NASA awards Houston university $1.2M for diversity in aerospace initiative

future of space

The funding will go toward promoting diversity in aerospace workforce development. Photo via UH.edu

NASA will award the University of Houston $1.2 million toward a collaborative project with some of the biggest players in aerospace to foster diversity in the field.

The funds will go toward UH's Partnership for Inclusivity in Engineering Education and Research for Space, or PIE2RS, which is a collaboration between UH, UH-Clear Lake, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Boeing Company, and the Greater Houston Partnership.

PIE2RS will provide experiential learning opportunities for marginalized students through capstone projects, internships and research opportunities. It will also offer a 10-week paid research experience for 18 students each year, along with professional development workshops and mentoring opportunities.

It will be led by Jerrod A. Henderson, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UH. Karolos Grigoriadis, the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Endowed Professor and chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, will serve as co-principal investigator.

“Our research, as well as the research of leading scholars, has highlighted the challenges underrepresented students face, including isolation, marginalization, racial bias and hostile educational environments,” Henderson said in a statement. “Our goal with PIE2RS is to improve the recruitment and retention of students in aerospace-related STEM disciplines, increase their sense of belonging and broaden their participation through hands-on research and experiential learning opportunities.”

UH professors Olga Bannova, Mariam Manuel and Tian Chen will also work on the project along with collaborator Rick Greer.

The funds come from NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project in partnership with the National Science Foundation’s Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science network, which aim to support diversity in the engineering fields.

UH is one of six universities to receive funding for DEI projects from NASA, totaling $7.2 million. The other institutions include:

  • Alabama A&M University
  • Morgan State University
  • North Carolina A&T University
  • University of Central Florida
  • University of Colorado – Denver

“With these awards, we are continuing to create pathways that increase access and opportunities in STEM for underrepresented and underserved groups,” Keya Briscoe, NASA's MUREP manager, said in a statement. “NASA continues to invest in initiatives that are critical in driving innovation, fostering inclusion, and providing access to the STEM ecosystem for everyone.”

NASA has inked several deals and agreements with Houston ties in recent months.

Space tech company Intuitive Machines (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) secured its fourth contract with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, program last month for $116.9 million. The agreement includes six lunar deliveries.

In August, oil giant bp America and NASA agreed to share digital technology and technical expertise to boost U.S. space exploration efforts.

Ken Nguyen, principal technical program manager at bp, explained the unique opportunities behind the deal in a recent episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast.
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Researchers focused on finding breakthrough technologies also have to deal with some financial red tape — but this UH expert shares why it shouldn't be so daunting. Graphic by Miguel Tovar/University of Houston

Houston expert shares advice for navigating confusing costs for researchers

Houston voices

Facilities and Administrative costs (F&A), also known as Indirect Costs or IDC, are at the very least misunderstood by researchers. At their worst, they smack of "Big Brother." But F&A costs truly are transparent and nothing to fear (or despise!)

Keeping the lights on

F&A are costs that cannot be uniquely associated with a particular project, but which are nonetheless incurred by the university due to the project.

"If a Principal Investigator (PI) is using on-campus lab space, there is no easy way to determine what the electricity costs or maintenance costs are for the PI's work in the lab on any particular sponsored project," states University of Berkeley's website. "The same problem exists when a piece of equipment is shared by a number of PIs or projects; there is no way to determine the cost attributable to each PI or project."

Unfunded costs

So, we know it isn't easy to calculate how much utilities or janitorial staff cost a university during a sponsored project. But the question persists: do universities "make money" on sponsored research projects?

"No," says Cris Milligan, assistant vice president for research administration at the University of Houston. "Sponsors do not cover the full costs of conducting the research that they support. The unfunded costs are subsidized through university, college, department and faculty contributions."

Where has all the money gone?

F&A costs are a relatively small percentage of the actual costs that a university spends on any given project: for instance, operations and maintenance typically includes the day-to-day activities necessary for the building and its systems and equipment to perform their intended function.

Other monies go toward departmental, sponsored program and general administration costs. Rent needs to be paid on buildings where the research takes place, equipment must be purchased and libraries are maintained.

What goes in, must come out!

Grants can be funded by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. Other support from companies, foundations and state and local agencies can be pursued by development officers within the colleges.

Recovered F&A costs totaled over $22 million at the University of Houston in 2019. Salaries and benefits, maintenance and operations, travel and business expenses, scholarships and fellowships and lastly capital outlay and contracting of services all take up their fair share of the pie.

"Of course, to be successful in research, PIs need a whole ecosystem of supporting teams, from grant administrators to student services, operations and maintenance to IT. That is what indirect spend is: it relates to every purchase not directly related to the performance of the sponsored research," says Milligan.

Determining Rates

The aim of most every university is full recovery of costs associated with sponsored projects. For instance, the University of Michigan Office of Research states, "Periodically, the Department of Health and Human Services (acting on behalf of the federal government) and the University negotiate an agreement setting forth indirect cost rates for three types of sponsored activities: organized research, instruction and other sponsored activities."

The agreement specifies the rates at which the University can recover its indirect costs associated with projects sponsored by all agencies of the federal government.

Non-federal sponsors (i.e., private sponsors, whether industry or non-profit) are not bound by the terms of OMB Uniform Guidance. These monitored costs are not necessarily guided by the principle of full cost recovery for universities. Your friendly development officer will come in handy when applying for this kind of support; just be clear that the percentage of F&A may be determined on a slightly different scale.

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This article originally appeared on the University of Houston's The Big Idea. Sarah Hill, the author of this piece, is the communications manager for the UH Division of Research.

Houston-area researchers are innovating health and wellness solutions every day — even focusing on non-pandemic-related issues. Photo via Getty Images

3 research innovations in health care to know about in Houston

Research roundup

Researchers across the world are coming up with innovative breakthroughs regarding the coronavirus, but Houston research institutions are also making health and wellness discoveries outside of COVID-19.

Here are three research innovations from Houston scientists from a new cardiac medical device to artificial intelligence-driven predictive technology for cirrhosis patients.

University of Houston's new implantable cardiac device

A UH researcher has designed a flexible device that can collect key information on the human heart. Photo via UH.edu

Cardiac implants and devices like pacemakers are either made with rigid materials that don't do the moving, beating heart any favors or the devices are made with soft materials but sacrifice the quality of information collected.

Researchers led by Cunjiang Yu, a University of Houston professor of mechanical engineering, have reported in Nature Electronics a new rubbery patch designed to collect electrophysiological activity, temperature, heartbeat and other indicators, while being flexible against the heart.

Yu, who is also a principal investigator with the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, is the author of the paper says it's the first time a device has both been flexible and accurate. The device, which generates energy from heart beats and doesn't need an external power source, can both collect information from multiple locations on the heart — also known as spatiotemporal mapping — but it can also offer therapeutic benefits such as electrical pacing and thermal ablation, according to the researchers.

"Unlike bioelectronics primarily based on rigid materials with mechanical structures that are stretchable on the macroscopic level, constructing bioelectronics out of materials with moduli matching those of the biological tissues suggests a promising route towards next-generational bioelectronics and biosensors that do not have a hard–soft interface for the heart and other organs," the researchers wrote. "Our rubbery epicardial patch is capable of multiplexed ECG mapping, strain and temperature sensing, electrical pacing, thermal ablation and energy harvesting functions."

Yu has worked on the development of fully rubbery electronics with sensing and other biological capabilities, including for use in robotic hands, skins and other devices.

Baylor College of Medicine's new tool to predict outcomes of cirrhosis

A new statistical model created from artificial intelligence can more accurately predict cirrhosis outcomes. Image via bcm.edu

Currently, the standard of care for cirrhosis patients is limited because physicians can't accurately predict long-term outcomes. But this might be changing thanks to researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the Michael E. DeBakey Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, and the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt).

According to their study are published in JAMA Network Open, the researchers developed a model using a blend of artificial intelligence and traditional statistical methods to produce a score better predicting mortality in cirrhosis.

"When we see patients in the clinic we want to guide them about their long-term outcomes. We wanted to create a tool using machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of prognosis, while maintaining ease of use in the clinic," says Dr. Fasiha Kanwal, the author of the study and professor of medicine and section chief of gastroenterology at Baylor, in a news release.

The scientists used data collected from patients at 130 hospitals and clinics — such as demographics, comorbidities, underlying risk factors and severity of liver disease — as well as comprehensive laboratory tests and medication data to create three different statistical models to predict risk of mortality.

"Machine learning and artificial intelligence is important. It did help us find the right risk factors to use, but we didn't need to use very complex models to get there. We were able to create the CiMM score that will work easier in the clinic and is more predictive of mortality than the existing method," says Kanwal.

The Cirrhosis Mortality Model (CiMM) performed the best and most accurately and was more predictive than the current prognostic model, known as the Model for End Stage Liver Disease with sodium (MELD-Na).

"This tool could make a big difference in providing patient-centered care. The CiMM score could be reassessed every time a patient comes into the clinic," Kanwal said. "Previously, we were unable to predict anything long term. But the CiMM score could give us an idea of how to manage disease for one, two and three years out."

UTHealth's $11 million grant to study multi-drug resistant infection factors

A local multi-institutional research team has received millions to study drug resistance. Photo via Getty Images

A program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has received an $11 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to conduct this five-year study on why some critically ill patients develop multidrug-resistant infections.

The Dynamics of Colonization and Infection by Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens in Immunocompromised and Critically Ill Patients will enroll patients at both Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

According to a news release, the research team will seek to explain the microbial, clinical, and antimicrobial resistance factors of three major multidrug-resistant pathogens: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci, Enterobacterales producing extended spectrum β-lactamases/carbapenemases, and Clostridioides difficile. Note: all three pathogens are resistant to antimicrobial treatment such as antibiotics.

"We want to learn more about how these three classes of organisms colonize the gastrointestinal tract of critically ill patients and, eventually, cause infections in these patient populations," says Dr. Cesar A. Arias, the study's principal investigator and professor of infectious disease at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

Free mental health care, local COVID-19 testing, and a new great to fund an ongoing study — here's your latest roundup of research news. Image via Getty Images

These are the latest COVID-19-focused research projects happening at Houston institutions

Research roundup

As Houston heads toward the end of summer with no major vaccine or treatment confirmed for COVID-19, local research institutions are still hard at work on various coronavirus-focused innovations.

Free mental health care, local COVID-19 testing, and a new great to fund an ongoing study — here's your latest roundup of research news.

Baylor College of Medicine genomics team to partner for local COVID-19 testing

Houston millionaire to start biotech accelerator for companies focusing on regenerative medicine

Two departments at BCM are working with the county on COVID-19 testing. Getty Images

Two Baylor College of Medicine institutions have teamed up to aid in local COVID-19 testing. The Human Genome Sequencing Center and the Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research — under the leadership of BCM — are partnering with local public health departments to provide polymerase chain reaction testing of COVID-19 samples, according to a news release from BCM.

"We are pleased to work with the outstanding local government groups in this critical public health effort," says Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the HGSC and Wofford Cain chair and professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, in the release. "We are proud of the tireless determination and expertise of our centers and college staff that enabled the rapid development of this robust testing capacity to serve the greater Houston community."

Baylor is among the testing providers for Harris County Public Health, and people can receive testing following a pre-screening questionnaire online.

"We are fortunate to have Baylor College of Medicine as a close partner during the COVID-19 pandemic," says Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, in the release. "This is a challenging time for our community and as the need for increased testing capacity and getting results to residents faster has grown, Baylor has risen to the occasion. There are countless unsung heroes across Harris County who have stepped up to the plate during this pandemic and Baylor College of Medicine is one of them."

COVID-19 testing samples are collected from testing sites and delivered to the Alkek Center. After isolating the virus, genomic material is extracted and sent to the HGSC to quantitative reverse transcription PCR testing. Should the sample's RNA sequence match the virus, then it is positive for COVID-19. The sequencing must test positive three times to be considered overall positive.

Results are returned within 48 hours, and the lab has a capacity of more than 1,000 samples a day. Since May, the team has tested over 30,000 samples.

"We knew we had all the pieces to stand up a testing center fast – large scale clinical sequencing, experts in virology and molecular biology, and a secure way to return results to patients," says Ginger Metcalf, Human Genome Sequencing Center Director of Project Development, in the release. "We are also fortunate to have such great partners at Harris County Public Health, who have done an amazing job of gathering, tracking and delivering samples, especially for the most at-risk members of our community."

National Science Foundation renews Rice University funding amid pandemic

José Onuchic (left) and Peter Wolynes are co-directors of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University. Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University's Center for Theoretical Biological Physics has been granted a five-year extension from the National Science Foundation. The grant for $12.9 million will aid in continuing the CTBP's work at the intersection of biology and physics.

The center — which was founded in 2001 at the University of California, San Diego, before moving to Rice in 2011 — is led by Peter Wolynes and José Onuchic.

"We have four major areas at the center," Onuchic says in a news release. "The first is in chromatin theory and modeling, developing the underlying mathematical theory to explain the nucleus of the cell — what Peter calls the 'new nuclear physics.' The second is to test ideas based on the data being created by experimentalists. The third is to understand information processing by gene networks in general, with some applications related to metabolism in cancer. The fourth is to study the cytoskeleton and molecular motors. And the synergy between all of these areas is very important."

Onuchic adds that an upcoming donation of a supercomputer by AMD will help the center's ongoing research into COVID-19 and four institutions — Rice, Northeastern, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston — are working collaboratively on the study,

"We're all set to move on doing major COVID-related molecular simulations on day one," he says in the release. "The full functioning of a center requires a synergy of participation. Rice is the main player with people from multiple departments, but Baylor, Northeastern and Houston play critical roles."

University of Houston offers free mental health therapy for restaurant workers

Texas restaurant workers can get free mental health care from a UH initiative. Photo via Elle Hughes/Pexels

Through a collaboration with Southern Smoke and Mental Health America of Greater Houston, the University of Houston Clinical Psychology program launched a a free mental health care program for Texas-based food and beverage employees and their children.

"During normal times this is a high stress industry where people work very hard in environments where they are just blowing and going all the time," says John P. Vincent, professor of psychology and director of the UH Center for Forensic Psychology, in a news release.

The program has 14 graduate students who converse with a total of 30 patients and meet weekly with supervisors at UH.

"This opportunity allows our clinical program to reach people in the community who usually don't have access to mental health services," says Carla Sharp, professor of psychology and director of clinical training, in the release.

For restaurant industry workers looking for help and care, they can visit the Mental Health Services page on Southern Smoke's website.

According to Vincent, this is just the beginning.

"We're discussing it," says Vincent in the release. "But as far as I'm concerned it can just keep going and going."

Three health and tech research projects coming out of the Houston area have received grants to continue their work. Getty Images

These 3 Houston-area researchers receive millions in grants for ongoing innovation projects

Research roundup

Money makes the world go 'round, and that's certainly the case with research projects. Grants are what drives research at academic institutions across the country and fuel the next great innovations.

These three projects coming out of Houston-area universities were all granted multimillion-dollar sums in order to continue their health tech, cancer-prevention, and even electric vehicle battery research projects,

University of Houston's $3.2 million grant for its next-generation micro CT scan

Associate professor of physics Mini Das developed a better way to approach CT scans. Photo via uh.edu

In an effort to improve imaging and lower radiation, Mini Das, associate professor of physics at the University of Houston, is moving the needle on introducing the next generation of micro computed tomography (CT) imaging. Das recently received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to help move along her work in this field.

"This has the potential to transform the landscape of micro-CT imaging," says Das in a news release.

Das is responsible for developing the theory, instrumentation and algorithms for spectral phase-contrast imaging (PCI) that allows for lower radiation with higher image details, according to the release.

"Current X-ray and CT systems have inherent contrast limitations and dense tissue and cancer can often look similar. Even if you increase the radiation dose, there is a limit to what you can see. In addition, image noise becomes significant when increasing resolution to see fine details, often desirable when scanning small objects," says Das.

Rice University researcher's $2.4 million grant to advance on car batteries

This company’s machine learning programs are making driving in Houston safer — and cheaper

A Rice University scientist is looking to optimize car batteries. Pexels

A Rice University scientist is working toward improving batteries for electric vehicles. Materials scientist Ming Tang and his colleagues — backed by a $2.4 million grant from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium — are working on a project led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, which will run for 36 months and will focus on low-cost and fast-charging batteries.

"Traditional battery electrodes are prepared by the slurry casting method and usually have uniform porosity throughout the electrode thickness," says Tang, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, in a news release. "However, our earlier modeling study shows that an electrode could have better rate performance by having two or more layers with different porosities.

"Now with the Missouri University of Science and Technology and WPI developing a new dry printing method for battery electrode fabrication, such layered electrodes can be manufactured relatively easily," he said. Tang's group will use modeling to optimize the structural parameters of multilayer electrodes to guide their fabrication.

The academics will also work with a manufacturer, Microvast, that will assemble large-format pouch cells using layered electrodes and evaluate the electrochemical performance against the program goals, according to the release.

"The public/private partnership is critical to steer the research performed at universities," Tang says. "It helps us understand what matters most to commercial applications and what gaps remain between what we have and what is needed by the market. It also provides valuable feedback and gives the project access to the state-of-the-art commercial battery fabrication and testing capabilities."


Texas A&M faculty member's $5 million grant for cancer research

Tanmay Lele of Texas A&M University is looking at how cells react to mechanical forces in cancer. Photo via tamu.edu

Tanmay Lele, a new faculty member in Texas A&M University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, received a $5 million Recruitment of Established Investigators grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in May to research how cancer progresses.

More specifically, Lele's research focuses on mechanobiology and how cells sense external mechanical forces as well as how they generate mechanical forces, and how these mechanical forces impact cell function, according to a news release from A&M.

"The nuclei in normal tissue have smooth surfaces, but over time the surfaces of cancer nuclei become irregular in shape," Lele says in the release. "Now, why? Nobody really knows. We're still at the tip of the iceberg at trying to figure this problem out. But nuclear abnormalities are ubiquitous and occur in all kinds of cancers — breast, prostate and lung cancers."

Lele will work from two laboratories — one in College Station and one in the Texas A&M Health Science Center's Institute of Biosciences & Technology in Houston. THe will collaborate with Dr. Michael Mancini and Dr. Fabio Stossi from Baylor College of Medicine.

"Like any other basic field, we are trying to make discoveries with the hope that they will have long-term impacts on human health," Lele says.

Rice University identified 15 more pandemic-related research projects to receive support from a new research fund. Getty Images

15 more COVID-19 research projects receive funds from Houston university

coronavirus solutions

Researchers at a Houston institution have been rewarded for their work that focuses on COVID-19 and how it's affected various aspects of life.

Rice University has named its two more rounds of recipients of its COVID-19 Research Fund — an initiative created to support projects that are innovating solutions and services amid the COVID-19 crisis. In April, the COVID-19 Research Fund Oversight and Review Committee — led by engineering professor and special adviser to the provost, Marcia O'Malley — selected four projects led by Rice faculty members across industries from biomedicine to humanities that will receive the first round of funds.

The committee named another round of recipients in May and the third and final round this month. Here are the projects from the last two rounds of grants:

  • Rapid point-of-care device to detect severe cases of COVID-19 by Kevin McHugh and Peter Lillehoj of Rice and Cassian Yee of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
  • A mobile phone-based blood serum test for COVID-19 antibodies by Lillehoj, Wen Hsiang Chen of Baylor College of Medicine and James Le Duc of Galveston National Laboratory. The mobile test would be faster and more precise.
  • A handbook addressing pandemic response initiatives for health officials by Kirsten Ostherr and Lan Li of Rice; Thomas Cole of the McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; Robert Peckham of Hong Kong University; and Sanjoy Bhattacharya of York University.
  • A look at COVID-19's effect on vehicle travel and electric power generation and air quality by Daniel Cohan and Daniel Kowal of Rice. Using both on-the-ground and satellite data, the researchers will look at various air pollutants.
  • A study on Harris County residents' compliance to stay-at-home orders by Flavio Cunha, Patricia DeLucia, Fred Oswald, Ekim Cem Muyan and E. Susan Amirian of Rice. The researchers will survey residents — particularly low-socioeconomic populations.
  • A look at how pollution and economics affect each other turing a pandemic-caused crisis by Sylvia Dee, Ted Loch-Temzelides, Caroline Masiello and Mark Torres of Rice. Thanks to stay-at-home initiatives, the study can look at which economic sectors contribute the most to carbon emissions.
  • A study on long-term effects of COVID-19 on human development by Fred Oswald of Rice, Rodica Damian and Tingshu Liu of the University of Houston and Patrick Hill of Washington University. The project looks at the pandemic's affect on social contexts including occupational, educational, community, family, lifestyle, health and financial.
  • A predictive model of Houston's COVID-19 condition by Daniel Kowal, assistant professor of statistics, and Thomas Sun, a graduate student, at Rice. The project will compare Houston to locations that are similar and further along the disease incidence curve.
  • A survey of how stay-at-home orders affected low-income families by Amelyn Ng, Wortham Fellow at Rice Architecture, and Gabriel Vergara of One Architecture and Urbanism. he survey will focus on Houston's Greater Fifth Ward.
  • Research on antibodies for disease prevention by Laura Segatori, associate professor of bioengineering and of chemical and bimolecular engineering and biosciences, and Omid Veiseh, assistant professor of bioengineering, at Rice. The two scientists plan to engineer cell lines for the rapid development of clinically translatable neutralizing antibodies for infection control.
  • An analysis of working conditions amid the pandemic by Danielle King, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice. King will look into both employees who can no longer go to the workplace, like teachers, and those required to, like nurses, to see what resources are most effective.
  • An oxygen sensing device by Michael Wong, department chair and a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and Rafael Verduzco, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, of Rice and John Graf of NASA. The team will continue working on a NASA-designed prototype ventilator for rapid deployment based on an off-the-shelf automotive oxygen sensor.
  • A study on social distancing for musicians by Ashok Veeraraghavan, Robert Yekovich and Ashutosh Sabharwal of Rice and John Mangum of the Houston Symphony. The project will look into airflow of wind instruments using high-speed imaging.
  • Looking into public health initiatives and their use in COVID-19 by Hulya Eraslan, Rossella Calvi, Dibya Deepta Mishra and Ritika Sethi of Rice. The team will look at election data with a goal is to understand the impact of political alignment across levels of government on the effectiveness of its response.
  • Research on optimizing nursing staff schedules by Andrew Schaefer, Illya Hicks and Joseph Huchette of Rice and Nicole Fontenot of Houston Methodist Hospital. Researchers will employ data and technology to improve forecasting demand for nursing staff.
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Who are Houston's top innovators? Nominate now for 2026 Houston Innovation Awards

Calling All Innovators

Calling all Houston innovators: The 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, presented by InnovationMap, return this fall to celebrate the best and brightest in the Houston innovation ecosystem right now.

We're asking you to nominate Houston's top innovators and startups for this year's awards. Nominations are open now through August 27 and can be made on behalf of yourself, your organization, and other influential leaders in the local innovation scene.

The annual awards program recognizes the most innovative individuals and companies in Houston across 10 prestigious categories.

This year's awards will honor the following categories:

  • Minority-founded Business, honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation.
  • Female-founded Business, honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman.
  • Energy Transition Business, honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy, and beyond.
  • Health Tech Business, honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors.
  • Deep Tech Business, honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics, and space sectors.
  • Startup of the Year (People's Choice), honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an interactive voting experience.
  • Scaleup of the Year, honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth.
  • Incubator/Accelerator of the Year, honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups.
  • Mentor of the Year, honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs.
  • Trailblazer, honoring an innovator who's made a lasting impact on the Houston innovation community.

You have three weeks to submit nominees, so don't delay — nominate today at this link or fill out the form below. Qualified nominees will receive a formal application to complete, which will be reviewed by our esteemed panel of judges to determine the finalists and winners.

More announcements about the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards are coming soon, including an introduction to this year's panel of judges. Interested in sponsoring the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards? Please contact sales@innovationmap.com.

KBR unveils name, branding for new government services spinoff

new identity

Houston-based KBR Inc.'s new Mission Technology Solutions unit officially has a name.

The previously announced government services spinoff, which until now has been nicknamed SpinCo, will now be known as Trinzic. The company said in a news release that the name was inspired by the word intrinsic, "reflecting essential, built-in capabilities and deep expertise operating in some of the world’s most complex and mission-critical environments."

New York-based firm Siegel + Gale developed the company's new brand. In addition to the new name, the company shares that its new logo will feature a stylized letter N, with brand colors in orange and gray.

“Trinzic represents who KBR Mission Tech has always been at our core: an essential partner bringing innovation and trusted execution to the missions that matter most,” Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO, said in the release. “The new Trinzic brand represents both our strong heritage and the tremendous opportunity ahead. Our teams aim to deliver solutions that address some of the world’s most critical national priorities every day, and this new identity captures the purpose-driven culture and mission focus that we expect to continue to define the company moving forward.”

KBR expects the spin-off to be completed in January 2027. At that time, Trinzic will operate as an independent, publicly traded company that will focus on technology and engineering services for the space and national security sectors.

KBR will remain a separate publicly traded company that will focus on sustainable technology and services to support the energy transition. KBR first announced the spinoff plans in October 2025.

Last month, KBR announced two C-suite hires for Trinzic, or what was then known as SpinCo.

Michael LaRouche will serve as Trinzic's inaugural president and CEO. LaRouche is currently CEO of Serco North America, a Virginia-based government services contractor. Nicholas Veasey, current CFO of Virginia-based MAG Aerospace, was named Trinzic's CFO. Bradie will remain chairman, president and CEO of KBR.

Rice lands $19 million grant to build AI-driven quantum materials lab

Quantum Boost

Rice University has received a $19.9 million award from the National Science Foundation to increase the production of quantum and electronic materials by using a combination of artificial intelligence, cloud-based labs and robotics.

The four-year project will create a remote and automated research platform that aims to accelerate discovery and the testing process, according to Rice. The aptly titled project, "Revolutionizing AI-Driven Autonomous Experimentation for Next-Generation Semiconductor Synthesis” (READINESS), will be led by Rice materials scientist Jun Lou, who serves as principal investigator. SUNY Polytechnic Institute and the University of Texas at Austin will collaborate with Rice on the project.

At first, READINESS will focus on two-dimensional materials, oxide semiconductors and diamond thin films that can support emerging technologies, like quantum devices.

READINESS is one of 20 projects selected for the NSF's Programmable Cloud Laboratories Test Bed initiative, which aims to provide more U.S. researchers with access to automated scientific tools.

Additionally, the project aligns with the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, which recently selected four projects from Houston universities and companies, including two from Rice. The national initiative aims to unite government, industry, academia and philanthropy to lead to breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security.

READINESS will offer more advanced lab systems remotely via a cloud interface to assist startups, other research groups, and companies that don’t have the resources, staffing or equipment to produce quantum materials and advanced electronics. READINESS will also allow researchers to simulate experiments via virtual experiments or digital twins before they conduct the physical experiment.

Rice says this will be particularly useful in quantum materials research, which is often met with barriers— like the adjustments of chemical composition, gas flow, pressure, and temperature—that can change the properties of a material.

“This project will give researchers access to capabilities that have traditionally been available only in a handful of laboratories,” David Sholl, executive vice president for research at Rice, said in a news release. “By lowering those barriers, READINESS can accelerate discovery and expand who can participate in cutting-edge materials research.”

Additionally, the project’s AI aspect will offer recommendations for new tests, recognize safety limits and analyze results to assist researchers.

“Responsible AI should complement researchers’ capabilities rather than replace their judgment,” Luay Nakhleh, Dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, added in the release. “READINESS embodies this principle by combining automated systems with transparency, safeguards and human oversight at critical decision points.”

READINESS’ lab will be based out of Rice’s Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science. Partner sites will also contribute equipment, expertise and workforce development programs, according to Rice.

Ultimately, READINESS aims to elevate the speed, reliability and reproducibility of experiments, and to promote access to automated scientific tools for U.S. researchers.

“Our goal is to create a laboratory that researchers from across the country can use to produce advanced electronic and quantum materials on demand,” Lou added in the release. “By integrating robotics, AI and digital twins, we aim to learn from every experiment and shorten the pathway from scientific discovery to practical technology.”

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