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Moving Faster To Commercialize Research
CORVALLIS, OR (AP) - A miniature personal air conditioner that could cool
U.S. soldiers fighting in the deserts of Iraq. A car air conditioner powered
by waste
engine heat captured from the vehicle’s exhaust. A portable kidney dialysis
device that treats patients in their homes and while traveling.
Those products and more are being studied at the Microproducts Breakthrough
Institute, a collaboration between Oregon State University and the Pacific
Northwest National
Laboratory. The MBI is housed in a building on the Hewlett Packard campus,
where it shares space with the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.
Landis Kannberg was recently named director of the MBI, taking over full
time a position he previously shared with Kevin Drost, an OSU professor of
mechanical
engineering who is ramping down toward retirement. Kannberg holds a Ph.D. in
mechanical engineering from Oregon State University. His undergraduate degree
is from Gonzaga University. He spent more than 20 years as a researcher at
the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
Although the MBI has collaborated on more than $10 million worth of research
and development projects since its inception in 2002, Kannberg said one of
his three key goals is to see that number grow to at least $15 million annually.
Other key goals include enhancing the reputation of the programs at both
the MBI and ONAMI and accelerating the rate of commercialization for microtechnologies
and other innovations so they more rapidly move from concept to reality.
Kannberg also wants to secure adequate space for the MBI and ONAMI, either
in the current building on the HP campus or elsewhere. HP has donated space
up to
this point.
“
We’re using about 8,000 square feet now, and we’re at capacity,” Kannberg
said.
Kannberg heads up a program that focuses not only on scientific research
but also spotlights projects that will have commercial appeal. The hope is
that
technology created by MBI and ONAMI research will lead to more jobs throughout
Oregon, Kannberg
said.
Much of the millions of dollars worth of equipment used by MBI and ONAMI
researchers has been donated or is on loan from private companies.
The MBI works with materials as small as one atom, Kannberg said. Microchannels
used in energy research projects are about as wide as a human hair.
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