Autumn 2004 | Summer 2004 | Spring 2004

Autumn 2004 Articles

Bend Venture Conference 2004
BVC 2004 will be held Friday, October 15th at the Tower Theatre in downtown Bend, OR. The daylong event will feature several "big draw" keynote speakers, including Oregon State Treasure Randall Edwards, who will introduce Oregon's $100 Million Venture Fund, and Bob Wood, President of Nike Golf.

Eight early stage companies will pitch their business plans and a panel of venture capitalists from the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Portland will provide feedback. Additionally, several Central Oregon companies will talk about the benefits of doing business in Central Oregon while sharing their success stories.   MORE >

NSF Grant Announced for University of Oregon Nanoscience Research
On Friday August 20th, Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio announced the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the UO $402,000 for a new electron beam lithography system and a nanoimprint lithography system, to be used by university and industry researchers statewide. "The National Science Foundation's investment will provide crucial equipment for use by researchers from the UO, PSU and OSU, along with private industry," said John Moseley, UO senior vice president and provost. "This addition to our research infrastructure increases the entire state's capacity to compete for research grants and generate innovations that contribute to the knowledge economy."   MORE >

Debugging Computers
Margaret Burnett of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with a six-campus team of computer scientists, is getting national attention for research that will help the common computer user. The work of this team, known as EUSES (End Users Shaping Effective Software), is resulting in effective ways software can assist, motivate, and teach people to painlessly recognize, find, and "exterminate" their own computer bugs.
Laurel Halfpap, Assistant Director of OSU's Office of Technology Transfer, says that one patent so far has been issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and another has been applied for and should be issued soon. "The media attention shows there's a great commercial promise for this technology," she says.   MORE >

Fizzy Fruit
Imagine biting into a juicy apple or pear and experiencing a zinging, fizzy sensation. "Fizzy Fruit," a carbonated fruit should be commercialized soon, thanks in part to work done by Oregon State University researchers at the Oregon Food Innovation Center in Portland.

This work is the first commercialization of a patent at the Food Innovation Center in Portland. This project is one of dozens at the center, jointly run by OSU and Oregon Department of Agriculture. The center develops food products and concepts for food producers, processors, marketers and entrepreneurs.   MORE >

University of Oregon Receives Funding for Laboratory for Quantum Control
A $510,500 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, coupled with a $600,000 investment by the university, will help scientists at the University of Oregon's Center for Optics (OCO) jump to a new level in the quest to manipulate light and matter at the atomic level by building and equipping a research lab quiet enough and clean enough to allow researchers to probe and control the behavior of atoms, semiconductors and nanometer-thin metal films. The University's new Laboratory for Quantum Control, the first of its kind in Oregon, will enable the UO group to carry out original experiments at an internationally competitive level, says physics professor Michael Raymer.   MORE >

OSU Creates Fiber Optic Line to Increase Bandwidth Capacity
When network engineers flipped the switch June 28th on a new fiber-optic connection, Oregon State University increased its bandwidth capability - especially for critical research - by a quantum leap. To make that connection work, the University went out and created its own 20-mile stretch of fiber, which it now owns and can lease out to others. Ownership also allows OSU to significantly expand its own capacity for the future. "Expanding our bandwidth capability is absolutely critical to attracting major national and international research projects," said OSU President Ed Ray.   MORE >

Other News Articles
August 2, 2004
"Oregon Aims to Get in on Next Small Thing" -The Corvallis Gazette-Times

July 30, 2004
"Federal Funds go to National Underdogs in Nano Research" -The Oregonian

Summer 2004 Articles

Sheward Named Director of Osu Technology Transfer
Craig Sheward has been named director of Oregon State University's Office of Technology Transfer. He brings to the position extensive experience in successful, high-value technology transfer programs, business development and entrepreneurial company formation. Sheward comes to OSU from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where he was senior licensing executive in the Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. Previously, he held a similar position at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, focusing on commercialization of products from the Microelectronics, Photonics and Materials Centers.   MORE >

OSU, Portland Firm Develop Portable Kidney Dialysis Machine
A Portland company is using an emerging microtechnology from Oregon State University to develop a portable kidney dialysis machine that will make in-home treatment a reality, enabling hundreds of thousands of people afflicted with kidney failure to treat themselves at home instead of traveling to dialysis clinics three days a week. Researchers say the technology, known as multiscale materials and devices, or MMD, could eventually enable development of a wearable dialysis device, or even an implantable version.

"This is an exciting example of how the MMD technology we're developing here at Oregon State University, in partnership with other Oregon universities and businesses, will dramatically improve lives," said Ron Adams, dean of engineering at OSU. "It also illustrates how this technology can lead to new companies and new jobs here in Oregon and beyond."   MORE >

Oregon's First Signature Research Center Opens
Oregon's first signature research center, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, opened its administrative headquarters on May 27 in a building on Hewlett-Packard Company's Corvallis campus and was hailed by political, industrial and academic leaders as a key part of Oregon's economic future. The location of ONAMI, a predominantly academic research facility, on the campus of a private company in the heart of Oregon's Willamette Valley exemplifies the unprecedented level of collaboration that is fueling the institute - collaboration that includes academic researchers, the Pacific Northwest business community and Oregon's governmental leadership.   MORE >

OSU Institute Expanding Natural Resource Activities
The Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University is now beginning a phase of rapid expansion in its effort to provide "one stop shopping" for information, assistance, research and scientific expertise that can help address some of Oregon's toughest environmental issues from forest management to watersheds, soils, fisheries, endangered species, climate change and other topics.

This agency, created as one part of the Oregon Sustainability Act of 2001, is now conducting some of its first studies, has a new advisory board set to begin work, is developing funding sources and a strategic plan, coordinating scientific research efforts, and looking towards a busy and useful future. MORE >

Advances Link University of Oregon Research to Medicine
Professor Eric Selker of the UO Institute of Molecular Biology led a multi-institution research team that reported on a compound called zebularine, which can reactivate a silenced cancer-suppressor gene in mice. The finding has been named by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences as one of the top ten discoveries arising from its research efforts during fiscal year 2003.

The National Cancer Institute is now seeking industry partners for a cooperative research and development agreement to prepare for testing of zebularine in humans, and the university is in discussions with potential industrial licensees for commercial development of the compound.   MORE >

Spring 2004 Articles

New Technology Developed to Speed Brain Wave Analysis
A new project to speed and improve the diagnosis of a variety of brain conditions using Grid shared-computing resources, Linux, and supercomputer technology has been announced by the University of Oregon and its partners, IBM and Electrical Geodesics, Incorporated (EGI).

The Integrated Cognitive Neuroscience, Informatics, and Computation (ICONIC) Grid is the result of a $1,000,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to build an advanced Grid computing infrastructure to apply high-performance computing to diagnosis and treatment brain-related conditions. The platform represents a research platform that targets technology transfer to medical applications from the outset.   MORE >

New Herbicide-Resistant Wheat Variety Developed by OSU
A new variety of herbicide-tolerant wheat developed by Oregon State University's Wheat Breeding Program will be released this fall, opening a new avenue in product licensing and intellectual property for the university. The new soft white winter wheat variety, dubbed ORCF-101, was developed using traditional plant-breeding methods, and not through genetic engineering practices.

ORCF-101 contains a gene for herbicide tolerance patented by the BASF Corporation, an international chemical company based in Germany. The gene makes the wheat tolerant to the BASF herbicide "Beyond." The herbicide and the herbicide-tolerant seed are marketed together as a production system called CLEARFIELD.   MORE >

OSU Research Leads to New Technology for the Blind
Evolving from research begun at Oregon State University, ViewPlus Technology’s innovation in new technologies assisting people who are blind or have other visual impairments has reaped both accolades and a strong sales record.

Sales of ViewPlus products are going well and the demand for them is international, said John Gardner, a professor of physics at OSU who helped to form the startup technology firm when other private companies were slow to see the market potential of new technologies for the blind.   MORE >

University of Oregon Leads Way in Green Chemistry
The University of Oregon is setting the pace in research into green chemistry with its Green Organic Lab, part of a pioneering movement to clean up organic chemistry.

The lab, which focuses on reducing waste and hazard in organic chemistry, may be the first full-scale instructional green lab in the country. “It's always exciting to do chemistry that other people aren't doing,” said Scott Reed, a graduate student who helped design and research experiments for the lab.   MORE >