Industrial leader Emerson is expanding its partnership with UT through a three-year, $8.5 million investment aimed to support advanced artificial intelligence and semiconductor research, according to a Feb. 25 news release.
Nathan Pettus, Emerson’s president of process systems and solutions, said the investment builds on the company’s long-standing relationship with the University. He said the investment will fund upgrades to key research labs, support the launch of the new Semiconductor Science and Engineering master’s degree program in partnership with the Texas Institute for Electronics and contribute to developing the next generation of automation professionals.
According to the news release, Emerson’s total contributions to UT now exceed $20 million. The St. Louis-based investment and manufacturing company, which recently acquired Austin-based National Instruments, now called Emerson’s Test and Measurement business, invests in developing cutting-edge technological solutions.
“(UT has) for a long time been a steward of new technologies,” Pettus said. “Emerson is likewise focused on future trends, (and) being able to steward the industries we serve in technologies and innovations that are new to the world.”
Pettus said the broadest part of the investment will be put towards donating technology and equipment to modernize the Montopolis Research Center in South Austin as part of a $840 million partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“Most of our funding will be gifts in-kind (like) domain expertise and service capabilities to automate that (research) facility so that other companies like 3M, Motorola, Samsung and (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), can come and use that to test out their new processes, and then the research students at UT (studying) semiconductors can be part of that,” Pettus said.
According to the news release, the company will also provide funds to support the first three cohorts of students enrolled in the new 18-month semiconductor master’s program, starting in fall 2025.
Roger Bonnecaze, the dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering, said the investment will support the construction of an on-campus Engineering Discovery Building, set to open in 2026, that will house learning and research facilities for chemical and petroleum engineering students. He said the investment will also enhance the Process Science and Technology Center at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus.
“(Emerson is) interested in providing the instrumentation and control systems with really an idea around collecting data and seeing how … AI can perhaps extract value and improve functionality for the systems, whether that’s the operational control optimization of how they operate or determining when maintenance has to occur,” Bonnecaze said.
Pettus said Emerson is also investing in a new Center for Customer Insights and Marketing Solutions at the McCombs School of Business, which will provide marketing students with advanced marketing techniques.
“Texas is a huge feeder school for us and we think there’s fantastic curriculums and fantastic students,” Pettus said. “Most of (the partnership) in the past has been focused more on the Cockrell School of Engineering, and now we’re really broadening our sort of reach and helping students in some of the electrical engineering semiconductor space and potentially McCombs.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misstated the length of the partnership between the University and Emerson. The insitutions are expanding their partnership, not starting. The Texan regrets this error.
