BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – After a whirlwind week for the Texas A&M System, the Board of Regents officially approved funding for three major capital projects coming to the Bryan-College Station area.
One of the biggest projects set to get underway next month is the semiconductor institute going on the RELLIS Campus.
Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research at Texas A&M, David Staack, said that while the U.S. started semiconductor manufacturing and is still the leader in designing them, manufacturing semiconductors has gone offshore, and this institute aims to bring that manufacturing back to American soil.
“The manufacturing has often gone offshore, and we have investments in Texas right now in industry in terms of increasing our ability to build advanced node semiconductors,” Staack explained. “Just for reference, advanced node semiconductors are what’s in your iPhone, and similar devices, and right now, they’re not made in the U.S. Not any of them.”
The project will cost around $205 million dollars and is slated to be complete in early 2028.(Gray Media)
The roughly $205 million, over 70,000 square-foot institute will feature an advanced clean room and research space. It’s designed to be a world-leading facility for semiconductor design and production. It’s set to break ground in March of this year, with the majority of the construction expected to be completed by early 2028.
The next capital project Regents approved is the expansion of the Cyclotron Institute. Sherry Yennello is the director of the institute, and she says this expansion will not only help with A&M research but also major entities like SpaceX and the European Space Commission.
“We are the number one place in the world where people come to do this heavy ion testing, which means that there’s a lot of demand for our beam time, and there’s not enough beam time to go around,” Yennello said. “The new expansion will allow us to make more efficient use of the beam time so that there is more time available for people to do testing.”
The expansion will help with not just Texas A&M research but research for major entities like SpaceX and The European Space Commission.(Gray Media)
The final project of the three Regents approved this week is the new poultry science center located off 2818 in College Station. This new facility will replace outdated infrastructure and provide modern classrooms, research, and demonstration space for the nation’s largest science program.
“It’s everything from raising the live animals to the processing, to managing the eggs, grading the eggs, grading the chickens,” said Regent John Bellinger. “It’s just a vertically integrated operation that the students learn from start to finish, and then the economics of the poultry industry.”
The new facility will provide modern classrooms, research, and demonstration spaces for the nation’s largest poultry science program.(Gray Media)
With the semiconductor institute, these three projects total over $269 million dollars, advancing the system’s strategic priorities in semiconductor innovation, national defense, space research, agricultural education, and workforce development.
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