EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso and the University of Texas at El Paso will receive up to $15 million over two years to help spur the defense and aerospace industries in the Borderland region.
The Paso del Norte Engine was one of 10 inaugural National Science Foundation Regional Innovation engines that were awarded funding.
“The Paso del Norte Engine hopes to combine innovative concepts with the emerging field of digital engineering and others to help small and medium manufacturers compete in the aerospace and defense markets. This will include erecting public infrastructure, such as a product and process improvement facility, to reduce costs for startups and manufacturers while increasing access to the cutting-edge design and testing tools,” according to a news release sent out by UTEP announcing the grant award.
“The inaugural NSF engines awards demonstrate our enduring commitment to create opportunity everywhere and enable innovation anywhere,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “Through these NSF engines, NSF aims to expand the frontiers of technology and innovation and spur economic growth across the nation through unprecedented investments in people and partnerships. NSF engines hold significant promise to elevate and transform entire geographic regions into world-leading hubs of innovation.”
With a potential NSF investment of nearly $1.6 billion over the next decade, the 10 regional NSF engines represent one of the single largest investments in place-based research and economic development in the nation’s history, according to the news release.
“We are grateful for the NSF investment that builds on a regional strength,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “We look forward to working with our partners on this important effort.”
“Small and medium manufacturers remain extraordinarily critical to maintaining a vibrant and secure U.S. aerospace and defense supply chain, but fewer and fewer are participating in the defense industrial base. With a smaller workforce, limited resources, and non-existent research and development infrastructure and budget, these manufacturers are virtually excluded from the highly stratified U.S. innovation ecosystem,” said Paso del Norte Engine principal investigator Ahsan Choudhuri, Ph.D., the UTEP associate vice president who leads the Aerospace Center. “This investment by the NSF will unlock the potential of these manufacturers by democratizing access to innovation.”
Ryan Wicker, Ph.D., director and founder of UTEP’s W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation, and Paso del Norte engine co-principal investigator said, “We look forward to doing our part to drive innovation in our region by leveraging our over two-decade investment in additive manufacturing research. This research not only drives innovation but also supports the effective use of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, throughout the Paso del Norte Engine to bolster the aerospace and defense supply chain. We want this supply chain to grow and thrive in our region and the NSF investment provides the necessary support and infrastructure to do just that.”
The Paso del Norte Engine builds on a decade-long collaboration between UTEP and the County of El Paso, the City of El Paso, Workforce Solutions Borderplex, the Rio Grande Council of Governments, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), the El Paso Chamber, and newest members, El Paso Community College (EPCC) and Spaceport America.
“Today’s announcement proves that if you dream big and work hard, anything is possible,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas. “Thanks to Dr. Ahsan Choudhuri’s innovative vision and strategic partnerships, the National Science Foundation’s investment in our region will help us exponentially and rapidly advance El Paso’s newest economic engine. As the only federal elected official in the region to vote for the Chips and Science Act, I’m so proud that this funding will continue to advance critical technology development, stimulate economic growth and job creation, and will counter the ‘brain drain’ our community continues to grapple with.”
Teams that demonstrate progress toward well-defined milestones could potentially receive up to $160 million each from NSF over 10 years as they seek to catalyze the NSF funding to draw additional investments into the overall region.
Monday’s announcement delivers on the bipartisan priorities outlined in the “CHIPS and Science Act of 2022,” which authorized the NSF engines program with a focus on market-driven research and development, innovation, translation, and workforce development.
Learn more about the Paso del Norte Engine at: utep.edu/nsf-engine-defense-aerospace/
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