In the world of technology honors, UT Dallas has scored a hat trick

The University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) and the George A. Jeffrey NanoExplorers NanoTech Institute are both finalists in the 8th annual Tech Titans Awards, with the former being nominated twice.

The awards honor people or organizations in North Texas who have made significant contributions to the technology industry. They are presented by the Metroplex Technology Business Council. Winners will be announced Sept. 26.

“We are pleased and honored to have been recognized by the Tech Titans program,” said Dr. Joseph Picken, IIE’s executive director. “The institute’s accomplishments have been a team effort over the past two years, involving representatives of every school of the university and supported by an outstanding advisory board.”

IIE is a finalist in the Technology Advocate category and in the Tech Titans of the Future category. The former honors a technology service provider for outstanding leadership in increasing the performance of its technology clients. The latter recognizes educational programs designed to address “the student pipeline in technology disciplines and/or educational programs between technology businesses and educational institutions.”

The NanoExplorer program was also nominated in the Tech Titans of the Future category.

Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, was proud of the recognition for the NanoExplorers program, which involves high school students in cutting-edge nanoscience research.

“NanoExplorers enables young people to enjoy the thrill of discovery, and understand that they have a special life-long opportunity to advance humanity through development of new understanding and providing at least partial solutions to critical problems, like the energy crisis and diseases that afflict human kind.”

The Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas is a collaborative initiative of the schools of Arts and Humanities, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Engineering and Computer Sciences, Management, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. The institute is a facilitator, catalyst and program sponsor – leveraging the power of ideas and technology to create new ventures and add economic, social and cultural value to the community.

The NanoExplorers program inspires high school students by enabling them to do original research. NanoExplorer students have co-authored scientific papers, won three of the top five awards at a recent international conference, and won $40,000 in scholarship money after placing third nationally in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.