Students and faculty will now be able to work on radio frequency technologies research at the new STARGATE facility, which can open the doors for collaboration with SpaceX in Brownsville.

Despite the rainy and cloudy weather, UTRGV hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new STARGATE Technology Center earlier today at Boca Chica Beach.

“This is really the future of what we do,” UTRGV President Guy Bailey said during the ceremony. “If you go around the United States, you’ll find very few universities that have a facility like this.”

The Spacecraft Tracking and Astronomical Research into Gigahertz Astrophysical Transient Emission, or STARGATE, is a program within UTRGV’s Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy (CARA) that will serve to provide “lab space and resources to students, faculty, startups, and entrepreneurs.”

In an interview with The Rider, Fredrick A. Jenet, creator and director of CARA, said STARGATE received almost $10 million in funding, which was used for the development of the facility.

“The city had put in about half a million [dollars] and then there was about another $4 million, or so, that came from state and another $4.5 [million], or so, that came from UT System,” Jenet said.

The cost of the STARGATE building, which measures 15,000 gross square feet on a 2.3-acre site, is $2.2 million. The facility is composed of classrooms, a flexible lab and research space.

STARGATE is working on a next generation radio frequency communications system, a smart surveillance system, a laser communication system that allows satellite-to-satellite communication, and technology to extract energy from ocean waves, according to Jenet.

Keeisi A. Caballero, a physics graduate student, said the facility puts UTRGV students in the same level as other universities that have the same advanced equipment.

“We are barely starting to get there and, hopefully, we can get more equipment and more stuff so that other students can also have opportunities to work here,” Caballero said.

Brent K. Cole, a physics graduate student, said the center will offer students an opportunity to work on their projects.

“It’s absolutely amazing that Dr. Jenet gives us this opportunity, the university, as well as the representatives that helped us with the funding,” Cole said.

Caballero and Cole will conduct their research at the new STARGATE Technology Center.