Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993                   TAG: 9307150187
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

FORMER GOVERNOR OPENS NEW LAB AT TECH CENTER

Vatell is the first Montgomery County company to take advantage of the Virginia Department of Economic Development Loan Fund designed to provide low-interest rates to companies creating jobs in the state.

President Lawrence Langley said the company hopes to double its 12-person work force in the next two years.

"That's a reasonable expectation," he said.

Vatell develops ways to apply university research to business.

Its new Thermateq lab will produce heat sensors that measure the flow of heat energy through a surface.

"The product we will produce is not exactly a household item," Langley said.

"Now that we will have a facility to produce the Heat Flux Microsensor, we are talking to hundreds of customers about potential applications."

The company also has developed a new computer keyboard with only eight keys that performs all the functions of a regular keyboard.

Former Gov. Linwood Holton, now president of the Center for Innovative Technology, was in town to welcome Vatell to the Corporate Research Center.

"We are seeing jobs created here," Holton said.

"A few jobs here and a few jobs there add up."

The CIT and Virginia Tech have aided Vatell in developing the technology for the heat sensor.

The sensor was invented by Tech professors Thomas Diller and Shinzo Onishi.

"Putting people together to develop industry growth is just exactly what [CIT] is all about," Holton said.

Founded in 1985, Vatell is partly owned by Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Virginia Tech.

Langley said funds from the state loan program will be used to purchase equipment for the new lab.

To qualify for the loan - administered by the Industrial Development Authority - Vatell must create 10 new jobs during the five-year loan period.

"The IDA is especially pleased to have played a role in this expansion project," said Brad Denardo, past president of the organization.

"This creates high-tech, high quality jobs in Montgomery County."