News Release
April 24, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - A process that can be used to safely clean-up anthrax-contaminated sites, fiber optic technology that can be developed into a vibration sensor for micro-electromechanical systems, and a new method for determining the optimum redesign schedule and strategy for long-life electronic systems are winners of the University of Maryland's 2002 Invention of the Year competition.

The winners were announced Wednesday evening at a reception held by the university's Office of Technology Commercialization, or OTC, which sponsors the annual event. Each year, an independent panel selects winning inventions, one each from the areas of information, life, and physical science, based on creativity, novelty and potential benefit to society. Among the 36 past winning inventions, 25 have been licensed or optioned, and five are base technologies for University of Maryland start-up companies.

Also presented this year was a new Award for Entrepreneurship that went to the founders of a company that develops low-cost, high-performance optoelectronic components that facilitate the flow of data through fiber optic networks.

Life Science Invention of the Year

Chemistry and biochemistry professor J. Norman Hansen's discoveries could be used to clean-up anthrax-contaminated sites, inhibit food-borne pathogens and speed development of new antibiotics that attack new or antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.

Hansen's patent-pending research is focused on the lantibiotics (antimicrobial peptides that are produced by a variety of Gram-positive bacteria) nisin and sublancin. These lantibiotics are effective in prohibiting outgrowth of spores of bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism, and Bacillus anthrasis, which causes anthrax.

Traditional uses of this lantibiotic technology include the prevention of the growth of food-borne pathogens, like botulism, and for antibiotics to fight new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But the terrorism events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent anthrax attacks gave Hansen's research an additional direction.

Current clean-up methods of anthrax-contaminated sites, which involve fumigating buildings with chlorine dioxide and scrubbing walls with hydrochloride, are dangerous and toxic. Researchers have been searching for a safe and environmentally sound clean-up method. Using a mixture of nisin and sublancin, Hansen discovered that the anthrax spores were inhibited from changing from a dormant state to an active, pathogenic state, which presents possibilities for developing the technology into a non-hazardous approach to treating anthrax-contaminated sites.

This is the second time that Hansen's technologies have won an outstanding invention award. Research into the lantibiotic subtilin earned Hansen the 1992 Life Science Invention of the Year Award.

Other life science category finalists were "Enzyme-Catalyzed Isotope Labeling for Proteomics Research," developed by Catherine Fenselau and Xudong Yao; and "Recombinant Avian Pneumovirus Vaccines and Vaccine Vectors," developed by Siba K. Samal.

Physical Science Invention of the Year

Vibration can adversely affect the performance of all kinds of complex structural and mechanical systems, including everything from aircraft and automobiles to household appliances and theaters. For example, in automobiles, aircraft and ships, vibration may cause fatigue damage, while in theaters it may be the source of a noisy environment. As a result, vibration sensors that can measure accelerations, velocities and acoustic pressure are in great demand for many industrial, defense and commercial applications.

Balakumar Balachandran, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and graduate student researchers Miao Yu and Moustafa Al-Bassyiouni have developed a new fiber optic sensor system for acoustic, pressure and acceleration measurements of vibration. Some of the advantages of this new system include its high sensitivity level; its ability to be miniaturized to the fiber optic diameter-level for micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, applications; and its remote sensing capabilities.

This patent-pending system can be developed into a fiber tip-based microphone, velocity sensor, accelerometer sensor and fiber optic acoustic intensity sensor. Its applications range from aerospace to architecture. Specific applications include acoustic emission measurements in computer hard disk drives; pressure measurements for ignition chambers of automobiles; integrated distributed pressure sensor arrays for smart wing structures; distributed acoustic pressure array panels for acoustic measurement in concert halls and conference rooms; health monitoring technologies; and background noise suppression systems in automotive telematics.

The inventors have received a Maryland Technology Development Corporation, or TEDCO, grant for $50,000 to further research and develop enhancements to the technology for commercialization. OTC is in the process of licensing this platform technology to a new, local University of Maryland start-up company.

Other finalists in the physical science category were "Magnetorheological Vibration Isolator and Control Method," developed by Norman M. Wereley and Young-Tai Choi; and "High-Speed Massive Magnetic Imaging on a Spin-Stand," developed by Chun Tse, Charles S. Krafft, Isaak D. Mayergoyz, and Dragos I. Mircea.

Information Science Invention of the Year

The life cycles of many electronic parts are often significantly shorter than the life cycles of the products in which they are used. A part becomes obsolete when it is no longer manufactured, either because demand has dropped to such low levels that it is not practical for manufacturers to continue making it, or because the materials or technologies necessary to produce it are no longer available. If system or product has a long life but is not a driving force in the market for its electronic parts, then there is a high likelihood of a lifecycle mismatch between the system or product and those electronic parts. These life-cycle mismatches can result in high maintenance costs for long-life systems.

Peter Sandborn, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Pameet Singh, a graduate student researcher, have developed a new methodology for determining the optimum design refresh (redesign) schedule and strategy for long-life electronic systems based on future production projections, maintenance requirements, and parts obsolescence forecasts. The methodology, called Mitigation of Obsolescence Cost Analysis, or MOCA, is the first of its type for parts-obsolescence-driven refresh scheduling and optimization.

Based on a detailed cost analysis model, MOCA determines the optimum design refresh plan during the field support life of the product. The plan consists of the number of design refresh activities and their respective calendar dates and content in order to minimize the life-cycle sustainment costs of the product.

The methodology supports user-determined, short- and long-term obsolescence mitigation approaches on a per-part basis and variable look ahead times associated with design refreshes. MOCA also presents a mix of obsolescence mitigation approaches ranging from lifetime buys to electronic parts substitutions. The methodology has been demonstrated on Honeywell International's Full Authority Digital Electronic Controller, which is a long-life, low-volume, safety-critical component used in engines for regional jets.

Other finalists in the information science category were "ELF Financial Forms," developed by Steven R. Edwards, Julie O'Donnell Wright, Daniel Joseph Catalano, Christopher D. Mann, Richard C. Moyer, Stephen Patrick Morgan, Kyle Williams Langford, Shaun Patrick Fleming and William H. Wright; and "System for the Rapid Measurement of Head-Related Transfer Functions," developed by Ramani Duraiswami and Nail A. Gumerov.

Award for Entrepreneurship

Mario Dagenais and Peter Heim, co-founders of Quantum Photonics, a Maryland start-up company that recently merged with Coden Corp., to form Covega Corp., won the new award for entrepreneurship. Dagenais, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Heim, a former research associate at the university, started Jessup, Md.-based Quantum Photonics in 1998 to develop lower-cost, high-performance optoelectronic components to facilitate the flow of data through fiber optic networks. The base technologies for Quantum Photonics were invented in Dagenais and Heim's university lab and transferred to the company by OTC through an exclusive technology licensing agreement.

Quantum Photonics received its first round of venture capital funding, totaling $8 million, in July 2000, which allowed the company to expand its employee base from five to 30 people and to complete the construction of its 40,000-square-foot production facility in Jessup. In 2002 Quantum Photonics secured $27.6 million in a second round of venture capital funding-one of the largest investments for a company launched from a University of Maryland laboratory. By early 2003, Quantum Photonics was employing more than 50 people.

On March 5, 2003, Quantum Photonics and Codeon announced their merger and the closing of a significant round of financing. The new company, Covega Corporation, raised $17 million as part of its Series A round of financing. Covega will provide optical components, modules and subsystems to the telecommunications, data communications, military and cable television industries.

"Mario's and Peter's entrepreneurial initiatives have resulted in one of the university's most successful start-up companies to date," says James A. Poulos, III, OTC's executive director. "Over the years, Quantum Photonics has licensed multiple technologies from OTC and has employed many of the university's highly qualified and trained students and graduates. The relationship that OTC and the university have with the company serves as an excellent model of technology transfer success."

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 16 years, OTC has recorded more than 1115 technologies, secured more than 180 patents and licensed more than 600 technologies, generating more than $20.8 million in technology transfer income. In addition, more than 30 high-tech start-up companies have been formed based on technologies developed at the university.