 |
Technology Transfer Leadership |
New consortia spur industry partnerships
Three new consortia have been added to the college's growing list of these formal industry partnership vehicles: the Consortium for Drinking Water Research, the CHESS Health Education Consortium; and the Quality Assurance Systems Research Consortium. Members benefit by helping determine research directions, getting early access to research results, and interacting with faculty and students. The college now has 14 consortia.
Information access for business & industry: Wisconsin TechSearch delivers
The college's information outreach program, Wisconsin TechSearch (WTS), is a major resource for business and industry. WTS offers engineering, science and technology literature searches, with access to more than 500 databases, including U.S. and foreign patent information. Since 1992, the amount of on-line searching WTS has performed for its clients has nearly doubled.
NIST grant to aid Wisconsin manufacturers
A partnership between the College of Engineering, UW-System schools, UW Extension, industry, state agencies and labor won a six year, multi-million dollar National Institute of Standards and Technology grant to help smaller Wisconsin manufacturers improve competitiveness. Known as the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership (WMEP), the effort will use manufacturing extension agents to help bring modern production strategies to the state's nearly 10,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers. The extension agents will help to better coordinate the vast array of manufacturing-oriented services available to companies from public institutions and the private sector.
COE's industrial film research improves manufacturing processes
Associate Professor A. Jeffrey Giacomin and Assistant Professor Michael D. Graham direct a team that explores the role played by wall slip in
industrial film blowing. Slip causes product to roughen and limits
throughput in commercial operations. This team is also attacking the
mysterious build-up of unwanted material on extrusion dies, a
challenging industrial problem. The project is supported by the
University-Industry Relations program and the Graduate School. Shown
here, a research assistant examines the quality of plastic film
extruded from a pilot-scale film blowing line. In another project,
funded by 3M, Giacomin and Assistant Professor Karen A. Thole will use
laser Doppler velocimetry to characterize the turbulent air jet that
cools the film.
WEMPEC technology creates motor that is both sensor and power converter
Technology being developed by Professor Robert D. Lorenz within the
Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium
enables a motor to be both a sensor and a power converter. Such
"self-sensing" motors need only signals available on the power
leads to sense motor position and velocity. This eliminates the need
for traditional "bolt-on" position sensors, substantially increasing
reliability, reducing motor weight, and reducing cost for automotive
and aerospace applications. In addition to the 60 WEMPEC consortium
sponsors, individual companies sponsoring specific projects include
Ford, General Motors, Kodak, Samsung and Goldstar.
Copyright © 1996 University System Board of Regents
Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu
Markup by webmaster@engr.wisc.edu
Date last modified: Wednesday, 25-Sep-1996 12:00:00 CDT
Date created: 25-Sep-1996