Technology Transfer in Florida's Great Northwest - Northwest Florida - Okaloosa - Bay - Walton - Escambia

Swords Into Startups…Technology Transfer in Northwest Florida
by
Scott T. Jackson,
Published in Climate Magazine Sept-Oct 2000
Vol 11, Issue 5
(Index of Other Articles)

“they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)”

The substitution of “Startups” to the prophecy of “Swords into Plowshares” puts a contemporary twist to an age-old idea. In the State of Union address of January 28 1992, President George Bush announced that inasmuch as the Cold War had ended he would be making major cuts in military spending, and instead use the funds to boost the economy. A derivative of this policy has been the concept of Technology Transfer. Not just a onetime event but also an ongoing process that continues today -- with the transformation of military technology into technology for the benefit of people. North Florida and Southern Alabama have been at the forefront of this benevolent initiative.

Behind the military gates and the doors of university research laboratories is a quiet but sustained momentum to bring technology developed for warfighting capability into mainstream society and commercial enterprises. What was once needed for survival is now available for prosperity.

One of the most poignant and dramatic examples of the dichotomy of uses of technology was demonstrated in 1992. It involved using the sensor technology incorporated in the seekers of smart bombs to enhance the capability of mammograms to detect breast cancer.

The initiative began with a problem titled “Digital Mammography System” cited by the National Cancer Institute. The problem further stated that the death rate from breast cancer had not subsided over a period of several years in spite of new technologies that were enhancing other parts of our lives. It was hoped that a Digital Mammography System would be a viable course of research and development.

The National Cancer Institute problem found its way into the Armament Directorate of Wright Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base and the desk of somebody with years of experience in the core technologies that might help. Dr. Pat Coffield, President of Tara Research in Shalimar Florida, was a Senior Research Scientist at the laboratory at the time. He was intimately familiar with weapons sensor technology beginning with his stint in Vietnam as an F-4 Phantom Weapons Officer. From there he entered civil service at Eglin and focused his work on developing the optical sensors that allow a weapon to see targets. Along the way he attained a masters and PhD in computer science, arming himself further with the ability to explore and develop high-speed digital computer technology.

Dr. Coffield was appalled at the breast cancer death rates. Although there was other research and technology being studied elsewhere to help detection, in his opinion it mainly reduced the time for a doctor’s evaluation. “If the technique only reduces the time for a doctor’s evaluation, we have not gained with respect to lowering the death rate. Also being able to find lesions as small as 1 millimeter in a 50 year old woman is not a solution the problem. Finding a 0.05 millimeter lesion in a 25 year old woman is.” We have all heard the admonition of the importance of early detection.

Dr. Coffield’s work brought him together with the University of Florida and Lockheed Martin. The challenge was to develop the computer processing capability to conduct the trillions of operations per second (this is approximately 85 times faster than the Pentium II processor). His invention, Parallel Algebraic Logic was essentially an array of fast processing chips working in unison and was to be the cornerstone of the effort.

The technology was successfully transferred to a commercial market; however, Dr. Coffield’s work has not found its way into mammography. It has nothing to do with the technical merits of his contribution. Rather, the inherent delicacy of Technology Transfer itself - a process likened to a ship adrift at sea: the prevailing winds of capitalism and commerce determine into which market your product survives.

In 1992 The Gulf Coast Alliance for Technology Transfer (GCATT) was formed to help navigate the process and facilitate Technology Transfer in the region. GCATT “is an alliance of federal and state organizations allied to foster the climate of technology transfer and to enhance industrial and economic development by the transfer of member technologies from the public to the private sector.”

Dr. Pasquale Sforza is GCATT’s interim director during the search process for a full-time director. He is the Program Director of the University of Florida’s Graduate Engineering Research Center (GERC) just outside the gate of Eglin Air Force Base. The GERC is the administrative agent for GCATT. He is passionate about Technology Transfer and would like to see a research park of high-tech companies spawn from its progress.

Dr Sforza says the crux of the problem with Technology Transfer is two-fold: 1) It is hard to get products out of the hands of the inventors. Since it is their “baby” they tend to coddle it and make it better, sometimes beyond its commercial viability. 2) Most inventors are not business-oriented and not receptive to competitive comparisons or detailed examination of their product.

Eddie Phillips has been with GCATT since its inception and is it’s Associate Director. He noted GCATT’s first project involved the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory in Pensacola and its patented formula to mitigate low frequency sounds for ear protection of naval personnel. Dave Strunk, a GCATT consultant and CEO of Dynamic Safety Resources, facilitated the transfer and licensing of this “formula” to Moldex in Milton, Florida. “Manufacturing processes and quality processes are also elements that can appeal to the commercial market” he states.

One company, MILCOM Technologies Inc. of Maitland Florida has taken an entrepreneurial perspective of Technology Transfer by injecting venture and intellectual capital into emerging technologies and forming high-tech startups with an end game of bringing the companies public. As their name suggests, they leverage military products into communications and information technology enterprises.

Collectively the GCATT research institutions conduct engineering and scientific R&D activities estimated at $500,000,000 per year and form a high-tech “center of gravity” that uniquely characterizes the region as fertile ground for innovation and technological excellence. From the University of West Florida’s Institute for Human Cognition to the remotely piloted jet-skis being tested at the Coastal Systems Division to Florida A&M’s Muscaberry Juice product, the range of possibilities and entrepreneurial opportunities seem endless.

At a recent economic development strategy session attended by Northwest Florida leaders, issues critical to the future of our economic health were discussed. A key element mentioned by Economic Development Directors Mike Frey of Pensacola and Larry Sassano of Okaloosa County was the absolute importance of sustaining our military presence in the region. The research conducted on our military installations along with the university laboratories of GCATT suggests that the presence is even more inextricably linked than we thought. Shaping a long-term strategy with the GCATT constellation of technological excellence could help us carve out a distinct high-tech identity. Along with the area’s beauty and quality of life we could solidify our standing as one of the finest places to live and work.