U of A and Regional Partners Welcome Aguascalientes Delegation

Regions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are wrestling with the similar 21st-century pressures, including water scarcity, semiconductor capacity, and needs around workforce development. These shared challenges, linked with opportunities to strengthen businesses, brought a delegation from Aguascalientes, Mexico, to Tucson in late March.  

The delegation included representatives from the Instituto Tecnológico de Aguascalientes (ITA), the state's industrial group (GIA), and the Aguascalientes water authority (MIAA). Members spent several days meeting with local economic development partners as well as representatives from the University of Arizona (U of A), the City of Tucson, and the Chamber of Southern Arizona.

The meeting marked the third in a series of reciprocal visits between the two regions and was organized by Pima County Economic Development, which has been cultivating relationships there for more than a year.  

Education for the Semiconductor Ecosystem

Over the past decade, Aguascalientes has become one of Mexico’s primary hubs for semiconductor manufacturing, particularly in assembly, testing, and packaging. To help meet growing workforce demands, ITA is aligning its curricula to better meet the skill demands crucial for growth in chip design and manufacturing.  

Those developments align well with goals of the U of A Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing. A recent agreement between the U of A and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, formalizing the vision to create a Talent and Innovation Hub, could serve as a model for similar collaborations in Mexico, aimed at building a semiconductor workforce pipeline that pairs technical rigor with cross-cultural competence.  

Addressing Common Water Challenges

The meeting also included a substantive exchange focused on water. Linda Bixby, the U of A chief research partnerships officer, set the tone with a welcome that acknowledged common stakes: "Agriculture and water — arid lands and water — that is an interest for all of us." Sharon Megdal, director of the U of A Water Resources Research Center, shared research on Arizona's worsening "imbalance of water supply and demand," an issue largely driven by the decline of supply from the Colorado River. A January 2026 UN report named the Colorado River an example of "water bankruptcy."  

Aguascalientes is navigating its own version of that challenge, leveraging expertise from ITA’s LANALIMSA, a nationally recognized laboratory for clean water and sanitation that brings together 14 participating institutions across Mexico. LANALIMSA and the U of A share a focus on managing water in arid environments, and deep existing ties between the U of A and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) could offer a framework for expanding collaborative research and civic projects.