Faculty honored for innovative ideas

The Florida State University Office of Research honored FSU faculty members who have made great strides to commercialize their research results during a special ceremony held Nov. 17 at the University Center Club.

John Fraser, the university’s assistant vice president for Research and director of the Office of Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization, provided opening comments for the Sixth Annual Florida State University Innovators Reception.

“We are so pleased that the research and creative work done at FSU is increasingly being recognized by the private sector through funded contracts and product-development licensing,” he said.

Vice President for Research Kirby W. Kemper hosted the reception. During the event, he presented pocket sundials to researchers who have worked to commercialize their inventive and creative ideas during the 2009-2010 fiscal year by having The Florida State University license or option their technology, or by winning a GAP Award. (Grant Assistance Program, or GAP, awards, selected twice a year, are presented to researchers who can most clearly identify the commercial viability of a product, process or license that they believe will result from their collaboration with a corporate partner.)

The sundial was given to award recipients because it is one of the oldest known scientific devices for measuring time and direction — two of the hallmarks of the technology-transfer process in general.

The Innovators Reception was well attended by faculty, staff and students, as well as leaders from the Tallahassee business community.

The following FSU faculty members received 2010 Innovator Awards for the research projects described below:

License/Option Deals

* Janet Dilling (Director, Center for Disaster Risk Policy): Tabletop Exercise System Technology (TEST). TEST is a team simulation software program that was created by a team of researchers led by Dilling. This program allows disaster-response professionals and teams to simulate disasters and respond to them, accommodating large audiences and a wide range of clients and situations. Florida State recently signed a license to extend the use of this technology for L-3 Security and Engineering Solutions.

* Benjamin Green (Director, Florida Center for Public Management): Certified Executive Leadership Program. In a collaborative effort, The Florida State University and Florida-based start-up company Innovative Group LLC created the Certified Executive Leader-Gen Y (CEL-GenY) program to prepare the next generation of young executives for the challenges of management and leadership, and to address the missing link in transferring newly learned skills and behaviors to the workplace.

* Yun-Hwa “Peggy” Hsieh (Professor, Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Science): Detection of Specific Fish Species in Fillets. Hsieh has developed a method to rapidly determine whether cooked or raw fish fillets belong to the Pangasius genus of catfish. The assay is being sold under the name EZ Pangasius Rapid Test Kit by Elisa Technologies. Other available detection methods require sophisticated instruments, coupled with complex data-analysis procedures, for interpreting results.

* Jayne Standley (Professor, College of Music): Pacifier Activated Lullaby (P.A.L.). Standley developed a patented audio-feedback technology for the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (P.A.L.). It has been shown to improve non-nutritive sucking in low-birth-weight infants. Florida State licensed the technology to Powers Device Technologies LLC to develop products for hospitals and other neonatal care facilities.

* Ian Winger (Scientific Research Specialist, Department of Physics): Inflatable Solar Energy Collector, aka Solar Sausage. This invention provides curved reflectors for concentrating solar energy at a small fraction of the cost of the glass mirror devices commonly used for thermal or photovoltaic production of electricity. A reflective Mylar sheet divides transparent plastic tubing into two inflatable chambers. Inflating the tubing with a different pressure in each chamber generates a curved reflective surface. The result is a low-cost, easily transportable, lightweight, structurally stiff, linear mirror inside a protective tube.

2010 GAP Award Winners

* Richard Liang (Professor, High-Performance Materials Institute): Novel Light-weight, Flexible EMI Shielding Material. Liang will build one or more demonstration devices to show the level of electromagnetic shielding that can be obtained using composites fabricated in varying thicknesses with one or more carbon nanotube face layers.

* Teng Ma (Associate Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering): Bone Regeneration Technology. A perfusion bioreactor and polymeric hydroxyapatite technology that Ma has perfected at Florida State is being used to grow adult stem cells on and within natural bone and artificial bone scaffolds. Ma will also collaborate with Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic to test these implants for use in orthopedic surgery.

* Albert Stiegman (Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) Next Generation Eye-Wear. Based on recently developed reaction mechanisms using highly polarizable monomers containing silicon and dithiol, Stiegman is working to produce a new family of high-refractive-index polymers that can be used with standard grinding and polishing equipment to produce lighter-weight eyeglass lenses.

* Joseph Schlenoff (Professor and Department Chair, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry): New Materials for Wound Dressings. Schlenoff is working to develop and test a next-generation, porous sheet polymer wound dressing that can first be made flexible to wrap and seal an injury, then be hardened by simple washing to provide rigid protection, in first-response situations such as those encountered on a battlefield.

* Hengli Tang (Associate Professor, Department of Biological Science): Virus Detection Kit. Tang is working to produce an ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) test kit using several monoclonal antibodies that can detect the presence of different hepatitis C virus proteins, to provide better screening for the widespread and frequently asymptomatic disease.

* Jack Saltiel (Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry): Preparation of Vitamin D Derivatives. Saltiel is working to demonstrate an inexpensive, novel method to produce deuterated vitamin D, which is used in radiological studies of abnormal bone development. The photochemical process employed by Saltiel is closely related to commercial processes that he has helped to develop over a number of years.

Principal investigators who submitted an invention or work disclosure, had a U.S. patent application filed, and/or had a U.S. patent issued during the 2009-2010 fiscal year were also formally recognized and presented with a laminated honor roll listing their names and achievements.

Co-sponsors of the Sixth Annual Innovators Appreciation Reception were Allen, Dyer, Doppelt & Gilchrist; Novak, Druce & Quigg; Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell and Dunbar; Smith Hopen; Sutherland Asbill; and Vedder Price.

FSU’s Office of Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization assists faculty, staff and students in moving their innovative research results and creative work into public use by licensing to outside organizations to develop and market products based on FSU research.

The office manages projects that span a wide array of activities that range from the hard sciences and engineering to music and theater. This is achieved by working with faculty, staff and students whose research or creative endeavors show the potential for commercial success.