Brains for hire: a look at the transfer of technology, from laboratory to application.

• Author: Dunlap, Phil

Indy Lighting in Indianapolis is plugged into the latest developments in the lighting business. Its researchers keep tabs on new projects and ideas heading toward the marketplace.

When they caught wind of a revolutionary type of fluorescent lamp that another company was preparing to produce, they realized there would be a demand for specialized fixtures that would accommodate the lamp. They also realized that the spoils would go to the first companies to bring such fixtures to market.

So they called in some expert technological assistance. They contacted the Technical Assistance and Service Center at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute.

"The center started out with a computer model which successfully duplicated the published performance of the real lamp," says Ted Yahraus, Indy Lighting's director of technical services. "Then they took Indy Lighting's criteria for brightness control, spacing and efficiency requirements and began to work these into an optimized design that would meet our performance objectives."

Indy Lighting took the information and the computer model developed at Rose-Hulman, then tooled a working model. The company was pleased with the performance of the working model. "We're happy," Yahraus says. "Time and energy were kept to a minimum, enabling us to introduce these energy-efficient products in a short time, very close to when the lamp itself was introduced."

Thus works the concept of technology transfer. It's a means for companies to tap into the brains of university researchers, to speed up research-and-development, to solve complex technological dilemmas, to leverage limited R&D budgets. Indiana universities stand ready to be partners of the state's businesses, bringing cutting-edge ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace.

It's not a new idea. Technology transfer's roots go back to the 1860s, when land-grant colleges were encouraged to develop, teach and transfer improved farming techniques to rural residents. Today, both federal and state governments have actively supported a wide range of technology-transfer programs. In Indiana, programs established by the General Assembly are helping the state's businesses gain a competitive edge on several fronts.

The Indiana Corporation for Science and Technology, or CST, has invested in innovative R&D centers located at various Indiana universities, with the hope of improving the transfer of technology-based products from the lab to the business world...