News Release

$10,000 grants enhance faculty research partnerships with business

May 7, 2008

Penn State Harrisburg faculty research involving the creation of biodiesel fuel from a plant native to Central America, a therapeutic assistive bathing device, and outer packaging for an infrared sensor have all earned grants from the midstate’s Innovation Transfer Network. The grants of $10,000 each enhance the partnerships between three private companies and the faculty expertise to further develop innovative products for commercial use.

Dr. R.V. Sairam, Dr. Issam Abu-Mahfouz, and Dr. Richard Ciocci each received the maximum grant from the ITN, a partnership among 13 institutions of higher education in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, and Lebanon counties to provide business assistance, technology assessment, and seed funding for technology transfer activities. The faculty members all teach in Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Dr. Abu-Mahfouz is partnering with Megatastic Products in Hershey which specializes in the design and production of health care devices. His project centers on optimizing fluid flow in a therapeutic assistive bathing device.

"The company’s new concept for simplifying bathing is very innovative and will help a wide range of people in need of its capability," Dr. Abu-Mahfouz states. "Although under development, this product has already gained interest from nursing homes, healthcare facilities, VA hospitals, and rehab facilities."

He says, "The initial prototypes proved the feasibility of this new concept. However. It is the objective of this research work to optimize the fluid flow for effective and enjoyable bathing."

Working with Freedom Energy LLC, Monroeville, Pa.,Dr. Sairam is developing in-vitro flowering and genetic engineering for the jatropha plant. "Successful culture of this plant will lead to year-round seed production and simultaneously reduce time necessary to obtain seed," he reports. "Jatropha seed is oil rich and will have enormous impacts on alternative biofuels leading to a reduction in dependence on foreign oils."

The hardy jatropha is resistant to drought and pests, and produces seeds containing up to 40% oil. When the seeds are crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in a standard diesel engine, while the residue can also be processed into biomass to power electricity plants.

Dr. Ciocci’s project with Dr. Abu-Mahfouz as co-investigator, is being undertaken in partnership with Lepton Technologies in Lancaster. Involving the design and fabrication of an outer package for a photon-counting infrared sensor, the effort is being conducted through mid-August.

"Today’s electronic and optoelectronic components require packaging that meets a large array of requirements," Dr. Ciocci points out in profiling the project. "In addition to typical mechanical and reliability specifications, today’s packages need to take into account the full product life cycle, including disposal. Careful choices of materials and designs allow products to evolve gracefully, and will meet increasingly tight standards that are being adopted to ensure future users/recyclers will not be exposed to heavy metal toxins."

He continues, "In this proposal, we will design and fabricate an outer package for a new optoelectronic component, Lepton’s infrared sensor. Our choices for design and manufacture of these first prototypes will be made with future design modifications, scale production, and ultimately disposal in mind. The outputs of the project will be six pieces of prototype packaging and a host of new university-private sector relationships to enhance local economic development."

Lepton Technologies was founded in 2004 to develop and commercialize a platform suite of infrared sensors that exhibit performance improvements of up to 1000X relative to existing technologies. This breakthrough level of signal-to-noise improvement has the capability to revolutionize the use of infrared sensing in a wide variety of applications, including fiber sensing systems for perimeter security, oil/gas well temperature measurement, and infrastructure strain measurements.

This year, a record number of requests for ITN funding were received with 14 projects chosen. Twelve of the projects – including all three involving Penn State Harrisburg – have private sector relationships. A total of $127,000 was awarded.

The seed assistance grants are funded through a Keystone Innovation Grant (KIG). The Keystone Innovation Grant program is a joint effort of the Lancaster Keystone Innovation Zone and the Harrisburg Market Keystone Innovation Zone. In early 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development awarded Keystone Innovation Grant Funds to Penn State Harrisburg and Franklin & Marshall College to support the regional collaboration of higher education institutions.

Seed grant funding also went to projects at Dickinson College, Elizabethtown College, Franklin & Marshall College, Messiah College, Millersville University, and the Penn State College of Medicine.