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INDUSTRY OPPORTUNITIES Sugar Land is home to some of the top 100 businesses headquartered in Texas with ve companies that are part of the Fortune 500’s top 30. Sectors include medical to manufacturing, high tech, biotech, engineering and insurance.
The UH College of Technology has partnered with the city of Sugar Land’s Department of Innovation, where a portion of students in the college’s Innovation Principles class work through a semester project on real-world problems faced by the city. PROGRAM PARTNERSHIP Projected
FLORENCE RD.
SPRING 2022 INNOVATION PRINCIPLES CLASS
ANTICIPATED GROWTH FOR SPRING SEMESTERS
O R T
2023 2022 2021
300
6 classes participate in the program. 52 students are participating in the Sugar Land spring semester project. 2 campuses o er this program.
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148
VOSS RD.
3
119
JESS PIRTLE BLVD.
9
BURNEY RD.
6
69
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
6
5
GILLINGHAM LN.
Number of students
SOURCES: UH COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY, CITY OF SUGAR LAND COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
7
2
8
Sugar Land campus, Neal said. The $52.4million in capital construc- tion assistance projects, paid from the state’s general revenue fund, can only be used for the new building and can- not be used to enhance the existing college facilities, Neal said. “That money as far as I know is ear- marked strictly for the building,” Neal said. “These are construction dollars.” Requests for architectural propos- als were sent out in early March with the university expecting to have those proposals in hand by April, Neal said. Many of the building’s details remain malleable, he said. Construction on a new building will most likely begin at the end of 2022 or early 2023 and open in fall 2024 or spring 2025, Neal said. The building will be located on an adjacent plot of land just southwest of the current College of Technology building. Meanwhile, the College of Tech- nology has begun moving over its 11 undergraduate majors, 21 under- graduate minors and 12 graduate programs to the Sugar Land cam- pus with a college enrollment of 5,175 students. For example, the Sugar Land cam- pus will start o ering classes in com- puter information systems, or CIS, and mechanical engineering tech- nology starting this fall, Neal said. In spring 2023, higher-level CIS classes will move over, and by fall 2023, all CIS classes and electives will be held in Sugar Land, according to the universi- ty’s website. College of Technology professor David Crawley said his Information and Technology Department—about 60% of the college—will be moved over by fall 2022. “There’s a lot of interest in hav- ing that close proximity to the community that a smaller campus
gives to the program,” he said. “So there’ll be a lot more intimate interaction with the community.” Bene cial partnerships When themove is complete, o cials hope to be plugged into the Sugar Land and Fort Bend County business com- munities, Neal said. “If the city or the county or the [FBEDC] is looking to attract large busi- nesses here, we’ve got that professional workforce pipeline built in,” Neal said. Included in that pipeline are pro- grams across disciplines, including computing and multimedia, engineer- ing and industrial technologies, health sciences and technology management, per the university’s website. This comes as the city of Sugar Land reported the its fourth-largest industry sector in 2021 was professional, scien- ti c and technical services. Employ- ment data showed 6,255 individuals, or 8.5% of the city’s workforce, worked in that sector, according to JobsEQ, a software tool that provides workforce and employer data. The North American Industry Classi cation System, the standard used by federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments by type of economic activity, includes architectural, engineering and special- ized design services in this classi ca- tion along with computer services, and scienti c research and development. Fort Bend County follows a similar trend in which the same sector was the fourth largest by employment in 2021 at 35,732 employees, according to data from the FBEDC website. Both UH and Sugar Land o - cials acknowledged the College of Technology’s move will economically add to what the Sugar Land campus has already provided. Between 2018-19, for example,
LOCALHEADQUARTERS
90
AUSTIN PKWY. 1 Heavy Construction Systems Specialists 250-499 employees What it does: develops software for construction companies 2 ChampionX Chemical Technologies Headquarters 500-999 employees SWEETWATER BLVD.
LEXINGTON BLVD. What it does: manufactures products for the oil and gas industry 3 Accredo Packaging, Inc. 500-999 employees What it does: produces recyclable, sustainable and exible packaging
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University of Houston at Sugar Land
4
N
OTHER TOP EMPLOYERS
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 4 Texas Instruments Incorporated - Sugar Land 250-499 employees
ADVANCED MANUFACTURING 5 Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. 250-499 employees 6 Cubic Tra cware 100-249 employees
BIOTECHNOLOGY 7 QuVa Pharma, Inc. 250-499 employees 8 Healix 250-499 employees 9 Mylan Bertek Pharmaceuticals 100-249 employees
here and not wait until the new build- ing is on board,” Neal said. “But while we’re happy at the enthusiasm, we have to be operationally realistic.” UH’s move is a part of its strategy to become a larger part of the Sugar Land and Fort Bend County business infra- structure, Neal said. Adding to the tech workforce pipeline, attracting more businesses and encouraging growth remain top of mind as UH pushes forward with its move, he added. Ultimately, the college will provide a focal point around education initia- tives that are in increased demand and alignwith local recruitment objectives, said Je Wiley, the president of the Fort Bend County Economic Develop- ment Council, in an email. “The move of the College of Tech- nology to our community in its entirety
provides an identity that can di eren- tiate us from other communities and education o erings,” Wiley said. "MIT and Cambridge didn’t start with the reputation it has today as a technology hub, but that’s what it has come to rep- resent. If we can capitalize on this edu- cational infrastructure, in 100 years, maybe another community will be say- ing the same thing about us." Inside look In October, the Texas Legislature closed out its third special session of the year by allocating more than $339 million in funding for capital con- struction projects for the UH System. Of that, UH was allocated $52.4 million, which will be used to construct the second College of Technology academic building at the
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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