Pecan Street

Pecan Street is an Austin-based nonprofit research and development organization, rather than a degree-granting university, with an applied, industry-facing model. Its volunteer-participant testbed lets companies and researchers test products in real-world settings, while its commercialization lab supports prototyping, testing and verification. Dataport, its research data platform, serves academic and industry users; the organization also collaborates with utilities, universities, companies and public agencies. Its research has received federal support, including from the U.S. Department of Energy. These resources let corporate R&D teams evaluate performance using field trials and data without building their own test infrastructure.