Events

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Panel members representing business and academia will discuss their successes and challenges working on public and private sector collaborative projects.

• How do you find private sector partners?
• What does it take to make these projects work?
• How do you commercialize your ideas?
• How do Intellectual Property issues impact this process?

These are just a few of the topics our panelists will discuss during the session. Join us for networking and to ask your questions of these business and faculty leaders.

Time:  4:30 PM to 7:00 PM

Agenda: 

4:30 PM – 5:15 PM – Registration Reception and Networking
5:15 PM – 6:15 PM – Panel Discussion
6:15 PM – 7:00 PM – Networking

For more information, view the event pdf:  Pluginto_privsect_oct09.pdf

To Register:
Email us your name and contact information - itnwk@psu.edu, or call Yvonne Dunst, 717-948-6455. Pre-registration is required.

Speaker Bios:
These panel members bring a wealth of experience to share with attendees, based on their own professional interaction with private sector companies and faculty:

Mr. Brian McNew, President & CEO, EarthNet Energy

Graduated from Shippensburg University in 1981 with a BS/BA Degree.  Past work experience included food service, distribution, national retail, small business fossil fuel sales, luxury item retail sales, administration and accounting, general construction and contracting, government contracting, light commercial construction, land development/planning, real estate sales and marketing, property management, and as of 2008 established EarthNet Energy which is dedicated to the manufacture and development of alternative energy products and to assisting companies and institutions with the development of energy plans and utilization of alternative energy sources.

Mr. Matt Steiman, Assistant Manager, Dickinson College
                                Technical Advisor, Dickinson College Biodiesel
 
Matt Steiman joined the Dickinson College environmental sustainability team in 2007 as the assistant manager of the college farm, where he is responsible for renewable energy projects, systems design, and maintenance.  From 2007 to 2009 he also helped expand the Dickinson College biodiesel program from a small student project to a full service production and research facility.  In 2007 the college farm worked with Solar Tech of PA to build an innovative solar heated greenhouse.  In 2008, the biodiesel plant collaborated with Keystone Biofuels to study economically viable options for re-use of the biodiesel glycerol byproduct.  Both of these projects were funded by seed assistance grants from the Innovation Transfer Network.

R.V. Sairam, Ph.D, Assistant Professor-Biology; School of Science Engineering and Technology, Penn State University-Harrisburg
Ph.D. Osmania University & ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India 1995, Genetics
M.Sc.  M.S. University, Baroda, India 1992, Plant Tissue Culture and Plant Physiology
B.Sc.   Andhra University, India 1991, Botany, Zoology and Chemistry

Dr. Sairam earned his Ph.D in Genetics from Osmania University, and his research interests involve using genetic engineering of plants to provide disease resistance, produce biofuels, and produce pharmaceuticals. Among the courses he teaches are Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology, Cell and Molecular Biology, and Advances in Plant Biotechnology- Transgenic Plants. During his career he has held private and academic posts including: Assistant Director & Research Associate Professor at the Plant Science Research Center at The University of Toledo; Research Scientist for Cereal Biotechnology at Aventis Crop Science; Visiting Scientist/Group Leader for Sorghum Biotechnology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; Subject Expert in Biotechnology for the Netherlands-India Biotechnology Program; and  Research Fellow/Associate/Scientist (Cereal Biotechnology) at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and National Research Center for Sorghum. His current projects include construction of a new research greenhouse and Biotechnology facility on the Penn State Harrisburg Campus where work on Jatropha, Switchgrass and Eastern Gamagrass can be expanded. Other genetic research incorporates value added traits into  rice, sorghum, and maize, and production of pharmaceutical proteins using plants as bioreactors. The team has been able to induce flowering and plant production from only a tissue culture grown and modified in the laboratory. Results of such research include plants which are modified to thrive in the colder climates of Pennsylvania, on poor quality soil with low maintenance needs – possibly producing an additional harvest each year. These attributes are of interest to traditional farmers, producers of fuel crops like Jatropha, and to greenhouse owners looking to extend the seasons and hardiness of their plants. He has authored numerous publications, has several patents pending; and in June 2009 was issued US Patent 7,547,548: A method for producing In Vitro flowering in a plant and plants produced therefrom. 

Dr. Hans Pfister,  Chair Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Dickinson College
Associate Professor of Physics and George Wesley Pedlow Chair in Pedagogy.
Staatsexamen, Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany 1979 (Mathematics), 1980 (Physics); Ph.D., UCLA, 1991 (Physics), 2008 Fulbright Scholar.

As an advocate for the environment he encourages sustainable living, supports sustainable technology, and embraces renewable energy sources. With the help of a 2006 Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) Seed/Assistance grant he was able to turn one of his visions, a sun-tracking solar concentrator, into a reality. This prototype will soon make some of the hot water for the students living in Dickinson’s Center for Sustainable Living. A 2009 ITN Seed/Assistance grant enabled him to design and build a concentrating solar collector, which converts solar energy directly into electricity, using a thermoelectric converter (TEC). A 2007 Innovation Transfer Network (ITN)/KIZ Seed/Assistance grant supported the design and construction of the “Gentle Crown and Bridge Remover,” a dental device, which removes temporary crowns and bridges by a series of micro pulses, applied to the backside of the dental appliances.  Over the course of the semester he devotes time as a plasma physicist to work with senior physics majors on his design of a plasma propulsion device known as a Hall thruster. With another group of seniors he built a solar powered Stirling engine. Over the course of the past 18 years he has developed numerous kinesthetic physics experiments, incorporating his students into the experiment, thus allowing them to feel the forces and accelerations on their own body. Three of his inventions, a Kinesthetics Cart for Motion in 1-D, a Kinesthetics Cart for Motion in 2-D, and a Thermodynamic Engine and Ideal Gas Law Demonstration Apparatus are being used at about a thousand colleges, universities, and high schools. Some of his other interests include physics puzzles, tricks, and toys, as applied to the physics classroom.