16—The Daily Collegian Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1986
Research
Continued from Page 1.
colleges receiving support from industry. In 1984-
85, the University entered into industrial re
search contracts for $23,290,751.
At the same time, a November issue of The
Wall Street Journal reported that of the top 25
research institutions in the country, Penn State
received the largest percentage of industrial
support for its total expenditures.
“Our top-ranked position demonstrates our
"strength in the type of research that can be
applied to the problems that industry faces,”
said Charles L. Hosier, vice president for re
search and dean of the University’s Graduate
School. “This is a measure of the contribution of
a university to the economic development of the
country.”
James Lundy, director of the University’s
Industrial Research Office, said that since 1977
the University has received $6,072,883 from IBM,
$501,017 from Exxon, and $830,151 from GE.
Research from those companies and others
spans a wide spectrum of areas, from solid-state
electronics, polymers, fusion, and electro-optics,
to hydromechanics, acoustics and radioactive
waste disposal.
In laboratories throughout campus, high-tech
computer systems, combustors, robots, and heat
exchangers run every day. Working with the
equipment are thousands of professors and stu
dents most within the colleges of science,
engineering, and earth and mineral science
striving to produce and improve technologies
that can quickly be applied by manufacturers,
engineers and other industrialists.
“There is an increasing recognition on the part
of industry that we’re in a competitive global
economy. In order to compete, industries must
be on the cutting edge,” Hosier said.
“This means being closely in touch with uni
versity research and interacting with professors
and graduate students,” he added. “ They look at
the University as a source of new information
and new talent.”
Although industrial research includes basic
research such as the study of atoms, molecules
and other basic building blocks, it tends to
encompass more applied research, which leads
to the transformation of science into technology
and direct application, Hosier said.
“Industrial research has tilted toward applied
research, although there is a recognition that you
have to have the basics also,” Hosier said.
“Industries are most interested in research that
can be directly applied.. .. However, we often
won’t accept money (grants and contract mon
ey) for purely applied research.”
Among a variety of leading fields of research
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and one growing at the University is the area of
materials science. Ceramics, concrete, thin
films, glass, clays and mixtures of various other
materials are being developed and analyzed for
use in everything from space shuttles and mili
tary equipment to automobiles and everyday
appliances.
Hosier said a five-year, $lO million contract for
the study of structural ceramics a non-metal
lic corrosion-resistant material that can withs
tand high temperatures and pressures —recently
awarded to the University’s newly formed Cen
ter for Advanced Materials is “Penn State’s
largest industrial contract with a single industri
al association.’’
Both faculty members and graduate students
from the college of earth and mineral sciences, *
college of science, college of engineering, applied
research laboratory, materials research labo
ratory and combustion laboratory are involved
in research projects within the Center.
“Penn State is internationally recognized for
its research into materials and high-temperature
systems,” Hosier said, adding that first-year
funding by the Gas Research Institute of Chicago
surpasses $1.4 million.
‘Penn State is internationally
recognized for its research
into materials and high
temperature systems.’
Richard Tressler, director of the Advanced
Materials Center and a University professor of
materials science and engineering, said: “Ce
ramics have traditionally been used to contain
hot gases and materials. Now, they are increas
ingly being used in structural applications, grad
ually replacing the use of metals.”
Bruce Knox, assistant director of the Universi
ty’s Materials Research Laboratory on Hastings
Road, said materials being developed by Univer
sity researchers at MRL have direct industrial
applications.
“The materials lab plays a big part in our
nation’s industry. Twenty-five to 40 percent of
our support comes from industry, such as Corn
ing Glass, General Motors, IBM and Texaco,”
Knox said.
He added that several information-sharing
associations between the University and groups
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of industrial companies act to speed up the
“technology transfer” between industrialists
and University researchers. “Each can involve
10 to 30 companies who pay us an annual fee to do
research. They may be in it for general knowl
edge or specific research,” he said.
Rustum Roy, project researcher and director
of the University’s Science, Technology and
Society program, said one such information
sharing program is the newly formed consortium
on diamond coatings that will allow industries to
remain up-to-date about achievements on syn
thetic diamond-coating research performed at
the University.
Roy said research efforts on synthetic diamond
coatings, which have industrial applications in
areas such as electronics, optics and manufac
turing, are aimed primarily at “catching up” to
researchers in Japan and the Soviet Union, who
have already marketed an array of diamond
coated products.
Meanwhile, next door at the Applied Research
Laboratory, robotic systems are being developed
and improved. Richard Stern, associate director
of the ARL, said research on the Laser Articulat
ing Robotic System and Intelligence Robotics
Inspection System is being supported by many
industries.
“The laser robotics systems can be used in the
welding industry.. . we’re working closely with
Westinghouse on that project,” Stern said.
“IRIS, the other robotic system, uses a laser to
measure dimensions of complicated, large ob
jects. This has applications in all types of indus
try.”
University scientists are also studying energy,
its efficiency, and its range of alternative
sources at the University’s Coal Combustion
Laboratory; in the Academic Activities Building
between Hastings and Bigler roads, which
houses large combustors, boilers and small basic
pieces of equipment.
Alan Scaroni, associate professor of fuel sci
ence and director of the Combustion Laboratory,
said a new process called fluidized bed combus
tion allows high-sulfur coals to be burned with
minimum emission of sulfur oxide. “We burn
sulfur coal in a bed of absorbant material within
the combustor in this case, the absorbant
material is limestone,” Scaroni said. “As soon as
sulfur oxide is produced, it is absorbed.
“Our traditional supporters have been compa
nies that build combustors and boilers, oil com
panies like Exxon and Mobile, and steel
companies,” Scaroni said. “We also receive
support from the Pennsylvania Energy Devel
opment Authority and the U.S. Department of
Energy.”
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