THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701180845
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 118 lines
A major research university is contributing assistance and faculty support that goes toward creating jobs, forming companies and generating millions of dollars in revenue for local firms. As a result of the institution's involvement with applied research, the region is growing into a recognizable technology research center on the coast.
Sound like the Silicon Valley? Not exactly.
Say hello to Old Dominion University and Hampton Roads.
The Center for Innovative Technology, a state-funded technology transfer organization that helps companies acquire or strengthen technology-based industries in Virginia, ranked two Old Dominion research application centers among the most successful of its technology development partners. The two Old Dominion programs are spawning new businesses, and helping retain hundreds of local jobs and improve local products. The programs are also helping to distinguish the region as a front runner in the dash to develop new technology.
With these numbers in hand, the president of Old Dominion attests that his institution is the biggest generator of new jobs, laying claim to the title of Hampton Roads' largest economic development engine.
``This is only a partial measure of our total economic development impact,'' said James V. Koch of the Technology Applications Center and the ODU Entrepreneurial Center. ``Our boast has always been that we are the largest economic development impact generator in Hampton Roads with the sum of all those things.''
Koch is backing up his claims with figures outlining the impact of the Technology Applications Center and the ODU Entrepreneurial Center, CIT-affiliates that focus on helping companies apply expertise to improve their operations.
The Technology Applications Center, which helps existing companies apply technology or problem-solve, is responsible for creating or retaining 107 jobs and five companies in 1996. It has helped firms increase or preserve $15.15 million in revenues.
The ODU Entrepreneurial Center's has created or retained 269 jobs and six companies. It has helped firms increase sales by $14.112 million, according to CIT's fiscal year 1996 report. The Entrepreneurial Center functions as an ``incubation'' center, helping start-up companies with advice, direction and faculty support.
The Technology Applications Center is housed on Old Dominion's main campus. The Entrepreneurial Center operates out of the ODU/NSU Graduate Center in Virginia Beach. The facilities are ``virtual'' organizations in the sense that their staff is the university's existing staff and faculty. In addition, the applications center has five full-time staff while the entrepreneurial center has two full-time and seven part-time employees.
The centers are funded by CIT, which is a public-private venture, the university and the companies that request assistance on projects.
News of the two facilities' economic impact buoyed spirits at Old Dominion.
``It's sort of a merit badge that recognizes a very real choice we made in terms of our institutional strategy,'' Koch said. ``We made a conscious decision several years ago to get involved in economic development. It's apparent we've done very, very well at it.''
The $29 million generated last year by the Technology Applications Center and the Entrepreneurial Center is just a fraction of the university's economic development efforts.
The university is seeking commercial returns from a joint venture with NASA Langley over a wind tunnel, a commercial spaceport at Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore, the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center in Suffolk, the Center for Advanced Ship Repair and Maintenance in Norfolk, and the Applied Research Center at the Jefferson Labs in Newport News.
Add the jobs and money generated from the university's daily operation - the faculty and staff position needed to run Old Dominion, the students and their purchasing power in the community, the impact of the university's extracurricular activities and events - and the total economic development impact exceeds $500 million, according to university officials.
``When we're talking of economic development, we're talking about something much more important than research,'' said Bob Ash, associate vice president of research, graduate studies and economic development. ``It represents employment opportunities.''
Mel Miller, vice president of marketing for the Atlantic Group has seen the benefit of ODU's program. The university's Technology Applications Center helped his company design an expansion joint, a seal that connects condensers and turbines at a power plant. The new design adds years to the life of the joint.
``Their research and testing have been invaluable,'' Miller said of ODU.
Oceana Sensor Technologies, a Virginia Beach-based firm, credits Old Dominion with helping it start its sensor assembly operation in Hampton Roads. Oceana Sensors, which makes vibration sensors for industrial monitoring applications, needed space to begin its automated assembly system while its offices were being built and employees were relocating or being hired.
Both the Technology Applications Center and the Entrepreneurial Center helped the company set up manufacturing operations in a ``clean room'' environment as well as use of office space.
Oceana Sensors is betting that it can help traditional industries such as paper, pulp and textiles trim costs as those industries turn to technology to monitor quality control or other activities.
``There's a big expansion of technology and what technology can do with process control,'' Lally said. ``It's creating an opportunity for lots of sensors and improving the quality of products coming out.''
Companies such as Oceana Sensors - technology-oriented, geared toward modernizing industries - are welcomed in Hampton Roads by economic development and city officials, who are seeking to raise the region's per capita income and wages, which lag behind the national average.
Behind its top priority of educating students, the university's second priority is probably ensuring there are jobs for its graduates, said Old Dominion's Ash.
``If used properly, it'll mean the difference between a vibrant technology-based economy and a service-oriented retiree community,'' Ash said of Old Dominion's economic development endeavors.
University officials attribute their success to the willingness of graduate students and faculty to help companies and the school's ``real world'' orientation.
The relative youth of the university compared to others in Virginia translates to a faculty less entrenched in ``traditional'' or theoretical research. Faculty members are younger, more dynamic and oriented toward applying knowledge to company problems.
Most of the projects at the Technology Applications Center, for example, are geared toward research and development, ``very applied oriented projects,'' said Clair Dorsey, the center's director. ``That's what's made us so successful.''
And it'll be the basis for their future record, too.
``Our future prominence will be controlled by how effective we are in these areas,'' Ash said.