Oregon daily emerald., July 18, 1973, Page 4, Image 4

NSF grant expands Inventors Council activities
Hie “Paddock Safety Chain”
can keep several thousand
pounds of trailer riding behind an
automobile if a conventional
trailer hitch fails. The original
inspiration for the device came
from a farmer in Lakeview and
the prototype was manufactured
bv the 3-E Company of Eugene.
Tops ‘iT Pants
Color Galore
By MARK FRYBURG
Of the Emerald
The University’s Oregon In
ventors Council (OIC) is doing
research that could get the in
novation on hardware shelves.
The OIC exists to “assist in
ventors in the development and
marketing of useful ideas and
inventions. ” It has considered 596
potential products like the safety
chain. Now the council’s
operations will expand, thanks to
a $793,650 five-year grant from
the National Science Foundation.
The grant was announced June
29, but no one at OIC knows when
the money will arrive, or what
the guidelines are for spending it.
“We can’t wait for the
guidelines,” is the response of
Dr. Leslie Shaffer, Associate
Professor of Business Ad
ministration and Director of
Innovation at the OIC. Presently
the OIC has about 40 students —
from Shaffer’s" “Research in
Applied Innovation” class —
researching several inventions
each.
When Shaffer was contacted by
the Emerald last Thursday, he
was examining the Paddock
Safety Chain (that name may
change) in a corridor of Com
monwealth Hall. He explained
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that the five-foot device is too big
to spread out in the tiny office of
the OIC.
Shaffer had just completed a
meeting of the OIC’s steering
committee and had a few
moments to discuss the invention
with its manufacturer and the
student assigned to the case. He
was travelling to Portland the
next day to promote the safety
chain and three other products.
Before the trip Shaffer told the
Emerald:
To the best of his knowledge,
the $793,650 NSF grant is the
“biggest award” the College of
Business Administration has
ever received.
Pending arrival of the NSF
guidelines, the money will be
used to expand the OIC program.
The OIC provides services in
cluding a patent search which
determines if the idea is original,
complete cost appraisals,
analysis of the market, and even
contact and product promotion
with a manufacturer. The future
of the inventor’s $15 filing fee is
uncertain. The student resear
chers are unpaid, but receive
academic credit for their work.
Lane Community College,
which inherited the program
from OMSI in 1967, is now
disengaging completely from the
project. Recently, financial
records were kept by OIC
Executive Secretary Joris
Johnson of LOC, and the OIC
Board of Directors met there.
The OIC steering committee is
now reorganizing the council’s
administration and considering
new members for the board of
directors, which passes final
judgment on each invention. The
board is composed of
representatives of industry,
government, and other groups.
According to Shaffer, the NSF
expects a report by Sept. 15 on the
reorganization and periodic
progress reports thereafter.
However, Shaffer said there is no
.way the University can lose the
grant — it’s good for five years.
Business school Dean Richard
West has reportedly said that
state and private funds should
support the program when the
NSF grant expires.
According to Shaffer and Ron
Creswick, OIC public relations
director, the NSF fund was
discovered last fall through a
continuous monitoring of
government money sources.
Two other schools are in the
NSF program: the Massachu
setts Institute of
Technology and Carnegie
Technical Institute at Pittsburgh,
Pa. The purpose of the NSF’s
Experimental Research and
Development Incentives
Program is to “develop the
technical potential of the people
in this country,” Shaffer said. As
far as he’s concerned the
University’s program will “lead
the pack.” Shaffer claims that
the University has the only in
novation research and promotion
program in the country that
“utilizes students to do all the
research in the projects.”
The Oregon Inventors Council
provides a service that many
inventors and small companies
(Continued on Page 7)
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1973-74
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