High Tech Project Could Bring Promises and Concerns to the Valley

Project Port Alpha could boom the economy but it could also drive up housing costs and pressure the environment. 

Economics Professor Gautam Hazarika said regions often try to attract major employers with incentives such as tax breaks and low cost land.

Saronic Technologies has already attracted billions in investment and plans to produce dozens of autonomous vessels each year.

The impact wouldn’t stop there, Hazarika said major investments lead to the recipients of those salaries spending their money in the area helping local businesses with their revenues and could potentially increase hiring.

But growth comes with inflation, higher paid workers could drive up housing costs across the RGV.

Hazarika said situations like these often lead to gentrification where the people with lower income levels are driven out.

He added projects such as these could potentially favor UTRGV students.

Hazarika added autonomous warships are a cheaper and easier option to declare wars making the world a more unstable place.

Cybersecurity Department Professor of Practice Robert Anzaldua said that while these systems can integrate effectively, their success depends heavily on how they are programmed and secured within command and control systems suited to the environment. 

Anzaldua said human operated vessels have fewer digital vulnerabilities but once autonomy is introduced, the risks multiply. 

He said apart from data theft, control is a major concern as if somebody takes over the boat and does bad things with it.

Anzaldua also said compromised systems could expose sensitive navigation data, which could be especially dangerous in military contexts.

Vaquero Radio contacted the Port of Brownsville but they declined any interviews due to a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA.)

 This is Emilio Suarez for Vaquero Radio.