SATOP offers FREE Technical Assistance through two programs:

• The 40 Hour Technical Assistance Program

• The Texas A&M Capstone Design Program

40 Hour Technical Assistance Program

Eligible entrepreneurs and small businesses located in Texas can be provided with up to 40 hours of FREE technical assistance. Requests must have a distinct and identifiable engineering challenge that appears solvable in the 40-hour limit. Through this program SATOP cannot fund a project, build a prototype, or compete with commercially available services/products. To qualify, the small business must be a Texas business and have one of the following:

• Patent

• Provisional Patent

• Prototype

• Engineering Drawings 

TEXAS A&M Capstone Design Program

Thanks to the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and its partnership with Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, SATOP has formed a collaboration with the Texas A&M University Engineering Capstone Design Program to work on projects that require extensive technical assistance.

In the program, teams composed of four to six senior engineering students, under the guidance of a faculty member, spend one to two semesters designing solutions and developing academic prototypes for entrepreneurs and small business owners.

If your project requires technical assistance beyond 40 hours of service, you may qualify for this special SATOP program.

To verify the requirements for both programs, visit the Submit a Request page.