Houston Intercontinental Airport's innovative upgrades ready for takeoff

coming soon

Houston Intercontinental Airport's Terminal D expansion and renovation project is nearing completion. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports

After almost five years of construction, passengers heading out of Bush Intercontinental Airport on October 22 will be the very first to experience the expanded, upgraded, and stylish Terminal D-West Pier, an expansion of the existing Terminal D.

The new terminal is part of a broader initiative, the IAH Terminal Redevelopment Program (ITRP), a $1.458 billion project aimed at modernizing the airport's international travel capabilities. ITRP is the single largest capital improvement project developed by Houston Airports and include the refresh of the existing Terminal D, completed in 2023; the expansion of Terminal D with a new D-West Pier, which will be completed this fall 2024; and a new International Central Processor, slated for winter of 2024 and summer of 2025. More than 3,000 people spent more than one million hours on the construction project.

Terminal D-West Pier features six new gates — D1 through D6 — that can simultaneously accommodate wide-body aircraft or converted to accommodate 10 narrow-body airplanes. The expanded terminal with its new capabilities supports increasing demand from passengers and airlines and should enhance the overall travel experience.

The new terminal is part of a broader initiative, the IAH Terminal Redevelopment Program (ITRP), a $1.458 billion project aimed at modernizing the airport's international travel capabilities. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports

In addition to adding 160,000-square-feet, the new wing also boasts eight new, Houston-inspired works by local artists. Those kind of details are why the Houston airport system won Best Airport Art & Entertainment Program in the prestigious Skytrax awards.

The airport's 250 newly-hired employees will work among 16 new retail and dining concessions concepts in the Terminal D-West Pier. Passengers can dine at Houston Supply Co., which opened last month. Local restaurants The Kitchen and The Annie, along with popular national brands Popeyes, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Jamba Juice, Be Relax, Jetero Market, Semi-Sweet Confectionary, and a Lego Store will open for business on October 22.

The new wing also boasts eight new, Houston-inspired works by local artists. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports

"We are focused on improving the overall passenger experience at the airport — from parking and traffic to providing modern terminals with the right amenities. This project is a major investment in our city's future," Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in a statement. "The newly expanded international terminal enhances Houston's reputation as a world-class city and provides a boost to our economy, supporting jobs and attracting more visitors from around the globe."

The new terminal offers a host of other amenities designed to make passengers' experiences more comfortable. They include a mother's room, a sensory room, a child's play area, and expanded men's, women's, and family restrooms. The restrooms utilize smart technology sensors that trigger soap and water. Door locks alert to whether a restroom stall is vacant or occupied and soft LED lighting accentuates floor-to-ceiling photography spotlighting Houston's natural beauty.

The new wing has 16 new retail and dining concessions concepts. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports

An International Arrivals corridor provides views of the airfield, the concourse, and large-scale photography inspired by Houston.

More than 500 modern and comfortable seats, including chairs, cushioned benches, and cozy loungers, featuring cup holders and charging capabilities, are present inside the terminal.

"We are excited to share this milestone with the residents of Houston," said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for Houston Airports. "The opening of the Terminal D-West Pier is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team and our partners. This world-class facility will provide a seamless and efficient travel experience for millions of passengers each year. The new pier will provide the necessary capacity so that Houston can continue to attract more nonstop flights to cities around the globe."

New features include a mother's room, a sensory room, a child's play area, and expanded men's, women's, and family restrooms. Photo courtesy of Houston Airports

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Proactively engaging in advocating for opportunities within the industry across all job levels is essential to guaranteeing a consistent influx of skilled workers, meeting the growing construction demands of both our state and nation. Photo via Getty Images

Expert: Addressing skilled labor needs in Houston — including the role technology plays

guest column

The construction industry in the U.S. is experiencing a substantial demand for skilled workers. There are over 438,000 job openings, and this demand is projected to increase, aiming to attract over half a million workers to meet the upcoming labor needs.

The urgency is heightened as a significant percentage — more than 40 percent — of the existing workforce is expected to retire within the next eight years.

To top it off, Texas is the fastest growing state with more than nine million new residents between 2000 and 2022. With a growing population, the requirement for robust infrastructure, encompassing various sectors like transportation, health care, education, and residential development, continues to escalate. Encouraging careers in construction among the younger generation becomes vital for everyone, no matter their industry, to meet these demands and bridge the deepening skills gap.

Viable Career Path: Attracting the next wave of construction talent involves dispelling misconceptions about the industry. Many young individuals might not realize the breadth of opportunities available in construction beyond traditional manual labor. I personally gained interest and experience in the industry at a young age before navigating through a few IT careers, and then landed back in construction and worked my way up, which exemplifies the diverse career paths within the industry.

Education and training play a pivotal role in molding the future workforce. Highlighting that formal education isn't the sole path to success, apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs emerge as excellent alternatives, providing hands-on learning experiences while earning a wage. Collaborating with educational institutions and organizations at an early stage can introduce students to the industry's diverse career avenues.

As with every industry, diversity encourages innovation. Business leaders who intentionally recruit from underrepresented groups, including women and minorities, within the industry will reap countless benefits.

Innovative Technologies: Showcasing the innovative and technological aspects of the industry, such as precision tools, drone technology, AI, and virtual reality, underscores the creative and forward-thinking nature of construction careers. The construction industry continues to evolve and become technologically advanced. The need for cutting-edge individuals who possess construction skills with an understanding of technical innovations will transform the industry.

Stability: Highlighting the industry’s stability, competitive compensation, and the promising opportunities for career growth can further attract potential candidates. Advocating for stringent safety measures and emphasizing the importance of sustainable building practices introduces an added layer of social responsibility, capturing the attention of those committed to ensuring a secure work environment.

Ultimately, the collective efforts of the current workforce and today’s business leaders are pivotal in addressing the imminent skills gap that stands to affect us all. Proactively engaging in advocating for opportunities within the industry across all job levels is essential to guaranteeing a consistent influx of skilled workers, meeting the growing construction demands of both our state and nation.

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Randy Pitre serves as the vice president of operations for Skanska USA Building’s North Texas and Houston building operations.

HIVE 3D is bringing science fiction to reality with this Texas project. Photo courtesy of HIVE 3D

This Houston company is 3D printing homes with eco-friendly materials

future of construction

While it may be true that the mother of invention is necessity, in today’s startup market, a more important factor is disruption. That’s where HIVE 3D, a Texas-based leader in constructing eco-friendly 3D printed homes, flourishes.

HIVE 3D was already revolutionizing the home-builder industry with its lightweight gantry system and mobile robotic arm system to 3D print its homes, but it took a giant leap further with its partnership with Utah-based Eco Material Technologies, North America’s leading producer of sustainable cement alternatives.

Together, they are building the world’s first near-zero-carbon, 3D-printed homes. Using Eco Material’s cement mixture called PozzoCEM Vite, which has 92 percent lower emissions than traditional concrete that can set in just a few minutes, they are focusing on providing a sustainable, cost-efficient and affordable housing solution.

“We want our homes to last 1,000 years,” Timothy Lankau, CEO, Hive 3D CEO, tells InnovationMap. “We want archaeologists to dig them up and wonder what they were. I mean, you go to the Parthenon in Rome, and it looks similar today to how it did 2,000 years ago because the materials are so stable.

“Concrete's just a very stable material. It doesn't change over time, and that's also why building with stone and masonry is important for the future. We think it's more sustainable because it's ultimately going to be better in terms of longevity.”

Key collaboration

Eco Material Technologies and HIVE 3D’s collaborative mission began through a mutual desire to develop sustainable and eco-friendly solutions for the construction industry.

“Both companies recognized the pressing need to reduce the environmental impact of traditional construction materials and processes and the need for affordable, high-quality housing,” says Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies. “The partnership between the two companies began when Eco Material Technologies reached out to HIVE 3D to explore the potential of incorporating their eco-friendly materials into 3D printed construction.

“HIVE 3D recognized the opportunity to combine their expertise with sustainable material solutions. The finished product of this collaboration is an eco-friendly construction material that can be 3D printed into various structural elements like walls, floors and columns.”

Proof of concept

Photo courtesy of HIVE 3D

HIVE 3D’s first full project, a 3,150-square-foot home located in Burton, Texas, was printed with a rotating team of just four people using PozzoSlag, which replaces 50 percent of the portland cement in concrete and has been used in roads and bridges in Texas for over a decade.

The home used several innovations that hadn’t been used in a 3D printed house before, including parametric wall designs, foamcrete wall insulation, and pigmented concrete layers.

“Our product is more sustainable because it utilizes proprietary technology that allows for the use of alternative materials to replace the clinker and processes from traditional cement that contribute to its high emissions,” says Quasha. “It is estimated that the portland cement industry contributes to 8 percent of global emissions annually, but by utilizing Eco Material Technologies' cement replacement solutions ... builders can significantly decrease their carbon emissions without compromising on the product's setting time or long-term strength."

Each ton of portland cement replaced by a ton of Eco Material's products, PozzoSlag or Pozzocem, reduces emissions by close to one ton, Quasha explains.

The Calais project, located in Round Top, Texas, behind the Halles, an antique shopping and design destination, broke ground in March 2023 and will feature a collection of tiny homes known as casitas, including studio, single-bedroom and two-bedroom models, ranging from 400 to 900 square feet.

“These small homes will serve as a model for affordable and eco-friendly housing throughout the country,” says Lankau. “We plan to build them at a speed and cost point that is unprecedented in the affordable housing space.

“Ultimately, we want to build houses at a disruptive price point. We want to be vertically integrated and put our homes on the market at a significant discount to market wherever they are. And by significant, we're talking 20 or 30 percent. That's our goal.”

The right resources

Photo courtesy of HIVE 3D

HIVE 3D worked with CyBe Construction to create a mobile construction 3D printer and mixing system that allows the printing mortar to be mixed onsite, which eliminates a significant amount of labor and time, which means those savings can be passed on to the consumer.

“We worked with a company called CyBe in the Netherlands to build a robotic arm, and that arm has about an 11-foot reach, and it can go all the way in a circle around itself,” says Lankau. “So, it drives around the foundation of the house, printing sections of the house at a time. So, it'll print a section, drive to the next section, and print the next section.

“So instead of having this many different materials and these many different traits, people that do all these different things, we have a machine that just uses one material and prints the wall.”

HIVE 3D has an internal engineer that works through all of the structural issues that may come up on projects and helps them build homes with monolithic, foot-thick concrete walls with rebar and steel supported in them.

According to Lankau, their 3D printed homes are tornado-proof, hurricane-proof, pest-proof, bullet-proof and can virtually withstand anything because of the sustainable materials used to build them.

“They're everything-proof,” says Lankau. “Just because of the natural strength of the concrete and the steel we use to create them, they can support millions of pounds. So, it's actually a stronger material than a typical house. By a factor of 100. Like I said, it's bulletproof and tornado-proof. You could drive a car into it, and it would total the car. I mean, it's a very, very sturdy structure.”

A bright future

Photo courtesy of HIVE 3D

Moving forward, HIVE 3D would like to continue to innovate and advance its 3D printing technology by leaps and bounds.

“The science fiction goal here, which is maybe a five-year goal, is to be able to drive onto a site, press a button, and watch the robots work,” says Lankau. “We want to be a significant home builder. So, in five years, we want to be building a lot of houses quickly and affordably and we want to continue to automate more and more of the process.”

Right now, there is no formal process for commissioning a HIVE 3D printed home. Perspective customers are directed to the website, then put in a request to build a home, go through a screening process and if the project is a good fit, they'll put that project into their pipeline.

“We can build them quickly. It's just a matter of getting to them,” says Lankau. “We're also going to be doing some developments in Texas probably to start. We also have some international things that we'll be looking into next year. But right now, it's mostly in Texas. We'll be building some developments and putting those homes on the market. We hope to have some out this year and then a bigger chunk next year as we get more machines working. Those will be announced on our website.”

As HIVE 3D continues to find ways to scale its business model, there is a laser focus on the diminishing idea of the “American Dream,” where young families are able to purchase their first home. With the rising costs of supplies and labor, those families have been priced out of the market.

“That’s almost all we think about,” says Lankau. “Homeownership and that part of the American Dream is really struggling right now because the affordability gap between what the average person makes and what the average house on the market costs is just getting wider and wider.

According to Lankau, there are a lot of options to address the supply gap, but there aren’t an equal number of options to solve the affordability issue. Their goal is to find the best ways to deliver real cost savings over both traditional construction and other automated technologies.

“About three weeks ago, we kind of hit the inflection point in our current project where we printed a little house in three days. The cost of the house was what we wanted the cost to be, which is a disruptive amount less than what you could do traditionally or with any other construction technique. And we said, okay, now we're far enough along. We have this system. It's a scalable system. So, we're right now putting some capital together to go out and buy, build more of these machines and get out and start doing these truly affordable housing projects. Because that's where our heart is. Our heart's on the affordable side.”

HIVE 3D’s project in Burton, Texas isn’t available for sell yet, but it will be listed on Airbnb for interested customers to go and experience when it’s completed.

Additionally, the Casitas units in Round Top will be short-term rentals for festival patrons.

“We’ll go directly to market with our next projects,” says Lankau. “And then we'll sell that big house property in Burton at the end of this year.”

Planning to open in the coming months, The Ion Houston has made great progress on its construction. Scroll down to view the slideshow. Photo by Natalie Harms

Photos: Here's a sneak peek at The Ion Houston's construction progress

eye on the ion

The Ion Houston is expected to open its doors this year, and the building's exterior is close to completion. Now, the construction team is focusing on interiors and then tenant build outs.

The 270,000-square-foot coworking and innovation hub owned and managed by Rice Management Co. is slated to be a convening building for startups, corporations, academic partners, investors, and more. The building is organized as follows:

  • The underground Lower Level will act as academic flex space with a few classrooms and open-concept desks for The Ion's accelerators, including: The Ion Smart and Resilient Cities Accelerator, DivInc, the Rice Alliance's Clean Energy Accelerator, and the Aerospace Innovation Hub and Accelerator. There will also be an event space and The Ion's own programming.
  • On the first, street-level floor, The Ion's restaurant tenants will reside with access from both the greenspace as well as into the building. The Ion's first three restaurant tenants include: Late August, Common Bond, and STUFF'd Wings.
  • Additionally, the first floor will be home to a venture studio and the prototyping lab. There is additional space available for other tenants.
  • On the second floor, there will be 58,000 square feet of coworking space managed by Common Desk. Note: For floors 2 and up of the Ion, tenants will have access cards that allow them entrance. The first and lower floors will not require access cards.
  • The third floor of the building will house eight to 10 tenants each with 5,000 to 10,000 square feet of space. Chevron was announced as the first tenant and will reside on this floor.
  • On the fourth and fifth floors, The Ion will house one to two larger tenants on each level. These levels of the building were added on to the existing structure. The fourth floor features two balconies that tenants will have access to. Microsoft is signed on to have its space on half of the fifth floor.
The Ion is still planning on an open date in late spring or summer. For leasing information, click here. Scroll through the slideshow of construction images and renderings to see the progress of the building.

Exterior nears completion

  

Photo by Natalie Harms

The building's exterior is almost complete and kept much of the original building's facade. The new materials brought in match the existing color scheme.

As Houston grows, the city needs more and more construction. However, with this growth comes the need to build responsibly — and that's where technology can come in. Photo via Getty Images

Houston expert calls for more innovation within the construction industry

guest column

The construction industry has the opportunity to drive positive change through the development and deployment of technologies influencing the way we work and live, ultimately affecting our environment, communities, and personal well-being.

Carbon emissions come from a handful of broad categories, including transportation, electricity production, and industry. According to the International Energy Agency, more than a third of all global greenhouse gases come from the building and construction industry. Concrete production alone contributes an estimated 8 percent of global carbon emissions. As a result, in Houston, we are vulnerable to longer, hotter summers, stronger hurricanes and once-in-a-lifetime storms. But I'm optimistic that there is opportunity for our industry to come together and reverse the current trajectory.

We must continue developing and deploying new technologies and best practices to reduce emissions. By using data to understand the environmental implications of the materials we use, we can make adjustments that are beneficial to both our clients and the environment.

One such example is the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator, known as "EC3." Skanska USA developed the open-source, freely available software in collaboration with Microsoft and C Change Labs. The tool democratizes important building data and allows the construction industry to calculate and evaluate carbon emissions associated with various building materials.

Now hosted and managed by Building Transparency, a new 501c3 organization, the EC3 tool was incubated at the Carbon Leadership Forum with input from nearly 50 industry partners. Like the tech industry, we should promote knowledge-sharing among general contractors to drive innovation and sustainability.

The demand for this tool is growing because it's not only the right thing to do, but it also benefits our communities and drives stakeholder value. Now more than ever, clients want to be responsible global citizens and they know that adopting green building practices is attractive to their prospective workforce and their clients and customers.

In Houston, the current population of 7.1 million will double to 14.2 million by 2050. With that population growth comes the need for more housing, more office space and more transportation options. Last April, Houston enacted a climate action plan that sets goals aligned with those from the Paris accord — carbon neutrality by 2050.

Similar local plans have been and are continually being developed all around the world, a necessary step to address a global issue that impacts all of us. Like others, the Houston plan contemplates how to reduce carbon emissions that are the result of energy consumption which accounts for about half of Houston's greenhouse-gas emissions.

Innovations in energy efficiency can help drive down energy consumption. As conscientious global and local citizens, we also have to consider the emissions that are created by the raw materials that are used in construction. That's become a much easier process with the EC3 tool. Now architects, engineers and others involved in the design process can make data-driven decisions that can have significant impact on the carbon footprint — as much as a 30 percent reduction in embodied carbon — of a structure that are mostly cost-neutral.

Embodied-carbon reductions can be made simply by smartly using data. The EC3 tool is one of many steps toward innovative building practices and complements the important ongoing work done by the U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees LEED certification.

Opting for sustainable building practices is good for the environment, but it's also good for the people who will spend time in these spaces. Green building reduces the use of toxic materials, and studies have found that sustainable structures, such as schools, health care facilities and airports, have positive impacts on cognitive ability, seasonal affective disorder and overall happiness.

We are also seeing an influx of client requests for sustainable and healthy building upgrades, especially since the onset of COVID-19. These upgrades are changing the way we live and work while supporting infection control, from touchless elevators to advanced air filtration systems.

For example, innovation has been instrumental throughout the pandemic for the aviation industry's safe operation. Increased biometrics across airport touchpoints, flexible passenger gathering areas that include modifications to passenger hold rooms and departure lounges, and environmental monitoring and wayfinding technology to alert passengers of airport congestion points are a few new concepts airports are incorporating into builds to keep travelers healthy now and in a post-COVID world.

Overall, the construction sector will play an essential role in how we approach expanding the built environment over the next 30 years. Using data and striving for continual innovation, we have a great opportunity to come together as an industry and create real change that will benefit our collective lives and those of generations to come.

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Dennis Yung is executive vice president and general manager at Skanska, one of the world's leading project development and construction groups, where he oversees building operations for Houston and North Texas.
Houston-based SiteAware has raised $10 million in its latest round of funding. Photo courtesy of SiteAware

Houston construction software startup raises $10M in series A round

money moves

A growing startup that provides artificial intelligence-enabled verification software to the construction industry has announced the closing of a multimillion-dollar round.

Houston-based SiteAware announced last week that it's closed a $10 million series A investment round that was co-led by San Diego-based Axon Ventures and Germany-based Robert Bosch Venture Capital.

The company's platform uses AI and digital twin technology to provide real-time verification of construction fieldwork. According to a press release from SiteAware, the construction industry represents a $1.3 trillion market share of the United States economy.

"The cost of construction errors and the risk mitigation costs contribute to 10 to 30 percent of this number. SiteAware's technology significantly lowers this overhead, allowing for customers to reap the benefit," says Zeev Braude, SiteAware CEO, in the release.

By scanning buildings under construction, SiteAware's technology constructs a 3D model of the area and compares the progress of the structures to the construction plans in real time. This technology allows for any deviations from the plan to be realized as soon as possible, which means avoiding costly repairs or reconstructions.

"By enabling general contractors and developers to reduce the cost of errors and better mitigate risk, the ripple effect lowers the cost of real estate, providing better value opportunities for home buyers," Braude adds in the release. "Our technology closes the gap between plans and field work, solving this very important challenge within the trillion dollar construction sector."

SiteAware, which was founded in 2015 by Braude and CTO Ori Aphek, previously raised seed funding in 2015 and 2016. Existing investors, including lool Ventures, Oryzn Ventures, The Flying Object and Power Capital Venture also participated in the round.

"SiteAware has built a state of the art technology which provides the digital value that the construction industry has been needing, and we're excited to join in their vision," says Arad Naveh, partner at Axon VC, says in the release. "We were highly impressed that they were able to build a customer base of market leaders, and moreover, the impact that SiteAware's tools are already making."

SiteAware's technology can analyze construction sites in real time. Image courtesy of SiteAware

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Houston femtech co. debuts first holistic wellness suite following rebrand

work perks

Houston-based femtech company Work&, previously Work&Mother, debuted new lactation suites and its first employee wellness space at MetroNational’s Memorial City Plazas this month.

The 1,457-square-foot Work& space features three lactation rooms and five wellness suites, the latter of which are intended to offer employees a private space and time for telehealth appointments, meditation, prayer, and other needs. The hybrid space, designed by Houston-based Inventure, represents Work&'s shift to offer an array of holistic health and wellness solutions to landlords for tenants.

Work& rebranded from Work&Mother earlier this year. The company was previously focused on outfitting commercial buildings with lactation accommodations for working parents, equipped with a hospital-grade pump, milk storage bags, sanitizing wipes, and other supplies. While Work& will still offer these services through its Work&Mother branch, the addition of its Work&Wellbeing arm allows the company to also "address the broader wellness needs of all employees," according to an announcement made on LinkedIn.

"We are thrilled to bring Work&Mother and Work&Wellbeing to The Plazas," Jules Lairson, co-founder and COO of Work&, said in a news release. “This partnership brings every stakeholder together – employees, employers and landlords all benefit from this kind of forward-thinking tenant experience. We are excited to launch our Work&Wellbeing concept with MetroNational to ensure that all employees have their wellness needs met with private, clean, quiet spaces for use during the workday.”

The new space is available to all tenants across Memorial City Plazas, comprised of three office towers totaling 1 million square feet of Class A office space. In addition to the lactation and wellness suites, the space also features custom banquettes, private lounge seating and phone booths.

“As a family-owned and operated company, MetroNational is deeply committed to fostering a workplace that supports both productivity and the well-being of all our tenants,” Anne Marie Ratliff, vice president of asset management for MetroNational, added in the release. “Partnering with Work& reinforces this commitment, enhancing our workplace experience and setting a new standard for tenant amenities.”

Work& has five Houston locations and several others in major metros, including New York, Austin, D.C., Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami. According to its website, the company will also introduce a Work&Wellbeing suite in New York.

Abbey Donnell spoke with InnovationMap on the Houston Innovators Podcast about why she founded the company and its plans for growth in 2021. Click here to learn more.

9 Houston universities make U.S. News' list of best grad schools 2025

Top of the class

Nine Houston universities have climbed through the ranks in U.S. News & World Report’s recently released report of the best graduate schools nationwide for 2025. Several graduate programs also appeared among the top 10 in a Texas-wide comparison.

U.S. News published its annual national "Best Graduate Schools" rankings on April 8. They look at several programs including business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, and many others.

For the 2025 report, the publication added new Ph.D. social sciences and humanities program rankings in English, history, political science and sociology for the first time since 2021. U.S. News also ranked graduate economics and psychology programs in the social sciences and the humanities for the first time since 2022.

Among the newcomers are Houston Christian University and Texas Southern University.

Here's how the nine local schools ranked, statewide and nationally, and how they compared with last year's national ranking:

University of Houston

  • No. 4 best graduate engineering school in Texas; No. 72 nationally
  • No. 5 best graduate education school in Texas; No. 81 nationally (down from No. 63 last year)
  • No. 5 best law school in Texas; No. 63 nationally (up from No. 68)

The University of Houston Law Center has the No. 9 best health law program in the nation, and ranked No. 15 for its legal writing program. The university's part-time MBA program ranked No. 38 nationally

University of Houston, Clear Lake

  • No. 12 best graduate education school in Texas; No. 166 nationally

The Clear Lake branch of the University of Houston tied for No. 166 for its part-time MBA program.

Houston Christian University

  • No. 21 best graduate education school in Texas; tied for No. 234-258 nationally

University of Texas Health Science Center

  • No. 1 best Doctor of Nursing Practice program in Texas; No. 33 nationally (up from No. 45)
  • No. 2 best graduate nursing program in Texas; No. 41 nationally (down from No. 31)

Prairie View A&M University, Northwest Houston Center

  • No. 5 best graduate nursing program in Texas; No. 104 nationally (up from No. 117)
  • No. 7 best Doctor of Nursing Practice program in Texas; tied for No. 143-158 nationally

Rice University

  • No. 2 best graduate business school in Texas; No. 29 nationally (unchanged)
  • No. 3 best graduate engineering school in Texas; No. 26 nationally

Rice's entrepreneurship program is the 9th best in the country, and its part-time MBA program ranked 13th nationally. The George R. Brown School of Engineering earned nods for its No. 10-ranking biomedical engineering and environmental engineering programs.

University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

  • No. 5 best Doctor of Nursing Practice program in Texas; No. 76 nationally

South Texas College of Law Houston

  • No. 7 best law school in Texas; No. 138 nationally

Out of the 11 law programs ranked by U.S. News, the South Texas College of Law performed the best for its trial advocacy (No. 12), dispute resolution law (No. 23), and legal writing (No. 51) programs.

Texas Southern University

  • No. 10 best law school in Texas; tied for No. 178-195 nationally

More specifically, TSU has the 64th best trial advocacy law program in the nation, U.S. News said.

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This article originally appeared on our sister site, CultureMap.com.

VC firm partners with Rice Nexus to open first global office

strategic partnership

Luxembourg-based venture capital and advisory firm MoreThan Capital (MTC) has established its first global office at the new Rice Nexus in Houston’s Ion District as part of a strategic partnership aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and growing Houston as an innovation hub.

MTC has committed to offering its “time, mentorship, industry expertise and global connections” to Rice Nexus. The state-of-the-art Rice Nexus, which opened earlier this year, aims to support and provide resources for ventures that are looking to scale and have "artificial intelligence (AI) as a central pillar of its innovation strategy," according to a statement from Rice.

“The Rice Nexus is a launchpad for world-changing ideas, and this partnership with MoreThan Capital is a key step in realizing that vision,” Sanjoy Paul, executive director of the Rice Nexus, said in a news release. “By combining Rice’s research and entrepreneurial talent with MTC’s global network and mentorship, we are creating an unparalleled engine for innovation that starts in Houston and reaches the world.”

MoreThan Capital has over 100 limited partners, including senior executives and professional investors, based in more than 35 countries.

“Establishing our first global office at the Rice Nexus within the Ion District is a significant milestone for MoreThan Capital,” Guillermo Ruiz, general partner of MoreThan Capital, said in a news release. “We are dedicated to partnering with top-tier academic institutions like Rice University and aligning with organizations that share our core values of trust, engagement and impact.”

The announcement comes just a few weeks after Rice Nexus announced its partnership with Google Public Sector to launch the new Rice AI Venture Accelerator, or RAVA.

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