96-04-01 NSF Center to Open at Ohio State

Embargoed for release until Monday, April 1

NSF NAMES OHIO STATE AS SITE FOR NEW CENTER TO STUDY SENSORS

     COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University has been selected as 
the site for a new $5 million research center to study industrial 
sensors.  The center will be one of only three in the nation 
formed this year under the National Science Foundation's 
State/Industry/University Cooperative Research Center program.

     The NSF will give Ohio State $1.2 million over five years, 
which must be matched by $1.2 million each from the state and 
industry.  State funding will come from the Ohio Department of 
Development, the Ohio Board of Regents and the Edison Materials 
Technology Center. 

     The university will work with researchers at Case Western 
Reserve University in Cleveland on parts of the project, which 
has already received $2.6 million in funds, equipment and 
services from local and national companies.

     "Partnerships such as these are an investment in our 
economy and our country," said President E. Gordon Gee. "There 
is no question that industry, the university, and the state of 
Ohio will need to work together to meet the challenges of the 
future. And NSF support helps us do just that."

     The Center for Industrial Sensors and Measurements will 
officially open April 1, although research is already underway, 
said Sheikh Akbar, an associate professor of materials science 
and engineering and director of the new center.  C.C. Liu, 
professor of chemical engineering at Case Western, will act as 
the center's associate director.

     "We will do research on sensors that could be used in 
hostile environments, such as industrial furnaces where 
temperatures exceed 1000 degrees Celsius," he said.  "This is 
an area that hasn't been studied enough."

     About 15-20 percent of the research activity will be done at 
a facility at Case Western.  Equipment there will allow 
researchers to fabricate certain types of sensor devices.  

     The bulk of the work will be done at Ohio State, including 
the study of sensors to detect a variety of substances that may 
be hazardous in an industrial environment, or which may cause 
equipment to run inefficiently.  Sensors would detect the 
presence of carbon monoxide, oxygen, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide 
or other gases. 

     The center will also conduct laboratory and field tests of 
these sensors. 

     "We will study these sensors from the development stage to 
the actual application of the devices," Akbar said. 

     Ohio State is one of three universities in the country to 
receive an NSF Cooperative Research Center grant.  Also selected 
were the University of Arizona and the University of Southern 
Illinois.  The addition of these NSF centers brings the total to 
13 in the nation, each focusing on a different but critical 
technology.

     The new center will include faculty members from each of 
several departments, including physics, chemistry, electrical and 
mechanical engineering, and materials science and engineering.  
In addition, 13 graduate students and three post-doctoral 
researchers will work with the center.

     Another researcher will be hired with funding from a grant 
from Ohio State's Center for Materials Research through the CMR 
Scholars II program.

     Research will be done in labs in different departments, 
although the university will provide a central headquarters for 
the center.
                             #

Contact: Sheikh Akbar, (614) 292-6725
Written by Kelli Whitlock, (614) 292-9475


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Mon, 1 Apr 1996 14:35:43 -0500]
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