AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin's (UT) Texas Institute for Electronics is getting a large amount of money from the U.S. Department of Defense to continue its work with research and development related to semiconductor chips.
The technology the money will go toward can be used in both radar and unmanned aerial vehicles.
DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency – part of the Department of Defense – awarded the Texas Institute for Electronics $840 million. The institute is also getting more than $500 million from the state.
“This is research and prototyping facility, so it’s really the precursor to scaling of up to manufacturing, that is the focus DARPA has, developing new technologies, emerging technologies making sure we stay ahead globally," said S.V. Sreenivasan, the chief technology officer and founder of the Texas Institute for Electronics.
Sreenivasan said new high-tech machines will go into “new clean rooms” at the J.J. Pickle campus and at its Montopolis campus in southeast Austin.
The initiative will result in the hiring of 200 people and will work with local community colleges.
“Their technician training program – so these are folks with a two-year college degree and training in semiconductors," Sreenivasan said.
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