Portland State Magazine Fall 2008

From the lab to the world Faculty research is going from ideas to something the public can use. WRITTEN BY MELISSA STEINEGER PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY JAMES TH INK THE WORLD will bear a path co your door if you build a better mousetrap? Think again. In today's world, even developing a revolutionary treatment for malaria-as PSU chemistry professor David Peyton is doing-is no guarantee char anyone will come calling. Whether it's a medical breakthrough or implementing an innovative approach co learning-such as rhe work ofApplied Linguistics Chair Sreve Reder-gerring a berrer mousetrap into rhe hands of rhe people who can use iris no snap. Patents need co be filed, business agreements made, and intellectual property protected. If you're nor a business maven, it gees complicated and in Peyton's case, expensive. Just filing for a patent can cost $15,000. Enter the new PSU Innovation and Industry Alliances (IIA) program. Ir rakes on the role of business consul cane, helping professors gee whatever their particular project needs-fund– ing, patents, and/or busi ness partners-co rum their research ideas into something the public can use. Any royalties are split among Porrland Scare, rhe department, and rhe inventor or project. "The goal," says Dana Bostrom, IIA director, "is co maxi– mize rhe impact of rhe research for rhe public good." FALL 2008 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 11