RESEARCH OREGON 2006: PROFILESProfiles in collaborationResearch Oregon looks at who’s cashing in on research.PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORIES AND OREGON POWER COMPANIES Smart appliances help ease energy strains
Imagine a more intelligent appliance, one so smart it can
actually help utilities stabilize an overloaded power grid
without disrupting service to customers. Teaming up to tackle smallpox and other diseasesThere’s a simple reason
SIGA Technologies, a New York biotech company, has its research
and development operations in Corvallis near Oregon State
University.
Pairing ideal grapes and growing conditions down south
Portland. Precipitation. Pinot
noir. |
 WINEMAKERS rely on SOU’s climate research to help them pick varietals for a growing industry. |
They are the three p’s that, to Southern Oregon
University geography professor Gregory Jones, define the Beaver
State for those outside its borders.
While he can’t deny Portland its renown or dry up
Oregon’s skies, Jones is using his research in
irrigation, climate, growing conditions and more to help
vintners — particularly in Southern Oregon — carve
out their own identity and success in the world of wine.
“To me, some of the work that we’re doing really
helps establish an identity for the industry down here,”
says Jones, whose research has helped determine which grapes
— so far syrah, tempranillo, viognier and merlot
— are best suited to Southern Oregon.
New for Jones this year is a research project funded by the
Oregon Wine Board to develop an irrigation calendar for
growers. A statewide initiative, the project measures water
usage in characteristic regions to help growers better manage
and optimize their water resources.
Jones, whose research in the Rogue and Umpqua valleys helped
establish the federally recognized Southern Oregon American
Viticultural Area in 2004, also collaborates with scores of
wineries to gather information vital to improving the wine
industry in Southern Oregon.
Now in its fourth year in the Rogue Valley and third in the
Umpqua, Jones’ reference winery project monitors
temperature, phenology — natural growth cycles from bud
break to ripening — and composition of grapes.
Participating wineries share their data with Jones, all in an
effort to better determine which varietals grow best in a
particular region, climate or condition.
Laura Lotspeich, co-owner of Pheasant Hill Vineyard in the
Rogue Valley, says Jones’ work has already led to some
varietal grafting at her vineyard. “Greg and the
university facilitating the data collection and interpretation
is really making it easier for our industry to be more
successful,” she says.
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY AND
COLUMBIA FOREST PRODUCTS
Professor builds a lasting bond with plywood company
Steve Pung first came across Oregon State
University associate professor Kaichang Li and a 3-inch piece
of plywood during a presentation at a 2003 Forest Products
Society meeting in Seattle.
The 40 other people in the room didn’t seem too
interested in Li’s plywood square, which had been glued
together with a soy-based adhesive Li developed after studying
how mussels adhere to ocean rocks.
But Pung, vice president of technology for Columbia Forest
Products, saw in Li’s work the potential for a strong,
non-toxic adhesive that the Portland-based plywood manufacturer
had been in search of for years.
“The holy grail for us was to find an alternative to
urea formaldehyde resins that was cost effective,” says
Pung, noting that the UF used in most plywood has been
classified as carcinogenic. “Dr. Li’s product
looked like it had the potential to be just that.”
After three years of additional research and development by Li
— with funding from Columbia and Hercules Inc., which
produces a curing agent for the adhesive — that potential
became a reality.
Today, Columbia has a licensing agreement with OSU and has
nearly completed a multimillion-dollar retooling of its seven
plywood mills for the use of PureBond, the commercial name for
the adhesive Li developed by studying mussel proteins.
Li and Columbia are now working on ways to use the adhesive in
wood composite products such as particleboard, medium density
fiberboard and wood-plastic composites.
And Li, who got the initial idea for the adhesive while
exploring the Oregon Coast, says the potential effects of the
collaboration between OSU and Columbia will reach far beyond
Oregon.
“The forest products industry is one of the biggest
industries in Oregon,” he says. “Our work will
definitely increase the global competitiveness of Oregon forest
product companies and greatly improve our working and living
environment.”
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON AND
LANGUAGE LEARNING SOLUTIONS
Speaking the same language
When it comes to promoting product development
, it’s not unusual for universities to focus on the
lucrative fields of science and medicine.
But in building an innovative partnership between its Center
for Applied Second Language Studies and the proficiency
assessment company Language Learning Solutions, the University
of Oregon has shown that other areas of study can yield big
dividends as well.
“It would have been easy for the University of Oregon to
say we’re not going to see any returns from this for a
while,” says David Bong, co-founder of LLS, which works
with CASLS to bring foreign language assessments to market.
“But they didn’t do that. They really contributed
and allowed us to get our business started.”
Founded in 2001, LLS emerged out of work begun by Carl
Falsgraf, who started CASLS in the early 1990s to expand and
improve the teaching of Japanese language in Oregon. The
center’s scope eventually broadened to include support
for teachers in a range of different languages across the
country.
Falsgraf, director of CASLS, says that by the late 1990s the
center’s materials and language proficiency assessment
tools were garnering national attention. So in 2001, he
established LLS with Bong and built a partnership between the
company and the U of O that continues to flourish today.
As it stands, LLS licenses online language assessments that
have been developed at CASLS. When LLS sells an assessment
— say to the New Jersey Department of Education for
testing eighth graders’ progress in foreign languages
— the company pays a royalty to the university, some of
which goes back to CASLS. “The whole thing’s kind
of a nice circle,” says Bong.
OIT’S OREGON RENEWABLE
ENERGY CENTER, ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL CORP. AND
SOLARC
Architecture and Engineering Partnership takes control of sustainable building
 THE PAINT COLOR isn’t the only thing that’s green in this zero-energy home, which produces more energy than it consumes. |
In the late 1980s, Robert Rogers, a research engineer for the
Oregon Renewable Energy Center at the Oregon Institute of
Technology, did some work on the electronic controls of Bill
Gates’ home in Seattle.
The Microsoft mogul apparently liked to be able to draw his
bath via remote control so it was ready for him after a long
day in the office.
Fast-forward to 2006, and Rogers and OREC are using the same
kind of “smart controller” technology to monitor
heating and cooling functions, lighting, sprinklers and more in
green, “net-zero energy” homes — that is,
homes that are able to produce more energy than they
consume.
Rogers and OIT/OREC students have partnered with SOLARC
Architecture and Engineering Inc. of Eugene and
Environmental
Control Corporation of Portland to develop these smart digital
controllers for use in net-zero energy homes and
construction.
“These houses, in order to be as efficient as they are,
have to be intelligent as well,” says Rogers.
In one prototype home in Portland, a highly efficient net-zero
energy home known as the Rose House, OIT students installed all
of the controls and monitoring systems. The controllers monitor
energy use and glean weather and other data from the Internet
to ensure optimal efficiency in the home.
OIT-designed controls also have been installed in a second
net-zero home in Cannon Beach that was designed by SOLARC. The
home incorporates solar panels, a sod roof and OIT-developed
controllers, which coordinate and monitor the home’s
energy systems.
Along with other sustainable features, OIT’s digital
controls helped the house win the Green Building
Council’s “Sustainable Home of the Year”
award and a Western Home award from Sunset magazine.
Current Issue | MAY 08 |
|
 Q&A with new state labor chief Startups: The beat goes on in Portland CH2M Hill wins $5.25 billion contract on Panama Canal Finding treasure in The Dalles Graphic: Portland construction costs low compared to other cities |
 Using retreats to advance your team More executives turning to private jets Easy, low-cost ways to keep employees healthier Next: The wood bike |
 Deal Watch: Making a splash with interactive ads |
 Spring, Botox in the air |
 Online survey: Readers share their economic mood Value of state’s prisons deserves broader view |
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