December 2000
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Tech transfer: When's our next home run?
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UCAR's new legal services team includes director Meg McClellan and
paralegal Kelly Coleman, formerly of ACD. (Photos by Carlye Calvin.)
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It only took one commercially viable project to score more than a half-
million dollars in research revenue for UCAR. That project—the
tailoring of weather information for new technologies—resulted in
the sale of WITI Corp. by the UCAR Foundation to Lifeminders.com. (See
the article in the
September issue
of Staff Notes Monthly.)
The sale breathed new life into the foundation and its work. After two
years of decentralization in which tech transfer was left largely to
NCAR divisions and UCAR programs, UCAR is now reconsidering the value of
a centralized effort. Divisions and programs have been experimenting
with ways to transfer our innovations to the private sector while
remaining true to our missions of cutting-edge science and not-for-
profit service.
To market, to market
As a recipient of federal research dollars, UCAR is not only allowed but
encouraged by the Bayh-Dole Act and other legislation to demonstrate
progress toward transferring technology we've created to the business
world. The law also allows UCAR and similar institutions to profit from
such transfers.
The catch is our role as an innovator as opposed to a marketer. Even in
the applied-science parts of the institution, people at NCAR and UOP
tend to be more excited about pushing the frontiers of science than
about the laborious follow-up needed to get products to market and keep
them there.
"In tech transfer, we like to do things one time," says RAP's acting
director, Rich Wagoner (director Brant Foote is on leave in Argentina
through next spring). "We might do two or three versions of a tech
transfer, but it's got to have a new challenge associated with it each
time."
ATD director Dave Carlson is on the same wavelength. One of ATD's
biggest successes of the 1990s was its upgraded dropsonde using Global
Positioning System technology. Once the prototype for the GPS sonde was
done, ATD licensed it to Vaisala. The company shipped over 4,000 sondes
in fiscal year 2000, generating about $150,000 in licensing revenue for
ATD, UCAR, and the dropsonde's inventors. "We don't want to be making
5,000 sondes a year [in ATD]," says Dave. "From ATD's point of view,
staying out of the manufacturing business is worth it."
If at first . . .
Although she's only been at UCAR for six months, Meg McClellan
understands this part of our corporate culture well. As Meg puts it, "we
have lots of the R in R&D and very little of the D."
Meg is the new legal expert for UCAR. Housed in the Pearl Street
building, she oversees licensing, copyrights, and other aspects of
commercial activity for both UCAR and the UCAR Foundation. Along with an
extensive background in technology transfer, Meg has experience in
contract and employment law and serves as an on-call legal adviser to
UCAR, including programs and divisions.
Soon after Meg arrived, she carried out a survey of UCAR and 19 member
universities to see how each handled tech transfer. She found that "we
were the only one of the 20 institutions that doesn't have a centrally
organized technology commercialization group."
UCAR did have such a group until the late 1990s. Up to that point,
commercialization efforts had only generated about $250,000 per year in
gross revenue for the foundation, with a portion of that returning to
UCAR as licensing revenue. Although UCAR had granted the foundation a
three-year waiver of UCAR's share of licensing royalties, along with
some ongoing subsidies, the bottom line remained weak.
In 1998, Bill Rawson, then completing his tenure as UCAR's vice
president for finance and administration, came up with the Rawson Plan.
The idea was to disband the technology commercialization group and let
the divisions and programs carry out their own licensing, in exchange
for a bigger share of the revenue (90%, versus 50% earlier).
How did the Rawson Plan fare? As one would expect, the share of
licensing revenue going to divisions and programs has indeed risen. The
total for fiscal years 1999 ($195,000) and 2000 ($350,000) was more than
half of the entire $947,000 received by UCAR from the onset of
commercialization in the mid-1980s up to that point. However, the
increase was mostly due to projects predating the Rawson Plan that
happened to come to fruition at that time, notes Meg: "There wasn't much
'planted' during 1998 and 1999." According to Jeff Reaves, UCAR
associate vice president for finance and administration, "A lot of
variability comes from external factors that were independent of the
Rawson Plan."
Along came Lifeminders
The sale of WITI Corp. has changed minds as well as dollars. The UCAR
Foundation met several times this year to debate how to handle revenue
from the sale (much of it in stocks that can't be traded until 2001). A
new task force includes UCAR president Rick Anthes and the heads of
relevant divisions, programs, and groups. Although divisions and
programs will likely continue to carry out some of their own licensing,
the idea of a fresh start for the foundation is gaining steam.
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Wayne Moore.
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Former WITI employee Wayne Moore opted to stay with UCAR rather than
join most of the rest of the group at Lifeminders headquarters in
Reston, Virginia. In October Wayne was named vice president for business
development for the foundation. He is the first full-time employee
devoted to long-term planning (most of the foundation's staff have had
to carve out their time from other duties).
Wayne thinks the WITI sale could give the foundation the critical mass
it needs to properly carry out its mission on behalf of UCAR. "I felt
the foundation was never properly capitalized," he says. By the same
token, he believes the divisions were never propertly equipped to
address tech transfer, either. "By decentralizing commercialization, it
created an unfair load on the programs."
Power hitters in the bullpen
ATD and RAP are UCAR's two heaviest hitters in the technology game.
Still, as Dave Carlson points out, many of ATD's creations are
inherently limited in their appeal. "Companies are looking for the
'killer app,' something that will produce hundreds of thousands of units
or, in the case of a service function, millions of users," says Dave.
"This way they recover and justify their big venture-capital
investments. I don't see killer apps coming out of ATD."
Dave does see ATD continuing to work with the small number of companies
interested in the division's specialized work. "We know our list of
potentially interested vendors on a new ATD technology is certainly less
than five, and in some cases less than three. They're mostly thinking of
the meteorological market. We hope that a vendor will say, 'I've got
rights to this technology—now let's see what else we could do with
it.' But generally they're risk averse and not really in an expansive
mood."
Across the FL courtyard, RAP deals with a far greater number of clients.
At any one time, the division has some 30 ongoing projects, only a few
of which actually produce licensing revenue. The work is sponsored by
private companies, federal agencies, and other nations—right now
RAP has contracts with Argentina, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan,
and the United Arab Emirates. "There are big fish and little fish," says
Rich Wagoner. "Funding ranges from a few thousand dollars to several
million."
As RAP's tech-transfer areas are leveraged and broadened from its
aviation-related work, the division is now focusing on new initiatives
in water resources, precision agriculture, and two other areas:
Intelligent transportation systems. A new group headed by
Bill Mahoney will spend three years creating a "smart roads" prototype
for the Federal Highway Administration. The goal is to help highway
managers allocate staff and materials so that state transportation
departments can efficiently administer winter maintenance tasks. The
study area extends from Kansas and Nebraska west to Nevada. A decision-
support system will be developed to help managers identify the timing,
intensity, and duration of winter storms along particular highway
segments. Follow-up work could extend to hurricane evacuation
support.
Military applications. A growth area over the past several
years, this includes the modernization of meteorological support systems
at the West Desert Test Center, the White Sands Missile Range, the
Redstone Arsenal, and the Yuma and Aberdeen Proving Grounds. RAP is also
working with the Army on other projects and the Navy to build a
nowcasting system for its battle groups.
Hits we can't yet see
Despite the extent of its industry contacts, RAP finds the search for a
tech-transfer home run as daunting as everyone else does. "We basically
operate off of soft money," notes Rich. "We have to invest a lot of time
and energy in order for our technology to become visible. The path is
constantly changing. If you think you understand it, come back in two
years and it's completely different."
Education has unexpectedly jumped onto the licensing scene in a big way
with the arrival of two high-profile programs.
Windows to the Universe
is a 6,000-page Web site developed with NASA funding at the University
of Michigan to provide earth and space science information to students
and the public. It moved to UCAR this summer with its manager, Roberta
Johnson, who is now UCAR's director of education and training. The
arrival of the Web site, which gets some 10 to 12 million hits a month,
has roughly tripled the traffic on UCAR's Web servers. UCAR is now
negotiating with several potential sponsors for Windows to the Universe,
which could result in revenue to maintain and enhance its content.
"There's a chance that a significant portion may be available to fund
other things," says Roberta.
Another UCAR-based program, the Digital Library for Earth System
Education
(
DLESE), is in the midst of developing a prototype for classroom
testing in the fall of 2001. Meg says, "I think there's some commercial
potential down the road for DLESE and more immediately for Windows to
the Universe." (Staff Notes Monthly will cover DLESE in an
upcoming feature.)
As its new incarnation takes shape, the UCAR Foundation is seeking ideas
for a new service-oriented company whose placeholder name is Newco. The
goal would be to deliver value-added services—based largely on
existing products, such as the NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model, version
5 (MM5)—that would extend beyond the current divisional and program
missions. According to UCAR president Rick Anthes, "The company would be
carefully constructed so as not to interfere or compete with NCAR or UOP
programs. Indeed, Newco would be able to provide services that NCAR and
UOP are presently turning down because they are relatively routine in
nature and hence of little interest to our programs."
"We've learned a lot about what to do and what not to do," says Wayne.
"We want people to understand the opportunities. If you're contacted by
industry in any way, shape, or form, that's the market calling. Let us
help you work that contact."
• Bob Henson
Base hits
Several projects have provided modest but steady income for UCAR and its
divisions and programs over the past few years.
NCAR Graphics software has been made available to
universities and other users at nominal cost since 1987. The current
two-tier plan, which started last spring, allows users to either
download the most recent source code for free or purchase a full-
featured earlier version that includes CD-ROM documention, site
installation, and user consulting. In past years NCAR Graphics has
generated between $200,000 and $300,000 in annual licensing income. The
free source code has been "really popular," says Ethan Alpert, who
oversees NCAR Graphics. "We hope enough people get into it so that we
can organize a user community for open-source development and continue
to grow the product." If other developers get involved, "we can devote
our resources to other research."
Over the past decade COMET has distributed hundreds of its
training modules on laser disc and CD-ROM. These have been distributed
free to COMET's sponsors—National Weather Service, Air Force, and
Navy meteorologists—and on a cost-recovery basis (now $75 per
module) to universities, private entities, and foreign weather services.
In FY00 the modules brought in roughly $20,000 in licensing revenue.
Much of COMET's training is now shifting to Web-based modules accessible
to all at no cost.
RAP's Low-Level Wind Shear Alert System (LLWAS) was the first
real-time tool for assessing wind shear. It was later combined with
Doppler radar to produce the successful warning system installed by
Raytheon at large hub airports in the United States. LLWAS is now
licensed as a basic wind-shear detection tool for smaller airports in
the states and abroad that can't afford Doppler radar. In FY00, LLWAS
generated about $180,000 in royalties.
• BH
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STARS: The journey from brainstorm to market
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Eleanor Praskovskaya and Alex Praskovsky.
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Validating and applying a great idea can be a pretty wild ride. Along
the way, imaginations stir, grand visions form, and the race to success
is soon fast apace. Alex Praskovsky (RAP) and Eleanor Praskovskaya (ATD)
are two NCAR inventors who know a lot about this journey. The couple's
recent ideas have generated keen interest across UCAR and are now on the
technology-transfer fast track.
Alex and Eleanor's creation bears the name STARS (Structure Function
Analysis of Received Signals), and many in NCAR believe it could have a
big impact in improving the usefulness of information derived from radar
and lidar. Some of the broader thinking includes possible spinoffs in
medical probing and other realms. With ideas and hopes in mind, Alex and
Eleanor have applied for a patent.
To understand STARS, think of looking through an antique stereoscopic
slide viewer. Your mind compares the two images of the same space taken
at slightly different angles—i.e., the spaced signals of nearly the
same scanned volume—and analyzes their differences. Although the
two images are almost identical, the slight variations (i.e., signal
structures) produce the perception of three-dimensionality, a
characteristic extracted only through the mind's close comparison of the
two images or signal structures. By subtracting the structural details
between two or more signals, the slightest variations amplify new
features or characteristics that stand out, such as the three-
dimensionality in the stereoscopic viewer analogy.
STARS uses the equivalent of two closely spaced antennas to sense an
object in space and precisely follow its short-term, small-scale changes
in three dimensions. Part of the technique's beauty is its flexibility.
STARS can use signals emitted by an object (such as radiation from a
star) as well as reflected signals (from radar or lidar, for example).
All that's needed is multiple receivers, spaced so that the sensed
radiating volumes overlap in space. "The equations are all very simple,"
says Alex.
The technique utilizes the mathematical concept of the "structure
function," devised in the mid–20th century but never
applied to signals from remote sensors until now. The Praskovskys were
exposed to the concept during their academic training in Russia: Alex in
turbulence theory and random signal processing, Eleanor in heat-transfer
theory. Until they started working on STARS, Alex says, "I'd never seen
a weather radar."
The "aha" moment that led to STARS occurred in 1996. After Alex learned
about the use of correlation functions and spectra to analyze signals
from multiple antennas, he came up with the idea of applying a different
tool (i.e., structure functions) from the world of turbulence to address
the same problem. He shared the idea with Eleanor, and they cogitated
for two or three weeks before taking it to Dave Parsons and Dave Carlson
(ATD). Eleanor then got the OK to shift her ATD work to the new project,
where she took theoretical algorithms and turned them into usable
technology. "We promised to obtain winds for ATD's Multiple Antenna
Profiling Radar (MAPR) in six months," she says, "but it actually took
more than two years." Still, it was success.
In intensive tests, STARS produced impressively realistic wind data.
Unlike Doppler data, STARS readings don't "fold over" to produce
ambiguous numbers at high velocities. STARS also appears to add value to
the readings from MAPR. Further testing is now under way using data from
last month's
MAPR deployment in Utah.
The set of possible applications for STARS is broad and offers many
avenues to evaluate: wind and turbulence monitoring for aircraft,
enhancement of single-Doppler radar output, underground sensing of
geologic features, and imaging or flow measurement for medical
applications. Some of the more annoying aspects of radar
displays—clutter from birds, buildings, and other unwanted
targets—could be significantly mitigated. How all this will be sold
to the world at large is still being debated.
"STARS seems to have a few unique, advantageous features, although it is
not a panacea," says Alex. "We're thinking more and more about the
concept of an integrated product, so a user will get the best results
possible from a combination of several methods."
• Paul Herzegh (RAP) and BH
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UCAR's patented lineup for 2000
Each year UCAR recognizes the staff behind technologies that were
granted U.S. patents in that year. Four creations and nine inventors
received plaques and kudos in a luncheon ceremony on 8 November.
Method of moment estimation and feature extraction for devices which
measure spectra as a function of range or time
Inventors: Larry Cornman, Cory Morse, Kent Goodrich
Patent No.: 5,940,523, issued 17 August 1999
The idea: Designed with radar processing in mind, this software
helps pinpoint turbulence and similar features that encompass a range of
values, separating them from clutter and other unwanted signals.
According to the inventor: "The difficult part was to come up
with an algorithm that treats this data like an image and processes it
like a human would," says Larry.
Enhanced microburst detection system
Inventor: Dave Albo
Patent No.: 5,973,635, issued 26 October 1999
The idea: This system uses an enhanced version of fuzzy-logic
processing to detect microbursts. Improvements include using higher-
altitude radar signals to confirm the low-level event, tracking multiple
radar scans to gauge the persistence of a microburst signal, and
estimating the possible loss of aircraft speed due to a sensed
microburst.
According to the inventor: "Given that there's a microburst
detected at some point in space and time, it's more likely there will be
another one [there or nearby]."
Method and apparatus using slant-path water delay estimates to
correct Global Positioning Satellite survey error
Inventors: Chris Alber, Stick Ware, Chris Rocken, and Fred
Solheim
Patent No.: 6,067,852, issued 30 May 2000
The idea: This technique measures integrated water vapor along
multiple angled paths extending upward to Global Positioning System
satellites from an earthbound GPS receiver. The method can also be used
to improve the accuracy of GPS surveying.
According to the inventor: "Water vapor's one of the major things
that affects microwave frequencies," notes Chris. "With this system, you
can actually see the clumping of water vapor in the atmosphere."
System for determination of optimal travel path in a
multidimensional space
Inventor: Bill Myers
Patent No.: 6,085,147, issued 4 July 2000
The idea: Designed with air travel in mind, but potentially
adaptable to other vehicular travel, this system calculates a route that
is most likely to avoid adverse weather. It may prove useful in the
ongoing shift toward "free flight," in which aircraft need no longer
stick to predetermined flight paths.
According to the inventor: "There hasn't been much work in how
aircraft are going to move around and figure out their best route."
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UCAR's patent holders for 2000: (left to right) Dave Albo, Bill Myers,
Chris Rocken, Larry Cornman, Kent Goodrich, Fred Solheim, Chris Alber,
Cory Morse, and Stick Ware.
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In this issue... •
Other issues of Staff Notes Monthly
UCAR •
NCAR •
UOP
Edited by Bob Henson,
bhenson@ucar.edu
Prepared for the Web by Jacque Marshall
Last revised: Wed Dec 13 17:30:40 MST 2000