltage is applied.

Gu explains her idea this way: “Under applied voltage, electrons recombine with holes within the active region of the [experimental/theoretical] device, releasing energy in the form of photons [which make up light].”

Playing a key role in the process, according to Gu, is incorporating a “p-n junction diode,” which conducts electricity in one direction and blocks current from traveling in the opposite direction.

Her theory has captured the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Army Research Office, which awarded her $356,000 to

develop a nano-LED technology to be used in integrated circuits.

“This cutting-edge work with nano-LEDs could have a broad impact on the Army,” says Dr. Mike Gerhold, program manager for electronics at the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.

“This research could lead to the development of low-energy data communications for faster and more energy-efficient electronic systems. Other applications would include active electro-optical systems where optical beam steering and sensing is needed.”

As Gerhold mentions above, a nano-LED would represent a significant technological advance-

ment: When a signal comes into an electronic device via optical fiber, that light signal must be converted to an electrical signal that the device’s chips can process and then must be converted back to an optical signal to communicate information to other devices. The whole process can consume a lot of energy. Not to mention that it slows down performance.

Gu says advances in technology have set the stage for higher-speed and higher-efficiency data transfer.

“Now since we’re doing so much cloud computing, cloud storage and online video gaming, we need really fast internet speeds,” Gu said. “In order to get faster internet, we need to increase the speed of data communication on the chip.”

Getting back to nano, how tiny is that?

A single human hair can measure 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick. The diodes that Gu is developing measure 600 nanometers in diameter and are 1,300 nanometers in height.

In order to work at that level, Gu is collaborating with Zyvex Labs — a partner in many atomic-level UTD research projects — to use an atomically precise scanning tunneling microscope to guide the nano-LED cavity through conductive material.

“Dr. Gu’s research is looking to bring the increased data speeds down to the chip level. This is both much more difficult and much more exciting,” says Dr. Lawrence Overzet, head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UTD. “Dr. Gu’s research is at the cutting edge of photonics, and we are excited about what she brings to electrical and computer engineering at UT Dallas.”

INDEX

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INDEX OF INSTITUTIONS

TCU (TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY) SMU (SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY)

Founded in 1873, Texas Christian University (TCU) is a world-class, values-centered private university based in Fort Worth, Texas. The University comprises 10 schools and colleges offering 117 areas of undergraduate study, 66 master’s level programs, and 37 areas of doctoral study.

Total enrollment stands at 11,024, including 9,474 undergraduates and 1,490 graduate students. The student/faculty ratio is 13:1, and 87 percent of TCU’s 727 full-time faculty members hold the highest degree in their discipline. TCU consistently ranks among the top universities and colleges in the nation, and the Horned Frog family consists of more than 92,700 living alumni.

INDEX OF INSTITUTIO A nationally ranked comprehensive research university with eight degree-granting schools, SMU is a distinguished center for teaching and research located near the heart of Dallas.

SMU is a designated Carnegie doctoral (high research activity) university.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY – COMMERCE

Texas A&M University – Commerce (TAMU - Commerce) provides a personal, accessible and affordable educational experience for a diverse community of learners. As a member of the Texas A&M system, it is a big-name university with a focus on students and relationships.

TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSIT Y

As the nation’s largest university primarily for women and focusing on developing leaders, Texas Woman’s University (TWU) encompasses a flagship campus in Denton and health science institutes in Dallas and Houston.

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INDEX OF INSTITUTIONS

AUSTIN C O LLEG E

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS One of the nation’s largest universities, the University of North Texas (UNT) in Denton focuses on welcoming diversity and strengthening collaborations with educational, business and community partners, as well as building new partnerships across the globe. UNT is a Carnegie R1 (very high research activity) university.

T H E UNI VE RSI T Y OF N O RT H T E X AS HE ALTH SCI E N C E C E NT E R The University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) is a values-based graduate university whose students, faculty and staff are committed to improving the human condition through a shared passion for innovation and teamwork.

THE UN IVERSIT Y O F TE X AS AT ARLIN GTO N An educational leader in the heart of the thriving North Texas Region, the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) nurtures minds within an environment that values excellence, ingenuity and diversity. UTA is a designated Carnegie R1 (very high research activity) university.

THE UN IV ERSIT Y O F TE X AS AT DALL AS The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) is a selective, Carnegie R1 (very high research activity) university. “UTD is among the top eight universities in the United States for most National Merit Scholars entering the freshman class.” Students predominantly major in management; engineering; computer science; and the physical, biological and neural sciences.

ONS T H E UNI VE RSI T Y OF N O RT H T E X AS AT DA LL AS

Named the fastest-growing public university in Texas and the only public, accredited four-year university in the City of Dallas, The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) empowers students, transforms lives and strengthens communities.

A selective and small liberal arts institution, Austin College is a residential campus on 100 environmentally green acres north of Dallas in Sherman.

With a focus on undergraduate education, each of their 1,300 students has a faculty mentor and will complete an applied learning experience such as a professional internship or research with a faculty member before graduating. Students can choose from more than 55 areas of studies and 18 NCAA Division III athletic teams. Founded in 1849 by the Presbyterian Church, Austin College enjoys a place in early Texas history and remains a recognized leader in higher education for innovative programs, a strong faculty, and dedicated students.

U NIVE RSIT Y O F TE X AS SOU TH W ESTE RN M E D ICA L CE NTE R One of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education.

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS The University of Dallas (UD), a Catholic institution, educates students in the liberal arts tradition while remaining dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom, truth and virtue. Its small undergraduate population of 1,471 creates an 11:1 undergraduate-to-faculty ratio, which allows students to get the most out of the 30 offered majors through small class sizes. The university stays committed to its Catholic tradition while welcoming students of all backgrounds.

DA L L AS BA PTIST U NIVE RSIT Y Dallas Baptist University (DBU) combines faith and academic instruction to empower students.

Founded in 1898, DBU, initially Decatur Baptist College, moved to Dallas in 1965. Today, DBU offers 85 undergraduate programs, 32 master’s programs and two doctoral programs. Students additionally benefit from a 13:1 student-to-faculty ratio.

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INDEX OF INSTITUTIONS

CONTINUED COLLIN COLLEGE

TA R R ANT COUNT Y CO LLEGE Established in July 1965 by a countywide election, Tarrant County College (TCC) has continued to implement its mission to provide affordable and open access to quality teaching and learning. Its goals, principles and myriad educational initiatives delineate its dedication to this mission. Currently, TCC has six campuses. Approximately one in every 22 Tarrant County residents takes a TCC class each year, which emphasizes TCC’s impact on the community.

DALL AS COLLEG E (FOR MERL Y DALL AS COUN T Y COMMUN I T Y CO LLEGE DISTR ICT ) Dallas College includes seven campuses — Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, North Lake and Richland. Since 1965, Dallas College has served over three million people, making it one of the largest community college systems in Texas. In addition, it economically benefits businesses, taxpayers and the community. Annually, these colleges contribute approximately $204.1 million to the Dallas County economy in net added income.

N O RTH CENTR A L TE X AS C O LLEG E Established in 1924, North Central Texas College (NCTC) is the state’s oldest continuously operating two-year college. Dedicated to student success and institutional excellence, NCTC holds itself accountable to the following six values: affordable and quality education, stimulating learning environments, integrity, innovation, cohesive relationships, and encouragement. Additionally, NCTC’s five campuses offer a total of six degree types to students in North Texas.

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Collin College seeks to enrich the futures of both its students and the community. It provides transferable courses, educational programs and workforce initiatives, as well as student support services to fulfill community and industry needs. Increasing in scope since 1985, the college currently attracts over 55,000 students annually to its 100-plus degree programs and certificates. Each year, Collin College generates $528.5 million in net added income for the local economy.

TE X AS STATE TECH NICA L CO L L EGE – NO RTH TE X AS Texas State Technical College (TSTC) is a statewide college system with 10 campuses throughout the state. TSTC efficiently and effectively helps Texas meet the hightech challenges of today’s global economy, in partnership with business and industry, government agencies and other educational institutions.

TSTC – North Texas opened in September 2014 and houses many of TSTC’s high-tech, advanced workforce programs with state-of-the-art labs for students to develop skills that are critical in the workplace.

PAU L QU INN CO L L EG E Paul Quinn College (PQC) is a private, four-year, liberalarts-inspired historically black college or university (HBCU) founded in 1872 to educate freed slaves and their children. Today, PQC proudly educates students of all races and socioeconomic classes under the banner of its institutional ethos, WE OVER ME. Paul Quinn is the ninth federally funded work college in the United States, the first minority-serving institution (MSI) in the Work College Consortium and the first work college in Texas.

Say Yes to Dallas, where living means thriving. sayyestodallas.com @sayyestodallas

Photo by Michael Samples

ENROLLMENT CHART

DFW ENROLLMENT

BY THE NUMBERS 2017 – 2018 DEGREES AWARDED INSTITUTION

2019 ENROLLMENT

ASSOCIATE'S

BACHELOR'S

POST-BACH CERT

MASTER'S

Amberton University

1,074

50

395

Austin College

1,314

352

13

Brookhaven College (DCCCD)

10,965 7,574

681

Collin College

35,191

2,786

Dallas Baptist University

4,487

22

Eastfield College (DCCCD)

14,323

1,338

El Centro College (DCCCD)

10,837

999

Mountain View College (DCCCD)

11,084

997

Navarro College

8,038

935

North Central Texas College

9,586

843

North Lake College (DCCCD)

9,510

1,194

Parker University

1,359

82

Paul Quinn College

554 17,278

SMU (Southern Methodist University)

11,824

Southwestern Adventist University Southwestern Assemblies of God University

714

15

45

DOCTORATE

610

15

44

7

192

41 2,360 2,047

58

2,027

687

14

171

3 86

2,052

309

335

Southwestern Christian College

109

25

2

Tarrant County College District

10,042

5,472

Texas A&M University-Commerce

12,335

Texas A&M University School of Law

CERTIFICATES POSTBACHELOR'S OR MASTER'S

1,166

Cedar Valley College (DCCCD)

Richland College (DCCCD)

POST-MASTER CERT

1,833

4

62

1,632

349

50

480

130

Texas Christian University

11,027

2,028

Texas Wesleyan University

2,607

374

Texas Woman's University

15,720

2,169

The University of Texas at Arlington

42,863

The University of Texas at Dallas

29,543

Trinity Valley Community College

6,602

17

466

2

19

104

97

221

214

198

349

231

170

30

84

1,519

13

8,641

139

4,789

75

3,907

349

3,697

843

University of Dallas

2,481

272

86

336

86

5

University of North Texas

39,235

7,201

147

1,893

147

253

University of North Texas at Dallas

4,080

575

58

369

198

352

University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law

112

375

University of North Texas Health Science Center

2,219

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

2,299

Weatherford College

5,912

112 58

421

2

90

717

Source: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; EMSI and National Center for Education Statistics Timeframe: 2019 for enrollments; 2017-18 for completions Institutions represent schools reporting to THEBC plus UNT Law and TAMU Law; ED Guide list (enhanced MSA) Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) became Dallas College in 2020

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The Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC) is the leading voice of business and champion for economic development in Dallas-Fort Worth. We’re committed to long-term economic prosperity supported by education and workforce development, talent attraction, and business-friendly public policy. Together, with our business leaders and community partners, we will help lead the Dallas Region to become the best place in the United States to live, work, and do business.

The DRC is proud to have developed and produced this publication, in partnership with D Custom, with special contributions from writers Dave Moore and Elizabeth Caudill McClain. To read more and connect with DFW higher education institutions, please visit www.dallaschamber.org/highereducation.