Product Development Center Open House set for May 10

COLLEGE STATION – The TEEX Product Development Center (PDC) is holding an Open House and Technology Showcase on Thursday, May 10, at the H.D. Smith Complex at Brayton Fire Training Field, 1595 Nuclear Science Road. The Open House will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will include bus tours of TEEX facilities and technology and product demonstrations by several companies. A cash lunch by Chef Tai’s Mobile Bistro will be available starting at 11 a.m. and a ribbon-cutting will take place at 1 p.m. 

The Open House will showcase TEEX facilities, resources and expertise that can be leveraged to help businesses, innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs throughout the product development cycle. Companies and the community will have the opportunity to learn more about the PDC’s unique capabilities, its ties to world-class facilities and expertise, and its linkages within The Texas A&M University System and business community, said PDC Coordinator Caleb Holt.

“Our facilities and ties to the A&M System make the PDC very attractive,” Holt added. “Where else could a company test products on full-scale burn projects, a collapsed building, a driving track or a demolition range?”

Tours of the Emergency Preparedness Campus and the training facilities at the Riverside Campus will leave the Smith Complex every 30 minutes between 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and again between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Technologies and products will be demonstrated by the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), EarthClean-TetraKO, R.T. Lighter than Air Systems, Hothead Technologies, and HazSim, among others.

“The PDC has the capability to move a product through the entire ‘Think, Build, Sell’ product cycle with the help of our partners,” he said. “We provide a gateway into the resources, facilities, subject matter experts and end-user expertise available through TEEX and The Texas A&M University System for public and private companies that have developed new products and technologies.”

TEEX PDC can develop methodologies, recruit subject-matter experts, and develop partnerships to assess, test and evaluate products, Holt said. “By providing unbiased assessments, we help companies develop and test a product and then deliver it to market,” he said. “By using subject-matter experts in real-life, scenario-based field assessments, product developers and manufacturers get relevant end-user perspectives from a real-word experience. It’s something they may not find anywhere else.”

“The cornerstone of economic growth is innovation, and the PDC will serve as a catalyst in the development of new products,” said PDC Director Gary Sera, who serves as CEO of TEEX, which operates the Center.

About the PDC

The TEEX Product Development Center (PDC) provides unique access to Texas A&M Engineering, TEEX facilities, market intelligence, and more, making it easy for businesses, innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs to leverage the resources of The Texas A&M University System. The PDC has engineered a process that helps public and private entities take products from concept and design to the marketplace to foster innovation and product development. A Center within the Texas Engineering Extension Service, the PDC’s expertise in product development stems from serving NASA as the Mid-Continent Technology Transfer Center and providing an integral role in the Department of Homeland Security’s System Assessment and Validation of Emergency Response (SAVER) Program.  http://teexpdc.com