17 research projects notch state funding

Seventeen research projects at three universities in Utah will receive state funding during the upcoming fiscal year through the Centers of Excellence program.

Three more will have business experts help as they try to commercialize their technologies.

The Utah Board of Business and Economic Development approved the funding Friday.

The Centers program is designed to accelerate university research and technology and commercialize it. Recipients need a 2-to-1 match of money from outside sources.

"It's a jewel of the state's economic development policy," board member Richard Nelson said Friday in noting that the legislative appropriation for the Centers program had increased from $2 million to $3 million for the upcoming fiscal year. "It has been for years, and now it's being reinvented, and we see in future years it being much more important."

Nicole Toomey Davis, director of the program, said 34 applications were received, including 17 for renewal. Among those receiving funding are 12 renewals.

Centers receiving funding for the 2005-06 fiscal year are:

• Acoustics Research, Brigham Young University. Commercializing active sound control technology with the ability to reduce noise in varied settings (vehicle cabins, computer fans and telecommunications, for example) and modify sounds for commercial benefit.

• Advanced Communications Technology, BYU. Improved wireless communications and data transmission for both military and commercial markets is achieved through the use of MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology with multiple antenna elements.

• Miniature Unmanned Air Vehicles, BYU. Rapid design of airframes and miniaturized autopilot and guidance systems for tiny UAVs that can be operated by novices have earned the attention of both military and civilian agencies.

• Direct Machining and Control, BYU, assigned a business team. Developing programming that allows a manufacturer to automatically optimize part production by adjusting for the specifications and tolerances of each item.

• Biomedical Microfluidics, University of Utah. Engineering technology that controls the movement of fluids in channels smaller than a human hair.

• Computational Design and Testing of Novel Materials, U. Commercializing powerful computational packages capable of designing novel materials and predicting the electrical, mechanical and structural characteristics of electromechanical devices, especially nanostructured materials and components.

• Global Knowledge Management, U. Developing knowledge fusion and dynamic knowledge refreshing software to enable next-generation data mining technology.