About

About

The University of Texas at Dallas Venture Development Center (VDC) is a leading incubator designed to help students, faculty, and alumni commercialize their ideas and inventions. It does this through targeted, one-to-one support, enabling ventures to identify and build relationships with key industry partners, investors, entrepreneurs, and others to help them succeed.

The VDC offers 20,000 square feet of state-of-the-art dedicated office, lab, and meeting space, as well as shared business services and equipment. We help companies build out their teams, protect their Intellectual Property (IP), and connect with expert advisors. We work to get minimum viable products (MVPs) into customers’ hands and prove a viable, scalable business model.

For startups, we help founders identify investor options, write and rehearse their company pitch, and navigate funding terms and other questions. For researchers and inventors seeking industry connections for translational research and licensing, we help identify partners, make introductions, and identify commercialization paths, including licensing agreements, IP assignments, and other contracting alternatives.

Amenities

Amenities

Four spacious conference rooms are fully equipped with whiteboards, TVs, and conference phones. We also have two smaller workrooms for conference calls or one on one meetings. Fully furnished and move-in-ready private offices, cubicles, and co-working desks designed specifically to match your needs.

Access facilities and labs at cost-effective prices with the opportunity to work with world-class faculty on research, grants, and commercialization.

Access core facilities: state-of-the-art instruments and technology for users in biological and interdisciplinary sciences. Perform device fabrication and characterization with a range of equipment in our cleanroom.

We offer below-market rates to allow our entrepreneurs to focus their capital on pursuing groundbreaking science and building their ventures.

Complimentary Services

From Amazon Web Services and Rackspace free hosting credits, our startups get access to an array of resources to help them get started. You’ll also enjoy UTD technology discounts, gym and recreational center membership eligibility, and access to countless databases through the UTD Library. Our Comet Discount Program gives you savings across the metroplex. Use our high-speed internet with individual company networks. Grab a cup of coffee and a piece of fresh fruit from our complimentary coffee bar and fruit station. Hop into one of our golf carts to travel across campus quickly and easily.

Labs

Wet Labs

  • Material science wet labs (10 labs ranging from 125 to 1,900 square feet), general lab amenities: fume hoods, benches and cabinet space, lab stools, gas storage, equipment space, and access to shared lab equipment.
  • Life science wet lab (175 square feet lab) general lab amenities: a fume hood, tissue culture hood, bench, cabinet space, lab stools, gas storage, and access to shared lab equipment.

Shared Lab
– The 120-square-foot shared media lab features a common freezer, RIO water supply, autoclave, and lab/glassware washer.

Residents

Residents

Adaptive3D

Adaptive 3D Technologies, LLC
Adaptive3D is a premium additive manufacturing polymer resin supplier that partners with global industries to deliver solutions for functional end-use products and prototypes.

Astrapi

Astrapi Corp
Astrapi is the leader in a revolutionary method of communication – spiral-based modulation, a game-changing force in communications technology that will support performance advances across a wide range of radio communications.

Avsana Labs Incorporated

Avsana Labs Incorporated
Avsana Labs Inc. is an early-stage in vitro diagnostics technology company led by Dennis Robbins with UTD Prof. Zhenpeng Qin, developing new technologies for viral diagnostic testing, such as the COVID-19 virus.

ClearNano
ClearNano is a biomedical device service utilizing luminescent metal nanoparticles and their applications.

Data Sec Tech

Data Security Technologies
Data Security Technologies is developing innovative technologies for securing big data stored in NoSQL systems to enforce a wide range of security, privacy, and governance policies.

Emtec Solution
Emtech Solution is a product development company specializing in designing and building new custom hardware and software, in addition to modifying existing ones.

FusionFlight
Welcome to the future – FusionFlight designs and builds machines based on microturbine technology that will revolutionize both aerial mobility and compact energy production.

HermTac
We’re a group of makers, engineers, artists, designers, inventors, and volunteers working together on pandemic response initiatives.

HoboLoco
Creating a game controller operated with two feet that can replace or augment a keyboard, mouse, or gamepad for interacting with a video game, virtual reality, or remotely operated robots.

Max IR Labs

Max IR Labs
Provides scalable IR sensor solutions to industries that require specific thermal and chemical monitoring capabilities for R&D and production line operations.

MedCognetics
The operator of a medical company intended to facilitate AI in breast imaging.

MicroSol Technologies
MicroSol focuses on developing innovative energy harvesting solutions to power wearable electronics, wireless smart sensors, ultralow-power systems, and IoT applications.

OnPoynt

OnPoynt
OnPoynt is the nation’s leading supplier of Drone Aerial Robotics Equipment and training for STEM Education.

pSolv
pSOLV provides big data services and solutions including data integration, big data analytics, and cloud consulting.

Qualia

Qualia
Qualia Labs translates neuro- and biotechnologies into novel research tools and human clinical therapeutics.

R9 Technology

R9 Technology
R9 Technology provides the hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure to enable quick and easy deployment of IoT solutions.


SNAP Energy Ventures

SNAP Energy Ventures assists companies by providing specialty chemical products to oil & gas, mining, and water treatment industries with an emphasis on custom formulations geared towards meeting customer needs and demands.

traceit

TraceIT
TraceIT is building the most efficient, scalable, and easy-to-use workforce management platform.


UBPBio
The Ubiquitin-Proteasome Biotechnologies (UBPBio), LLC is dedicated to providing academic and industrial communities with high-quality reagents to accelerate discoveries on the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and related pathways.


myVisionTrack
Vital Art and Science is an ophthalmic medical device company that develops a home diagnostic system for patients with retinal diseases.

Venture Scholar

Venture Scholars

The Venture Scholar awards are a competitive award made by the Office of Research and Innovation, with guidance from the Office of Undergraduate Education, designed to reward the contributions and facilitate the entrepreneurial development of undergraduate researchers at UT Dallas.

Venture Scholars will work directly with startup companies that are members of UTD’s Venture Development Center, or VDC. The principals for these companies are engaged in a variety of research, from basic to applied, to equip their startups for commercial success.

Research projects may range across a broad spectrum of possibilities, from validating product technologies to investigating market or customer insights to identifying prior art and existing alternatives to the startup company’s proposed solution.

Students selected to receive a Venture Scholar award receive $2,000, awarded upon participation in the Venture Scholar Award poster competition held in mid-December (Fall) and/or mid-April (Spring). Research sponsors from the UT Dallas VDC supporting participant projects receive $500 (for supplies, project travel, poster printing, etc.). Up to 10 awards are targeted per semester.

Students whose research, posters, and presentations are deemed to be exceptional will move on to the poster finals competition, held one week later. Judges from the external research and venture community will appraise the top presentations, with awards of distinction conferred to the top three winners.

Students may participate as Venture Scholars up to two times, e.g., a student selected for Fall 2023 may apply to participate again in Spring 2024.

Research projects will be drawn from the member companies of UTD’s VDC. For more information about these companies, view the Residents tab.

Eligibility

In order for a submission to receive consideration for a Venture Scholar award, the student must meet certain eligibility requirements. Student applicants must be:

  • Currently-enrolled, degree-seeking UT Dallas undergraduate researchers
  • Enrolled in a UT Dallas undergraduate program through the Spring 2022 semester
  • Letter of recommendation or support from faculty, advisor, or another knowledgeable mentor
  • Committed to completing the Entrepreneurial Mindset Bootcamp. This is a once-per-week, 90-minute virtual training program that is focused on helping students learn an entrepreneurial approach to work, as well as sharpening the interdisciplinary skills that startups seek (Schedule to be determined)
  • Contributing to an existing research project, under the direction of a VDC member company principal OR acting as an independent principal investigator under the guidance of a VDC member company principal
  • Able to create a research poster encapsulating the project and present results at the Venture Scholar Awards poster contest event in early December and mid-April. Semifinalists selected during the poster contest must present their posters and results to corporate judges and compete for awards of merit at the Venture Scholar Awards poster finals event, held in mid-December and late April.

How To Apply

Applications are currently closed.

Application FAQs

  1. Which type of research topics are eligible for a Venture Scholar award? All Venture Scholar research topics will emerge from the needs of participating VDC companies. VDC company technologies span across a wide range of topics: computer science and software engineering; hardware engineering; biomedical engineering; interface design; AI and ML; sensors; chemistry; materials science; biological sciences; transportation and mobility; drones; clean and renewable technologies; and many, many more.
  2. Is the Venture Scholar award program open to students who are not able to research on campus, due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Yes.
  3. May I submit an application for a project that has already been completed? No. Eligible projects will be posted each semester (including summer).
  4. What should be included in my application description?  If there are particular areas of study or topics with which you have some experience or a prior background, it would be useful to describe those in your application. Further, founders of startup companies tend to value speed, dependability, flexibility, outstanding communications, organization, and the capacity to be a self-starter, not require a lot of direction or hand-holding.
  5. My application has special symbols that don’t work in the text box. What should I do? You can attach a .pdf with your project description. Type “Please see the attached” in the text box and attach your application.
  6. When will I know if I will receive a Venture Scholar award? The process is paced to provide notifications early in the semester. So, for example, Fall notifications are expected by early September.
  7. How do I print my poster for the poster contest? The university print and copy services can assist you with your poster printing needs. Please click on the link for more information https://services.utdallas.edu/print/#services.
  8. How will my poster be judged? Posters will be judged by a combination of Venture Development Center researchers and members of the external research and venture community. The first round of judging will be conducted by a group of VDC representatives. After the first round of judging, the posters deemed to be exceptional will move on to the poster finals competition, and be judged by representatives from the external research and venture community.
  9. Can I re-apply for the next cycle if I do not get selected? Yes. You may want to investigate why you weren’t selected for an award previously. Then, consider ways to further augment your experience or call attention to your ability and interests, in your revised application, to help it further stand out.
  10. What if my project takes longer than the semester? Award recipients are invited to apply for a renewal on the project, if agreed by the VDC company sponsor, extending it with a new phase for an additional semester.

Program Timeline

Check back for updated Program Timelines.

Program Contact

Check back for contact information.

Membership

Membership Application

Process & Criteria

As we consider your application, we’ll look for commitments from you: you will fully participate in development programs, and be obsessed with growing your product, your customer base, and your team over the course of your membership. 

The VDC accepts high-potential applicants that have a novel product or service that is scalable, addresses a clear market opportunity, and gives the company a sustainable competitive advantage. We focus on supporting the entrepreneurial, early- to mid-stage activities of true startup companies. The selection committee reviews applications and interviews companies to assure that they meet the standards for high-impact science, promising execution, and equally important, fit. Startups must show a willingness and capacity to operate within the VDC-shared community

*Note – At least one team member must be a current student, faculty, staff, or an alumnus/a of any University of Texas System school.

Basic Requirements

Intellectual Property Rights

  • The proposed business should not be in violation of any intellectual property rights; including, but not limited to, patent infringement.

Conflicts of Interest and How to Avoid Them

Funding Limitations

  • The amount and source of secured capital arrangements and/or generated revenue should be clearly identified in the team’s Executive Summary.
  • The amount and source of generated revenue should be clearly identified in the team’s Executive Summary.

Contact

Contact

UT Dallas Research and Operations Center
17217 Waterview Pkwy, ROC 1.202
Dallas, TX 75252

Driving & Parking

The Venture Development Center is located inside the Research and Operations Center (ROC) building. The ROC is on the west side of the campus across from Waterview Parkway. There is limited guest parking in the front of the facility.

Email Us


innovation@utdallas.edu