News Release
April 24, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Nanocomposites that can boost the memory capacity of computer chips by a thousand times; a new network security and management tool that uses three-dimensional visualization of IT network traffic; and novel copper complexes being tested as anti-cancer treatments are winners of the University of Maryland's 2001 Inventions of the Year competition.

The winners were announced Tuesday evening at a reception held by the university's Office of Technology Commercialization, which sponsors the annual event. Winning inventions are selected each year by an independent panel based on creativity, novelty and potential overall benefit to society. Among the 33 past winning inventions, 25 have been licensed or optioned and five are base technologies for University of Maryland start-up companies.

Physical Science Invention of the Year

The 2001 Physical Science Invention of the Year is a process to create polymer-based nanocomposites that could save chip manufacturers time and money while greatly increasing the memory capacity of computer chips, CDs and other high-density information storage devices. On computer hard disks, data is recorded and stored as tiny areas of magnetized iron or chromium oxide. University of Maryland associate professor of chemical engineering Peter Kofinas and research graduate assistants Steven Bullock and Sufi Ahmed have developed a method that produces polymer-templated nanoparticles based on cobalt iron oxide. These nanoparticles have superparamagnetic properties and can act as a data storage material.

The nanoparticles, which are smaller than the wavelength of light, self-assemble at room temperature when created using the method of Kofinas, Bullock and Ahmed. Each individual nanoparticle of the oxide developed by their process can hold one bit of information-a zero and a one. Each square centimeter of this nanocomposite oxide can store 110 gigabytes of data per square centimeter, which is a 1,000-times improvement over the information storage capabilities of today's computer chips.

The patent-pending polymer and its manufacturing process could be developed into new plastic magnetic random-access memories to replace the standard types of random-access memories currently used in computer chips. This new memory would be cheaper, faster, denser and non-volatile. It also would use significantly less power. These oxides could be used for many other applications as well, including ferrofluids for biomedical applications and magnetic sensor technologies, such as DVD and CD-ROM discs.

Other finalists in the physical science category were "Biomimetic Wing or Blade Drive Mechanism for Pitching, Flapping, Translational and Rotational Motion" developed by Darryll Pines and Felipe Bohorquez; and "InP-Integrated Optical Micro-Resonator Technology," developed by Rohit Grover, John Hryniewicz, Oliver King, Vien Van, Philippe Absil, Lynn Calhoun and Ping-Tong Ho.

Information Science Invention of the Year

It has become increasingly hard to manage and analyze the network traffic dynamics of large-scale networked IT environments. And the traditionally used network visualization tools, which operate in two-dimensional space, are becoming inadequate and aged. To address these problems, Ravindra Kulkarni, a faculty research assistant in the Office of Information Technology, has developed a three-dimensional/four-dimensional network traffic visualization technique that is both integrated with a network forensics database and deliverable over the Web.

The prototype developed by Kulkarni clearly identifies both normal patterns of network traffic and deviations from the norm and creates multiple views that provide rapid visualization of the network traffic. It also maps the Internet protocol, or IP, session parameters (such as the port and network address) to three-dimensional spatial axes, color and time, which enables accelerated visual data mining and event reconstruction-important keys to network forensics and warding off hackers and cyber thieves.

In addition to network security and forensics, this technology could also be used for remote visualization in telemedicine, visualization of large multiparameter databases, interactive shared data collaboration, metadata visualization, and to enable public access to government and corporate data archives.

Other finalists in the information science category were "Billing and Accounts Receivables System 2000," developed by Ann Holmes and Muddu Salem; and "Automated Inclusion and Quantification of Common Cause Failures in System Fault Trees of the Quantitative Risk Assessment System (QRAS)," developed by Ali Mosleh, Carol Smidts, Franciscus Groen, and Swaminathan Sankaran.

Life Science Invention of the Year

Steven Rokita, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Maryland, and Kenneth Karlin, Kristi Humphreys, Lei Li and Narasimha Murthy of the Johns Hopkins University, have developed novel copper complexes that are being tested as anti-cancer agents by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI's initial results show that the copper complexes are able to selectively bind and cause damage to unique structures of DNA, such as those present in cancer cells.

Metals are useful as anti-cancer medicines because they can either bind to DNA or activate the molecular oxygen that people breathe to cause damage to the DNA. Iron and platinum are already used in a number of anti-cancer drugs. The Maryland-Johns Hopkins research partners are hoping to see copper added to that list. One of their copper complexes is now slated for in vivo studies at NCI.

Other finalists in the life science category were "Self-Assembling Ion Channel and its Potential as an Antibiotic," developed by Jeffery Davis, Vladimir Sidorov and Frank Kotch; and "Peptide Vaccine for Staphylococcal Enterotoxins," developed by Carol Pontzer, Jeffrey Shupp and Marti Jett.

The Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) at the University of Maryland was established in 1986 to facilitate the transfer of information, life and physical science inventions developed at the university to business and industry. In the past 15 years, OTC has recorded more than 1075 technologies, secured more than 160 patents and executed more than 550 license agreements, generating more than $19.5 million in technology transfer income. In addition, 24 high-tech start-up companies have been formed based on technologies developed at the university.