Energy Studies, Volume 12, Number 6, July/August 1987 Page: Back Cover
4 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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The University of Texas at Austin
Center for Energy Studies
Balcones Research Center
10100 Burnet Road
Austin, Texas 78758Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Austin, Texas
Permit No. 391ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
FORWARDING POSTAGE GUARANTEED(Continued from page 3)
is formed into a hollow ceramic tube,
or into a solid tube of alumina with
several small, hollow tubes running its
length. The skin on the surface of the
alumina is highly and finely porous. Its
pores are only a few microns (mil-
lionths of a meter) in diameter. The
interior pores are much coarser.
When the liquid mixture flowsthrough the tube under pressure, the
micropores of the membrane allow
only droplets or particles of a specific
size to pass through. To prevent sat-
uration, a ceramic membrane can be
flushed with reverse pressure or
chemically cleaned and thus may be
reused many times.
Separations researchers William J.
Koros, Jose Luis Bravo, James R.Fair, Duane Moosberg, and Cheri
Wooten will test and measure a
ceramic system to characterize how it
performs under ranges of conditions.
They will study ways to combine
ceramic membranes with other
membrane materials and with liquid-
liquid extraction techniques.
The study is funded by Alcoa sepa-
rate from other program research.EUT Austin Energy
New Technology Center
Offers UT Ideas to Industry
A technology transfer center at a
university generally focuses on telling
the outside world about professors'
new ideas. The new UT Center for
Technology Development and Trans-
fer has a different role. It locates pri-
vate firms and actually make deals
with them to commercialize the pro-
fessors' ideas.
According to the director of the new
center, Stephen A. Szygenda, the UT
center can even form a company or
set up a joint venture to commer-
cialize the product or process. The
center's coordinator is Meg Wilson.
Anyone from the university staff,
faculty, or student body or from a
private firm interested in finding new
products and services can approach
the Center for Technology Develop-
ment and Transfer.
Half a dozen venture capitalists have
visited the center since it was started
in July 1986, said Dr. Szygenda.
Eighteen projects are in various
stages of being developed, evalu-
ated, and negotiated. Two examples
he mentioned are a heart pump and afluidized-bed combustion method.
The Texas Legislature created the
center. It serves not just The Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin but all Texas
universities, public and private.
Hundreds of companies have spun
off from UT research projects over the
years, said Dr. Szygenda. The largest
of these is Tracor.
In the past the university's commer-
cialization of research ideas occurred
primarily through patents and licens-
ing. Frequently researchers with
promising ideas left the university to
develop them on their own.
One policy change has happened
that might make future academic in-
ventors reconsider. The UT policy on
intellectual property was changed in
1985 to direct that 50 percent of the
university's income from an invention
or licensed concept go directly into
the pockets of the research team
members. Previously a sliding scale
was followed, and usually research-
ers received less than 50 percent.
Besides the monetary incentive
change, Dr. Szygenda said, the Cen-
ter for Technology Development and
Transfer now encourages and ex-
4plores a greater, more flexible range
of commercialization paths: patents,
royalties, and licensing, but also
grants, joint ventures, new corpora-
tions, and-the most valuable op-
tion-equity sharing.
Equity sharing is an arrangement in
which the company wishing to com-
mercialize an infant research concept
pays the university for it with shares in
the company. If even a scant few suc-
cessful companies are developed ev-
ery year from university research re-
sults, a large income potential is
possible over the long term.
"Equity in a company can be worth
far more than patent royalties," said
Dr. Szygenda.
"The center provides us with an op-
portunity to put together a deal the
way it is done in the business world.
... It's structured as a win-win situa-
tion for everyone concerned," he said.
The United States' efforts at tech-
nology transfer have been notoriously
slow. Dr. Szygenda said if successful,
the center will stimulate the Texas
economy and serve as a model for
other states.0
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University of Texas at Austin. Center for Energy Studies. Energy Studies, Volume 12, Number 6, July/August 1987, periodical, July 1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1032121/m1/4/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.