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Published weekly during the academic year by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 3699 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, N.Y. 13850.John Hachtel, associate vice president of communications and marketing; Anita Knopp Doll, director of communications; Marty Doorey, editor; Katie Ellis, Janice Endrissen, Gail Glover, Susan E. Barker, Karen Fennie, John Hartrick, Ingrid Husisian, Sandra Paniccia, Susann Thiel, contributing writers; Evangelos Dousmanis, photography; Libby Graves, webmaster. Phone 607-777-6366. COMMENTS: Email Inside. BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Miles	Ghose	Sadik	Fridrich	Baust	Van Buskirk	Horwath

Seven cited by chancellor for inventive work
By Susan E. Barker

Chancellor Robert King will honor seven Binghamton University faculty members for their imagination and energy at an awards dinner recognizing campus inventors and entrepreneurs in Albany on May 20. The dinner will celebrate the hundreds of inventions and innovations by SUNY faculty. The system now ranks in the top 10 of U.S. institutions with patents issued each year and in the top 12 nationally for royalties earned on inventions licensed to industry.

Binghamton faculty who will be honored are: Ronald Miles, Jessica Fridrich, Omowunmi Sadik and Kanad Ghose, selected in the premier inventor category recognizing researchers whose inventions have spurred multiple patents or whose work is of special significance; John Baust and Robert Van Buskirk in the entrepreneur category recognizing those who have started companies to commercialize their inventions; and Kathleen Horwath, in the first invention disclosure in 2001 category recognizing those who have taken the first steps toward patenting an invention.

“Our faculty who have been at the forefront of innovation embody the University’s commitment to research for the public good,” said Frances Carr, vice president for research. “We applaud them for taking the necessary steps to ensure that the fruits of their research can be realized by the larger community, and we hope to continue to provide an enabling environment for this kind of invention and entrepreneurial activity.”

The honorees are:

• Ronald Miles, on the faculty since 1988, is chair of mechanical engineering in the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is developing the world’s smallest directional microphones for civilian and military applications. His work is important in applications in which a miniaturized microphone and signal processing technology could improve the utility and performance of a product. Besides the manufacture of omnidirectional hearing aids, other applications may include security devices, cell phones and teleconferencing equipment.
  
  
• Kanad Ghose is chair and associate professor of computer science. His inventions include a software simulation environment for real-time systems and a system and network for improving byte stream transport protocol performance. Ghose is also pursuing inventions to improve the speed and the security of high-speed local area networks or LANs. The technology Ghose is developing has enormous commercial implications and is expected to allow computer users the kind of brute computing power that is now available only to those with access to super computers.
  
  
• Omowunmi Sadik joined the Binghamton faculty in 1996 and holds two patents for her work on sensors, including one that allows doctors to take readings for the HIV virus in minutes rather than the three-to-four days required by current tests. Her research also focuses on an electronic nose and microelectrode biosensors that are able to detect trace amounts of organic materials. Applications for this technology include drug detection, in place of drug-sniffing dogs, and bomb detection. Her work has numerous civilian and military applications.
  
  
• Jessica Fridrich is a research professor of systems science and electrical engineering whose work focuses on developing mathematical theory and appropriate equipment or apparatus to hide information in digital communications. She also works on ways to crack secret communications schemes. Her inventions promise to spark major advances in the scope and security of digital communications, including digital audio, video and photography. Her work has already generated five U.S. and international patents and significant interest from law enforcement and federal officials in the fight against terrorism.
  
  
• John Baust and Robert Van Buskirk, professors of biological sciences, founded the University’s first biotech incubator company, BioLife Solutions, Inc. in 1998. BioLife has developed methods that extend the length of time human cells, tissues and organs can be preserved. The technology promises to extend the window for organ transplantation, accelerate the growth of the tissue-engineering field, improve patient outcomes following open-heart surgery and, in the future, reduce mortality associated with trauma. The company was recognized in the March 2002 Genetic Engineering News—the premier biotechnology news journal.
  
  
• Kathleen Horwath, associate professor of biological sciences, has studied how winter-hardy insects regulate protein antifreezes to survive in severe cold. She has cloned and described the structure of a novel set of genes that encode for antifreeze proteins. Her inventions have potential in commercial arenas in which ice formation is a problem, including biomedical (storage of tissues and organs) and agricultural (crop frost protection and food storage) and general purpose de-icing applications (household products, road and aircraft de-icing).