By Alan Janesch
Public Information
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Exhibits on cutting-edge Department of Defense-funded research projects at Penn State and more than 30 other colleges and universities were on display last week (April 30) at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The projects' applications were wide-ranging but all of them sent the same message: University research not only meets the needs of the Department of Defense, it also can be transferred to the private sector and aid in the creation or retention of jobs, giving a boost to the economy.
Rodney Erickson, Penn State's vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, said that several Penn State projects that perfectly fulfill defense-related needs "have already demonstrated commercial applications, and many of them show high potential for the 'dual use' of technology that easily transfers into commercial markets."
Also on hand from Penn State, in addition to Erickson, were the following researchers and their projects:
-- J. Thomas Schriempf, senior scientist, Applied Research Laboratory. ARL is transferring electron beam-physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) technology used on military jets in the former Soviet Union to U.S. industry through a collaborative research effort funded by the U.S. Navy. The process is used to apply extremely thin metallic and ceramic coatings to components such as rotorcraft landing gear, aircraft engines and turbine blades. It is also being used by the turbine and aerospace, automotive, optical, microelectronic and biomedical industries.
-- Nitin Samarth, director of the Center for Materials Physics, Eberly College of Science. The college is working on 26 projects funded by the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, including magnetic nanostructures. These are used for next-generation electronic memory storage by patterning layered magnetic semiconductor structures.
-- Irene Petrick, director of industry relations, College of Engineering. The college is doing research into tungsten-based composites, which can be used for armaments in defense-related applications and commercially for industrial products such as heat sinks and heat spreaders in computers as well as disk drive components.
-- James Tressler of the Naval Research Laboratory, representing the Materials Research Laboratory, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. The Materials Research Laboratory's projects include sensor research on hydrophones (underwater microphones), which are used for defense applications such as mine detection and for commercial uses such as fish finding and "aquaculture," ocean floor mapping, geophysical research and biomedical ultrasound. A hydrophone developed by Penn State is patented and licensed by the University and generated more than $100,000 in royalties in 1997.
Among the members of Congress attending the exhibit were U.S. representatives John Peterson, R-5th District (State College) and Jon D. Fox, R-13th District (Montgomery County), and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I can't imagine any other group that's doing more for this country (than its colleges and universities)," Thurmond said. "What you are doing is pushing this country into the future."
William E. Kirwan, University of Maryland president who will assume the presidency of The Ohio State University on June 30, said that defense-related university research "is keeping our nation on the cutting edge of technology."