I nd u s t r i a l R e s earch Of f i ce News l etter
The College of IST and Response to Extreme Events. page 3 Message from the Director. 2 Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Centennial Anniversary. 2 Upcoming Events. 4 PA Companies Present Energy Technologies to Corporate Leaders at Energy Innovation Forum. 5 25 Years Later, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets has More Than 70 Member Firms. 6 Shared Fermentation Facility Available to Industry for Biofuels Research. 7 Licensable Technologies. 8
Fa l l 2 0 0 8
Message from the Director — Tanna Pugh, Industrial Research Office
T
he IRON is now two years old… how time flies! It is hard to believe that we have completed eight issues. Our objective when we created the newsletter was to communicate to both our external and internal customers the excellent research that Penn State is conducting in collaboration with industry. I hope The IRON has met this objective for you.
which are housed within the College of Information Science and Technology. One of the outcomes from this work is to better utilize information and gain an understanding of when and to whom the information needs to be sent. This translates to other areas such as health informatics and global enterprises.
We also are highlighting a brand new facility in the Huck Institutes for Life Sciences. The Shared Fermentation Facility, formerly known as the Bioprocessing Lab which focused on biopharmaceuticals, has just been restored to fulfill the needs of industry in the growing area of alternative fuels from biomass. Many start-ups and existing companies cannot afford to set We value all of our partnerships and want to up a pilot plant facility or commit a portion of We facilitated 164 projects expand and provide even more solutions and their plant to lab trials. This facility was deproblem solving expertise to current and new with 44 companies in FY 2008, signed with that in mind. Penn State has over industrial partners. In fact, we facilitated amounting to $18.7 million in 200 research centers, laboratories and testing facilities that are an excellent asset for our in164 projects with 44 companies in FY 2008, industry-sponsored research. dustry partners. I encourage you to search our amounting to $18.7 million in industry-sponcenter database on our web site at www.iro. sored research. This was a 22% increase over the previous year. We are always looking for new ways to increase psu.edu for information that could be of interest to your company. the breadth and depth of our current relationships, and to find new ways of engaging industry with our research expertise to assist in Our last article is on the Institute for the Study of Business Markets which just celebrated its 25th anniversary! Congratulations go out your strategic plans. to Ralph Oliva, Gary Lilien, and their team who run an incredTwo books that our office has read as a group, ible center and have over 70 companies as members. This center Open Innovation and Open Business Models, should be one that all of our partners engage with, as the focus is hit right at the heart of what the Industrial Re- on business-to-business marketing. In these economic times, evsearch Office aims to accomplish. Author Henry ery company needs to keep and grow their business relationships. Chesbrough demonstrates that business leaders This center provides very useful case studies and individual projmust adopt a new, “open” model of innovation ects that bring their collective expertise to your specific needs. and look outside their boundaries for ideas and intellectual property they can bring inside. We Speaking of anniversaries, the Department of Industrial and Manuare industry’s portal to R&D solutions, facility facturing Engineering will celebrate its centennial in 2009. Stay use, and intellectual property at Penn State. The tuned for more information and a schedule of events. University has so much to offer, we try to help you identify capabilities to save you time, which saves you money. If you haven’t been taking advantage of all the assets and benefits of Penn State, we encourage you to call or email our office. We In this issue of The IRON, we highlight three very unique activi- will open the door to new possibilities for your company. ties at Penn State instead of having a themed issue. Our first ar814-865-9519 • iro@psu.edu • www.iro.psu.edu ticle highlights the S4R project and Extreme Events Lab, both of
T
he Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering will celebrate its centennial in 2009. Plans were recently announced for a celebration to honor the 100th anniversary of the Penn State industrial engineering department. A series of activities and events to commemorate the centennial are scheduled for April 3 - 4, 2009. The IE centennial celebration will be a memorable event celebrating the accomplishments of the department, its faculty, staff and students over the last hundred years. The celebration will also focus on the future goals of the department and its mission to produce world-class, globally aware industrial engineers.
More than 500 alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends are expected to participate in the weekend’s activities at the University Park campus. The celebration will kick off on Friday, April 3 at the Leonhard Building, with activities including a welcome picnic, Leonhard Building tours, campus tours, children’s activities and a Saturday evening reception.
www.ie.psu.edu
2 T he I RO N
www.ir o.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
The College of IST and Response to Extreme Events
D
ean Henry “Hank” Foley describes the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) as “a new kind of college for a new era.” Foley explains, “We are dedicated to educating the next generation of leaders for the flat world of the digital global economy with student-centric, problem-based learning, focused on real challenges and applications.” The College of IST was first discussed in 1997 as Penn State’s way to address the growing need for a workforce with a background in information technology. The College accepted its first undergraduate students in 1999. Today the College offers two majors, IST and Security and Risk Analysis (SRA), and is housed in a state-of-the-art building that spans across North Atherton Street, wired with the latest computer technology. Foley took over as dean in 2006, coming to the College from his role as Penn State associate vice president for research and director of strategic initiatives. Research in the College follows trends in information. “The volume of, and the way people access, information has grown exponentially,” says John Yen, IST’s research dean. “And the way people can access that information outside the computer has expanded. These things raise a lot of interesting questions on how to better utilize information, and knowing when and how to send the right information to the right person.” Another issue researchers consider is how to translate information to actionable intelligence. “That is to raise the information to a higher level of understanding to make decisions and response more timely,” Yen says. Researchers want to find ways to bring this technology to areas such as health informatics, global enterprise, and homeland security. When Foley came to the College of IST, he brought with him the homeland security research project, Smart Systems for Scenarios Simulation and Response, known as S4R. This initiative integrates research across the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Engineering, and IST into a coherent framework that can address the challenges of responding to extreme events.
F all 2 0 0 8
“This helps us better model and predict extreme events, but also to use new technology, like text or video format, to help us quickly respond,” Yen says. “In fact, we often use Beaver Stadium as a scenario.” Yen believes that this system would be able to decrease the damage done in these extreme emergency situations, so “we’re making this a high priority initiative.” Computers and new technology are important to S4R, but the initiative also studies issues such as crowd behavior and social networks. Engineers are looking at the optimization of complex systems, while in IST, researchers are integrating information and improvising what they think will be available in the future in order to adapt allocations of resources accordingly. The result of this project will be an integrated set of open source software for use in simulation, training, and research. Upon completion, this project will significantly improve the ability of analysts to understand the nature of homeland security threats, model the physical-to-social impacts, and explore the mitigation effects of various decisions and reactions. “We also want to have knowledge transfer activities, such as IST Graduate Symposium professional training schools, February 19-20, 2009 so we can help professionals Penn State University Park to coordinate better, and to See page 4 adapt to the dynamic situation faster through exercises that use Extreme Events Laboratory (EEL),” says Yen. “This could help first responders better prepare for extreme events.” “Several companies, including Cisco, are interested in collaborating on EEL, which includes a mobile command center that collects sensor data, images, audio, and textual information via wireless and satellite communications,” Yen says. In addition, researchers at IST are talking with the National Football League’s security people, as well as other companies who are interested in collaboration. All of this research reinforces the reality of the way information technology impacts not only every day life, but also all levels of security. www.ist.psu.edu
T h e IRON 3
upcoming events Pennsylvania Wind Energy Symposium Penn State University Park • The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel • November 17-18, 2008
T
he Pennsylvania Wind Energy Symposium will explore the regional challenges and opportunities of wind energy, the fastest growing renewable electricity source in the world. Elected and municipal officials, economic-development professionals, industry representatives, business owners, researchers, and community groups can learn about: 1. The business case for the wind-energy industry, its growth profile, and its potential to address renewable portfolio standards. 2. The key technical and development challenges in harnessing wind energy. 3. The supply chain needs of this industry and how local firms can contribute to the renewable energy technology market. 4. The workforce required to support the wind-energy enterprise in this region including design, installation, and maintenance. 5. The role of renewable energy sources in addressing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
www.iro.psu.edu/windsymposium
Nanomaterials Workshop Penn State University Park • The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel • December 9, 2008
T
he Pennsylvania NanoMaterials Commercialization Center and its partner universities (Penn State, Lehigh, Carnegie Mellon, and Pittsburgh) are hosting a one-day collaborative workshop to develop new ideas using advanced nanomaterials research emerging from Penn State. The workshop methodology goes beyond conventional methods for generating new product ideas. Unlike traditional industry-university showcases, these workshops are interactive ideation sessions to match market needs with technology capabilities. The facilitator for these workshops is an experienced team from the Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) at North Carolina State University. In preparation for meeting with companies, CIMS and the PA Nano Center have hosted a workshop in September with interested faculty at Penn State to translate their research into concise descriptions of Technology Capabilities. Examples of the technology capabilities are on our Web site.
www.iro.psu.edu/nanoworkshop
IST Graduate Symposium Penn State University Park • Nittany Lion Inn • February 19-20, 2009
N
ow in its fourth year, the IST Graduate Symposium provides an opportunity for graduate students in IST and related fields to showcase and discuss their research interests in an open forum promoting discussion of their research practices and findings. Corporate and industry representatives are encouraged to attend the symposium, providing invaluable networking opportunities with graduate students.
gradsymp.ist.psu.edu
Renewable Energy Technology Conference 2009 Las Vegas Convention Center • February 25-27, 2009
T
he Industrial Research Office will be promoting Penn State’s research in renewable energy at RETECH 2009 in Las Vegas. RETECH 2009 is expected to be the largest all-renewables gathering in the U.S. in 2009, with an attendance of over 5,000 people. Packed with a full-scale trade show with press conferences and product launches, an exciting six-track business conference, and side events, RETECH 2009 will offer educational and networking opportunities for a wide range of participants. RETECH is managed by the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Partnering Organizations. RETECH is a continuation of last year’s Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) held in Washington, DC.
BioEnergy Bridge Partnership The Penn State Biomass Energy Center is seeking industrial participation to conduct integrated research into every stage of the biofuels process. Learn about this new initiative at RETECH 2009 and on our Web site.
www.iro.psu.edu/energy
NSTI Nanotech/CTSI Cleantech 2009 Houston, TX • George R. Brown Convention Center • May 3-7, 2009
F
or the 4th consecutive year, the Industrial Research Office will be exhibiting at the NSTI Nanotech and CTSI Cleantech Conferences. Joining the IRO will be the Penn State Materials Research Institute to demonstrate their research and expertise in nanotechnology, and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment to promote the clean and green energy research on campus. The Nanotech and Cleantech Conferences will be held concurrently in Houston from May 3-7, 2009. Now in its 12th year, over 5,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors are expected. Nanotech program tracks include fabrication, characterization, and tools; advanced materials; electronics and microsystems; and medical and biotech. Cleantech tracks include traditional energy, renewable energy, infrastructure, and industry and efficiency. Among the events taking place is the TechConnect Summit, a showcase of prescreened, advanced technologies and early stage companies with a mission of matching innovative technologies to real world business challenges.
www.iro.psu.edu/nano • www.iro.psu.edu/energy
4 T he I RO N
www.ir o.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
PA Companies Present Energy Technologies to Corporate Leaders at Energy Innovation Forum T
he Energy Innovation Forum, held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on October 23, allowed 19 Pennsylvania companies to present their energy technologies, products, and core competencies to national and international corporate leaders. The forum was organized by the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP) and the Industrial Research Office to create opportunities for Pennsylvania companies to license technologies, sell products and services, and build joint development programs with corporations. The event also allowed Penn State researchers to promote their expertise and work in renewable energy technologies. Faculty members displayed 28 posters during the scheduled poster session.
Tim Franklin, Director of the Penn State Office of Economic and Workforce Development, stated, “The day was a buzz of activity and exchange. I thoroughly enjoyed my own involvement but was particularly impressed by how stimulated the many participants were by the value they found in the Forum’s program and networking.” Franklin continued, “From my standpoint, this collaboration between the Industrial Research Office and PennTAP is exactly in line with the specific intent for our EWD TIF (Economic and Workforce Development Thematic Initiative Fund) funding and our broader university economic development mission.” Corporations represented at the forum include Allient Energy, Audiovox, Construction Specialties, Curtiss-Wright, Fairchild SemiConductor, Johnson Controls, Lockheed Martin, PPG, and Siemens. Pennsylvania companies featured technologies such as the development of proteins to enhance cellulose digestibility for ethanol production, presented by Expansyn Technologies, and small scale cogeneration, presented by DG Power Systems. Visit the event Web site for a complete list of presenting companies, including detailed technology quad charts.
www.iro.psu.edu/energyforum
F all 2 0 0 8
T h e IRON 5
25 Years Later, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets has More Than 70 Member Firms “We’re connected with about 100 researchers around the world,” Lilien says, “and we have more than 70 member firms who are connected with us to focus on improving their practice.”
G
ary Lilien, Distinguished Research Professor of Management Science and one of the founders of the Penn State Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM), says with a laugh, “I’m one of the few people who has exactly the same job I had twenty-five years ago. I started the Institute as a research director, and I’m still a research director for the Institute.” ISBM began in 1983 after Lilien came to Penn State from MIT, where he studied the idea of focusing marketing practices within industry, rather than to consumers. “I was asked if I was interested in building an institute that focused on business-to-business marketing at Penn State,” Lilien explains. Part of the attraction for Lilien was his existing relationship with Dave Wilson, a senior faculty member at Penn State, and Irv Gross, who was director of research at DuPont. “Irv and I chatted about someday doing this,” Lilien says. ISBM, a center of excellence in the Smeal College of Business Administration, began with four firms – DuPont, AT&T, GE, and Control Data – who put up $50,000 for five years. Throughout the country, a substantial amount of research focused on marketing, but little focused on B-to-B. “We had core firms who believed in the mission of the Institute,” says Lilien. “At the time, we essentially sold them only on an idea.” ISBM has been totally focused on B-to-B marketing. The mission of ISBM is to expand research and teaching in business-to-business marketing and sales in academia, and improve the practice of business-to-business marketing and sales in industry. The mission is carried out through three integrated agendas: research, education, and networking and interchange. Twenty-five years later, with Dr. Ralph Oliva as executive director, that original idea has changed very little. ISBM is the largest global, real-time knowledge-creating network addressing the needs of B-to-B marketers, salespeople, and senior managers across all industries.
6 T he I RO N
ISBM provides value to academia as well as to business, Lilien continues. “We have a global doctoral competition where we identify outstanding dissertation topics and provide both financial support and access to member companies to do research.” From the business side, member firms have first access to leading-edge research. The creation of fundamental new knowledge in B-to-B markets is at the very core of ISBM’s mission. ISBM seeks to fundamentally understand how business markets work, why they work that way, and how to make them work better. “Not only do the companies get best practices,” Lilien says, “they get next practices.” Next practices are the ideas that business leaders and researchers are developing now. “What are the things businesses need to be focused on.” To reach out to members, ISBM holds meetings and webinars. From a half-hour presentation at a key meeting to a full multiyear curriculum, ISBM has worked with member firms on professional development programs which produce results: better pricing, more profitable B-to-B marketing, higher ROI on your marketing investment. In addition, member firms can call the Institute with questions. “We rarely answer the question, but we know who the best people in the world are to talk to, and we put them in contact with those folks,” Lilien says. “We have an extensive list of examples and courses that focus on only business-to-business, and we put the best thought leaders in the world in front of member firms.” Lilien considers the following as the three major benefits of membership: 1) staying ahead of current issues that practitioners need to be concerned about; 2) a diagnosis of what a company should know about business-to-business marketing, and the development of a special course design for that company; and 3) Just in Time access to information. Lilien is very pleased with the way the Institute has flourished. “It’s doing much more than I ever expected.”
www.isbm.org
www.ir o.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
Shared Fermentation Facility Available to Industry for Biofuels Research
W
hat’s old is new again, at least with the Shared Fermentation Facility located in Fenske Lab.
To take advantage of the increasing interest in biofuels, the University decided it was time to convert the bioprocessing laboratory, once used for biopharmaceuticals, into a facility for companies and faculty to conduct biomass research. This new Shared Fermentation Facility is part of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and is housed in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Mark Signs works with a 5-liter benchtop vessel used for fermentation.
“Biomass is a term for any substance that has a biological origin,” Mark Signs, director of the facility explains. “A bale of straw is biomass. Corn is biomass. We’re biomass. So when you look at an application of bioenergy, a biomass conversion, it’s trying to put that organic material into a utilizable form.”
Sampling from one of the facility’s five SIP (sterilize-in-place) fermentors, with capacities from 20 to 250 liters.
“Initially, that primarily meant ethanol,” Zydney says, “although the feeling was the lab could support the fermentation aspects of any biomass strain into a biomolecule into a fuel. There are a variety of compounds that can be used as a fuel.” A number of institutes and groups on campus provided support to hire Signs as the director for the born-again facility. Signs worked at Penn State with the original bioprocessing lab, so he was familiar with the facility and the equipment. A grant from the Heinz Foundation provided funds to upgrade the facility and expand its capabilities for researching biofuels. The goal, Signs says, is to have a facility available for any type of fermentation oriented and affiliated procedure. “There’s a lot more to it than fermentation, because that only takes you part way,” Signs says.
Originally, the facility was designed to support growth in the biotechnology industry within Pennsylvania, according to chemical engineering department head Andrew Zydney. The lab was successful through the early part of the 1990s and had support from both outside companies and within the University. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also provided funds to purchase large-scale fermentation equipment that could be used for bacteria cell culture or culture of mammalian cells. But the facility’s use decreased by the turn of the century and was eventually used primarily for teaching rather than research. Eventually, even its use as a teaching facility dwindled and for a period of time, the lab went unused. “It was a lot of space and a lot of high-value equipment, essentially gathering dust,” Zydney explains, “and I wanted to see what it would take to bring the facility back online.” The first effort was to expand the scope of the lab so it wasn’t just for bioprocessing, which is traditionally used for making proteins, but would support research on biofuels.
The facility can test six different fermentation conditions at the same time with this console.
Signs adds that one group he serves is the biomolecules portion of the research community. “The organisms we grow are a collection of molecules and enzymes. With genetic engineering, we can specify an overabundance of the molecules we want to produce.”
Bioenergy research is another hot area for the facility. “That’s a major area of research,” Signs says. “The current controversy surrounding corn ethanol is because of the large amount of corn required. The focus has shifted to cellulosic ethanol.” Cellulose is the tie to biomass, he explains. “For the average person, it’s hard to relate a piece of wood or a bale of straw to sugar, but they are basically made from the same thing,” he says. “The trick is freeing that sugar so it is available for fermentation.” And that’s what the Shared Fermentation Facility is set up to do. Industry can come in to use the facility for experiments. “Rather than build a facility of their own for one-time use, this lab is available,” says Signs.
Mark Signs, mws6@psu.edu, 814-863-6455
F all 2 0 0 8
T h e IRON 7
Licensable Technologies The following inventions in the field of Information Sciences and Technology are available for licensing from the Intellectual Property Office www.ipo.psu.edu • Image-based CAPTCHAs for Web site Security Many Web sites use CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) as an authentication process to help prevent automated use of the Web site by computers. Current text-based CAPTCHAs have been broken using object-recognition techniques with high accuracies. We have created a system for the generation of attack-resistant, user-friendly, image-based CAPTCHAs. We produce controlled distortions on randomly chosen images and present them to the user for annotation from a given list of words.
Industrial Research Office Newsletter Subscribe to the e-Edition of The IRON at www.iro.psu.edu/theiron. Look for our Spring 2009 issue in February. Contact Us: Industrial Research Office The Pennsylvania State University 119 Technology Center University Park, PA 16802 814-865-9519 iro@psu.edu www.iro.psu.edu
Send comments or suggestions for The IRON to: Gregory Angle, gregangle@psu.edu Marketing Associate This publication is available in alternative media on request. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-2801, Tel (814) 865-4700/V, (814) 863-1150/TTY. U.Ed. RES 09-17.
• Automatically Predicting Image Quality and Attractiveness The invention can help assist in photography and visual design in an automated manner, reducing the need for service of humans. Potential applications include content-based image retrieval and digital photography. More specifically two possible applications that can result from the invention include: 1) camera subsystems that provide suggestions for quality photos and 2) software that helps select or rank visually appealing pictures. • ALIPR™ - Automatic Categorization or Indexing of Pictures Categorized images are used to automatically train a dictionary of hundreds of concepts based on statistical modeling. This capability is essential for linking images to text and, consequently, broadening the utility and specificity of imagebased applications. This technology will find application in digital libraries, medical imaging, video surveillance, web searching, and numerous other applications in biomedicine, military and law enforcement, education, electronic commerce, and other areas. • Efficient Lattice Detection in Images The inventors have created a method for automatic detection of repeated patterns in real images. For example, this method could take a photo of an animal behind a cage, and identify and remove the cage so you can only see the animal and other surroundings. These advantages have been demonstrated by quantitative experimental results on a diverse set of real world photos as described in the paper presented at the European Conference on Computer Vision, October 2008.
Read the Fall 2008 edition of The IRON online to learn more about these and other technologies available for licensing. www.iro.psu.edu/theiron