The University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso County are entering into a partnership that is part of a new strategic initiative for UTEP’s center for space exploration and technology research.
Through the collaboration, UTEP will transform five acres of the 400-acre county airport into three facilities where students will be able to learn and test space and energy research innovation projects, officials said at a news conference.
Currently, many of the projects are not allowed to be tested on the UTEP campus because of safety restrictions. The projects have to be sent out of town to be tested. The Fabens Airport will serve as the major testing ground for all of the projects, UTEP students said.
“This will allow us to get us away from the students, the main population, allow us to do larger scale research,” said Jason Adams, a doctoral candidate at UTEP. “Right now, we are in the process of designing a 2,000-pound engine and that engine we are hoping we will be able to scale up into a 5,000, 10,000 pound engine and that will not be possible at the UTEP facilities.”
Adams said it is very expensive to send projects outside El Paso to be tested. “Having our own facility helps us a lot in being able to use the research money that we receive much more effectively,” he said.
Ahsan Choudhuri, chairman of UTEP’s mechanical engineering and director of the university’s Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR), said the Fabens Airport site is well suited for the park.
Choudhuri said cSETR’s partners like NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin, and the Missile Defense Agency will house projects at the technology park in Fabens.
“The Fabens expansion has a clear intent," Choudhuri said. "This is to transform the east gateway of El Paso. We want to send a clear message to the rest of the country that El Paso is not a destination if you are looking for low-wage labor, rather this is the place where frontier technologies are being developed and the next generation of engineers and technology are being created."
The new facility is expected to promote economic development by attracting corporations who will employ local college graduates, said UTEP President Diana Natalicio.
She said the UTEP-county partnership is a huge step in building a climate in the community in which graduate students who want to remain in El Paso would have an opportunity to pursue their careers and to be employed at highly competitive salaries. Often, science and engineering students leave El Paso once they graduate because they can't find competitive jobs, she said.
The site is also expected to encourage Fabens area students to pursue careers in science and engineering, Natalicio said.
Construction of UTEP’s research and acceleration park will begin in December, Choudhuri said. It’s expected that in six years the site will house more than 200 students, he said.
County Judge Veronica Escobar said that for decades, the county has been sitting on 400-acres of an Federal Aviation Administration approved airport that has not been utilized to its full potential.
"The airport has been underutilized by the county for all this time, but today we changed that," she said.
Escobar said the initial plan is for UTEP to utilize the only existing hangar at the airport, but she expects more hangars to be built in the future. She said that in addition to collaborating with UTEP in the creation of the new research park, the county has an obligation to ensure that the county qualifies for federal and state funds to improve the property.
"The property needs some work. It's going to need to be a more secure site obviously, some of the runways are going to need investments, etc.," she said. "We were committed before, but once this collaboration and partnership came before us ... we really have a renewed interest in making sure that that site is used to its highest capacity."
Currently, the county leases the Fabens Airport to Olivas Aviation. It operates 24 hours on a daily basis. It's used mainly for crop dusting.
Although, the Commissioners Court has not taken action, Escobar said the plan is to terminate the lease agreement with Olivas Aviation. She said the Commissioners Court is expected to terminate the agreement probably in the next two weeks.
UTEP has expressed interest in collaborating with the company, Escobar said.
"The priority use and the singular use for that airport will be the UTEP use. We will still own it and effectively maintain it in order to maintain FAA status," Escobar said.
Escobar said the county is still negotiating the terms of the contract with UTEP, but it’s expected to be signed in the near future. “There is a commitment on both side to do it,” she said.
The Fabens airport has four runways, two taxi lanes, one hangar, one service fuel tank and one main driveway. It has an average daily traffic of up to three small-engine aircraft.
Aileen B. Flores may be reached at 546-6362; aflores@elpasotimes.com; @AileenBFlores on Twitter.
———
©2016 the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas)
Visit the El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas) at www.elpasotimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
