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Show Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 StatesmanCampus News The secret is in the plaid Page 3 Briefs Campus & Community Humanitarian coming to campus PART OF NATURAL RESOURCES WEEK, the Expo on the Quad gave students a chance to explore clubs from the College of Natural Resources as well as get information from various other booths. Topher Haskell, freshman in forestry, pulls his side of a two-man saw. TYLER LARSON photo Inventions: Patents give companies a reason to invest -continued from page 1 high-tech jobs researching and developing them can For technologies from the university to be usethe patent. stay in the valley. ful, there needs to be a commercial venue for it, “If you don’t work closely with a professor while USU’s TCO and SVED, which work out of the DeVito said. “Patents are important because that you’re in school, that is your choice not to get Innovation Campus, are aiming at Utah Science gives companies an incentive to invest” in one com- involved, but then you may wish you’d have known Technology and Research (USTAR) initiatives intro- pany over another, DeVito said. more,” Poppleton said. duced in 2006 by then-Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to “We do want to have people view the university Companies that are created to use USU technolkeep jobs and revenue within the state. USTAR has as a source for research,” DeVito said. “Our office ogy, like USUAS, have students in mind so they can research teams statewide, nine is to move (developed research) benefit by being involved and by using company of which are at USU. out of the university into a com- profits for scholarships and to fund research. The research park at the mercial sector. There comes a Though it took several years of faculty develop“Patents are Innovation Campus hopes to point where a university isn’t ment, USUAS began working on projects specifiimportant because recruit more companies to the the best way to market a techcally in conjunction with students studying for a that gives area and bring more economic nology. That’s not the primary master’s during fall semester, because it takes time companies an potential to Logan, Poppleton mission of an education institu- for returns when technology has been licensed. said. tion.” Returns are faster on things that can be licensed incentive to That way, “those 300 engiThe Innovation Campus quickly, like software, but mechanical inventions invest.” neers who graduate (from USU) provides a way for interaction to and biotechnology can take five to 15 years, espeevery year won’t have to leave take place between the market cially with pharmaceutical technology that has to Cache Valley,” she said. “They go through Federal Drug Administration approval, – Ray DiVito, and the university. can do high-tech work here.” “We’d love to have DeVito said. director of the Technology more businesses locate here” If those jobs stay in the valSince some companies seek a particular techCommercilization Office because of the university and ley, the state will receive more nology that USU has, Poppleton said, USU attends tax revenue and the university Innovation Campus, DeVito trade shows and advertises what it has. will collect more royalties. said. The gains for the univer“One problem we have is there are only five of us The 11 patents received, out of 44 USU filed, sity are “not just financial but recognition,” DeVito full time, and there are over a thousand researchers were for a multitude of products like a pneumatic said. within the university,” DeVito said. particle sorter, a control system for a weapon mount The more patents that are filed through the With each of those researchers there can be a and an induced sludge blanket anaerobic reactor. TCO, DeVito said, the more students and faculty new market to understand. The office of the vice The pneumatic particle sorter, for example, has benefit. Students who work at TCO are exposed president of research, which SVED is under, is applications in pharmaceuticals and ink production to unique cases each time one comes before them, there to oversee the development as it happens, because it allows particles to be partitioned by size allowing them to gain real-world experience in Poppleton said. without physically touching anything, so there’s less business. Other companies and products that emerged risk for error than with fine meshes currently used “It’s important for students to know that opporfrom all the processes over the last year include for sorting, said Ray DeVito, director of TCO. tunities are available to them,” Poppleton said. “If Dynamic Screening Solutions, a company to make The weapon mount control system is “somewe’re complacent in our education and don’t seek it easier to fill out forms; Thermal Management thing you wouldn’t want to be on the other side out research opportunities, we lose the ability to be Technologies and EcoAirtech, both created by of,” DeVito said. It allows control of an automatic involved.” retired USU engineering professor Clair Batty; weapon from a distance. The patented USU technolStudents who work at TCO and with research software applications for differential geometry and ogies were not the intentional outcomes of research, teams don’t always come from a business or engioffice software programs PowerPay and AdviseAid. although some research teams do search for specific neering background. There are students working Those interested in more information solutions to a problem. toward law or medical degrees and other fields, she about USTAR research or the Technology The process for copyrights is different because said. The benefit is they know how to file patents Commercialization Office can visit www.ustar.usu. they patent information instead of tangible prodand can use that in business, she said. edu or follow USU_Ustar and USU_techcom on ucts. It is mostly faculty that invent, however students Twitter. “It’s not something that we hold in our hands, who work with those faculty are often named on – chelsey.gensel@aggiemail.usu.edu but it still had ownership as intellectual property (IP),” DeVito said. Any IP discovered by a university employee belongs to the university, DeVito said. The ideas have to be disclosed and taken through the process of being copyrighted or patented, DeVito said. Copyrights are applied to softwares or handbooks, like the Substitute Teacher Training Handbook and Suite from USU this year. DeVito said the increase in patents, copyrights and spin-out companies licensing technology is partly due to a different approach taken by TCO in 2008. He said it can cost between $10,000 and $20,000 to obtain a patent using an outside firm, but the university is doing more than ever in-house to cut down cost. Of the roughly 11 employees in the office, two are patent practitioners, who negotiate with the United State’s Patent Office; and one is a former patent examiner. Having someone who used to work on the other side is invaluable to the office in making the process run more smoothly, DeVito said. “It’s good to know what goes on on the other side of the table,” DeVito said. He said those employees along with researchers and student research assistants allow the office to process more ideas quicker. “We do a pretty good job because we are in tune with the technologies. We don’t have to interface as To show their appreciation, from left to right, Kristin Peterson, freshman in nursing, much (with experts outside the office),” DeVito said. Talia Greer, freshman in nutrition and food science, and Emily Measom, junior in chemistry, write cards “We had an option to find a more efficient way to in the Taggart Student Center Tuesday as part of the Thank-a-Thon for Tuition Freedom Day. Jan Appuhn, do things or get more money to do it, and there was director of the Old Main Society, said the event had an “outstanding” turnout, with more than 125 students writing thank-you cards Tuesday. Appuhn said she expects more participation in the event’s second and final no more money to be had, so we did what we had to day Wednesday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the TSC. RACHEL A. CHRISTENSEN photo do.” Writing words of thanks Padma Venkataraman, 2009 international humanitarian of the year, visits Utah State University Wednesday, Oct. 7, to give a presentation, “Making a Difference through Service and Humanitarian Outreach: Working With the Leprosy Affected in India.” The presentation is at 12:30 p.m. in the Huntsman School of Business Auditorium, Room 215. Her visit to USU is made possible through JaLynn Prince, a College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences donor. Venkataraman is a leading figure in India’s national fight against leprosy and its resulting stigma and is visiting Utah to receive the Enterprise Mentors International annual International Humanitarian Award for her work in educating and lifting thousands of leprosyafflicted families from poverty. “We are thrilled to welcome Venkataraman to the United States and to honor her for decades of service to thousands of the poorest of the poor,” said Mark Petersen, CEO of Enterprise Mentors. “She represents the best that is in all of us and is an example for the world.” In India, she has been most active in grassroots work in leprosy rehabilitation for 15 years. She was honorary director of a FAO/All- India Women’s Conference Project for leprosy patients in the 4,000-strong Shahdhara Colony in Delhi, and she worked with Hope Worldwide to construct houses for 800 families there. For more than five years she was honorary director of a major Tamil Nadu wide Danida-funded leprosy rehabilitation project under the auspices of the Women’s Indian Association, Chennai. Guest drummer to play with big bands USU’s Jazz Orchestra welcomes drummer Jason Nicholson in its first concert of the 2009-2010 academic year Oct. 14 in the Performance Hall at 7:30 p.m. Nicholson joined the faculty in the department of music, Caine School of the Arts, as the new professor of percussion. Tickets for the opening jazz concert are available at the Caine School of the Arts Box Office in the Chase Fine Arts Center, Room 138-B, 797-8022, or online at www.boxoffice.usu.edu and are $8 for adults and free to USU students with a valid ID. Other discounts are also available. New to the music department this year, Nicholson will perform with the USU Jazz Orchestra at the first big band concert of the year. Museum celebrates superheroes Saturday The Museum of Anthropology’s “Saturdays at the Museum” Series at Utah State University Oct. 10 features Superhero Day: A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ancient heroes and modern superheroes will be used to explain how cultures use concepts of idealized humans to explore their own strengths and limitations. Museum guests are invited to dress up as their favorite superhero and enter the museum’s costume contest, draw their own comic strip or have their likeness captured forever in caricature by local artist Doug Hills at 1:30 p.m. Museum guests will have a chance to hear a special presentation on ancient heroes by grad student Justin Hall at 11 a.m. Funding for the event is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. More information about the IMLS and its grants is available online (www.imls.gov). USU students and members of the public are invited to the museum any time during the 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday hours. More information on this event or the museum can be found by calling museum staff at 797-7545. -Compiled from staff and media reports |