Research Impact Partners

The Center hosts a variety of education and outreach initiatives that can be leveraged in research proposals, e.g., the K-5 Research Experiences for Teachers program, Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, First Year Undergraduate Research Program: FUSE, Industrial Mentorship program for Graduate Students, Artist in Residence program, afterschool STEM clubs at local schools, and K-12 STEM outreach to the Texas School for the Deaf and Texas School for the Blind.

Connecting Research and Education At TExas (CREATE) was founded in 2017 through a partnership established between Dr. Sean T. Roberts at The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Dr. Shawn M. Amorde at Austin Community College (ACC) with support from the National Science Foundation. CREATE’s initial goal was to improve community college student retention in the physical sciences by fostering mentorship relationships between ACC students and UT faculty through research projects tied to green energy. Over time, CREATE’s managing team has been broadened to include Dr. Emily Que (UT), Dr. Samantha Soebbing (ACC), Dr. Purna Murthy (ACC), and Dr. Huilang (Evan) Wang (UT) which has allowed its scope to expand into a range of areas in chemistry, molecular biosciences, physics, materials science, and engineering.

Cumbre Kids produce children's STEM podcasts that reach 130,000 Spanish-speaking families. Their programs feature researchers answering questions submitted by children 3-10 years old. Cumbre Kids has worked with the McDonald Observatory at UT Austin, as well as dozens of universities, federal agencies, museums, and more.

The Engineering Student Success Center provides special programming through workshops, student leadership opportunities and welcoming spaces that help all students have a wonderful experience to aid in positive educational outcomes.

The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) gives first-year students the opportunity to initiate and engage in real-world research experience with faculty and graduate students.

The summer High School Research Academy provides high school students with an immersive and hands-on five-week interdisciplinary research experience at the University of Texas at Austin campus. (Including 9th-12th grade students)

Horns Helping Horns is a program that provides students with financial support, professional development, mentorship, resource navigation, community, and one-on-one support/intervention with program coordinators as needed.

The Lab for Immersive Media (LIM) is a high tech interactive and immersive media laboratory that enables novel research and entertainment experiences in virtual and physical space. A key goal of the LIM is to broaden research impact through partnerships, public engagement, and unique collaborations between art and science.

Living Learning Communities (LLCs) are residential communities that introduce and integrate academic and social learning through faculty/staff involvement and holistic education. Students living in LLCs live together in the same area of a residence hall and share experiences that reinforce the theme of their LLCs. LLCs provide students and faculty opportunities for connection outside the classroom and support networking across common interests.

The Longhorn Impact Fellowship at Texas (LIFT) pairs student consultants with sustainable corporations, social enterprises, and non-profits to solve sustainability and impact-focused problems.