What Started Here

This fall, the What Starts Here campaign came to a close, rounding out a decade of transformational fundraising for Texas Engineering and The University of Texas at Austin.  

What Starts Here raised a record-breaking $7.45 billion, solidifying the campaign as one of the most successful in the history of public education. 

At the Cockrell School, the Texas Engineering community invested $1 billion across student programs, equipment and facilities, cutting-edge research and more.  

The decade-long effort saw the launch of three new buildings, naming of multiple departments and countless student opportunities, from scholarships to research to study abroad.   

Below is a glimpse into the collective impact of the Texas Engineering community, whose support continues to shape the leaders, solutions and campus of the future.   

Opportunities for Future Leaders

• In 2022, Michael and Erika Linford invested through the Texas Challenge to double their impact and establish the Linford Scholars Program, which offers scholarships to outstanding engineering students in need and connects them with a community of their peers, supporting their success at Cockrell and beyond. 
• With support from Rex and Renda Tillerson, the Tillerson Engineering Global Leaders program emerged to support students pursuing international opportunities and prepare them to take on global issues with an enriched perspective.  

• Virtual reality flight simulators, gifted to the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics by alumnus Dan Deans and an incoming faculty member, allow students to practice designing and piloting different aircraft. They provide unique, hands-on research and learning opportunities for our students. 
• Support for Texas Robotics expanded the program to include undergraduates, one of the first robotics programs in the country to do so. Venture capitalist Bill Gurley invested in the new undergraduate robotics degree, which launched in Fall 2025, and committed $5 million in matching funds to encourage additional support for the program. Deepu Talla, alumnus and vice president of robotics and AI at NVIDIA established the NVIDIA-Talla Endowment for Texas Robotics to provide students and faculty with computing infrastructure for advanced robotics research.  

Campus of the Future

• Opened in 2026, the Autry C. Stephens Engineering Discovery Building is the new home to the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering. The state-of-the-art facility includes flipped classrooms and flexible labs that emphasize hands-on learning and open study spaces that encourage collaboration. 
• Opened in 2022, the Gary L. Thomas Energy Engineering Building is a multidisciplinary hub for energy innovation on the Forty Acres. Across wet labs, teaching labs and collaborative study areas, the facility offers students, faculty and researchers the space and resources they need to advance the energy solutions of the future.  
• Opened in 2017, the Engineering Education and Research Center is home to the Chandra Family Department of Electrical Computer Engineering and student resources including Texas Inventionworks, Texas Innovation Center and Engineering Student Services.  

Transformational Investments in Departments

• In 2023, UT set out on a mission to reimagine the disciplines of civil architectural and environmental engineering. Alumnus Fariborz Maseeh’s investment galvanized the newly named Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering’s efforts to focus on the idea of “engineering of the big.”
• In 2022, alumnus Sanjay Chandra and his family made a generous investment to name the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT. It is the largest department in the Cockrell School with more than 2,200 students.

To read more about the campaign’s University-wide impact, visit Texas Development’s What Starts Here impact page.