Jonathan Hurst, right, was recognized by Popular Mechanics magazine with one of ten Breakthrough Innovator awards for 2012.

An era of walking robots that can help people with physical disabilities, take on dangerous missions or aid in disaster response is about to begin. One of the leaders in this emerging field, Oregon State University engineer Jonathan Hurst, was recognized in October by Popular Mechanics with one of its “Breakthrough Innovator” awards of 2012.

The science in this field is rapidly expanding, said Hurst, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Oregon State, who received the award along with his colleague, Jessy Grizzle, at the University of Michigan. Ten awards were made to scientists and engineers around the nation.

The researchers have built two walking robots, MABEL and the next generation model, ATRIAS. In each case, the technology is based on a fundamental understanding of how animals walk and run, using minimal energy to accomplish a maximum of locomotion and sensory response.

Hurst said walking robots are about where the automotive industry was 150 years ago, full of promise, with a number of new inventions and about ready to take off.

“In the next 20 years you are going to see legged robots all over the place, doing all kinds of jobs,” Hurst said. “The sky is the limit.”

Beginning with funding from the National Science Foundation for MABEL, and continuing with $4.7 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Oregon State and Michigan experts worked from principles of animal locomotion. The mechanical system closely interacts with the software control system, such as fiberglass springs working together with computer control to create efficient and stable walking and running gaits.

“So far much of what we’ve done has been with computer simulations, as we spent the past three years designing and building ATRIAS,” Hurst said. “The simulations are working, and our robot was walking three days after it was built. Now we’re going to demonstrate the control ideas on the real machines.”

Robots that ultimately can walk and maneuver over uneven terrain have a range of possibilities, Hurst added. One would be helping to power prosthetic limbs for people, or use an exo-skeleton to assist people with muscular weakness. But there could also be applications in the military, in disaster response, or any type of dangerous situation.

For something that humans usually learn to do by the time they are a year old, walking is still a mystery to most scientists. The complexity of sensory and mechanical input from nerves, vision, muscles and tendons has challenged the most sophisticated concepts in robotics.

MABEL, however, is able to run a nine-minute mile and step off a ledge. ATRIAS is even lighter, faster, and has three-dimensional motion capabilities. Some of these advances have been possible, Hurst said, because the Oregon State and Michigan researchers took a step back to better understand the fundamental forces at work before even trying to build something.

Most robots today work in a very static or highly controlled environment, but humans live in a mobile, unpredictable world, and with further advances robots may soon be able to join it.

FUNDING
National Science Foundation
Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI)
Hewlett Packard
Corning

RESEARCH PARTNERS
Federal labs and agencies
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology

Universities
Oregon State University
University of Oregon
Eastern Oregon University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
Washington University
Rutgers
Clemson
Central Washington University

Business and Industry
Hewlett Packard
Corning
Intel
Boeing
Sigma-Aldrich
IBM
General Electric
Inpria
Amorphyx

“Your TV-picture screen in 1964 may be so thin that it can be hung like a painting on the wall or mounted like a vanity mirror in a table model.” Popular Mechanics, January 1954

Popular Mechanics’ prediction took considerably more than 10 years to come true, but today’s flat-panel screens have gone well beyond that early vision. Some of them are nearly as big as a living room wall. They bring us unimaginably sharp detail, from the spots on butterfly wings to the grimace on a linebacker’s face.

This technology — whether hooked up to your cable feed, DVD player, wi-fi or computer — is also becoming integral to daily life. It increasingly provides the platforms on which we shop, share photos, read books, keep up with friends, play games, manage finances and work. In 2011, the global flat-panel screen industry shipped more than $120 billion worth of products, enough to cover nearly 16,000 football fields.

Doug Keszler, center, works with graduate students Deok-Hie Park and Shawn Decker on a pulsed electron deposition chamber on the Oregon State campus. (Photo: Jeff Basinger)

However, our love of flashy high-res has a dark side. Manufacturing the semiconductors behind these electronic systems produces waste, lots of it. “The electronics and solar industries build devices where the materials input is very high relative to what ends up in the product. There’s tremendous amounts of waste and very high energy input,” says Doug Keszler, Oregon State University chemist.

Keszler and a team of scientists and engineers at Oregon State and the University of Oregon are leading a national consortium bent on greening the flat-panel display industry. In their future, windows, mirrors, walls and counters could display messages and harvest solar energy. “We’re trying to turn this industry into a truly zero-waste proposition while improving performance,” says Keszler, a principal scientist in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC). “We’d like to do electronics the size of a wall. The question is: How do you do that efficiently without producing even more waste?”

Startups Provide Jobs

Scientists use a spectroscopic ellipsometer to analyze atomic structure in thin films. (Photo: Jeff Basinger)

The CSMC has already produced significant results: a metal-insulator-metal diode (a kind of electronic switch) that outperforms the fastest silicon-based semiconductors; water-based manufacturing techniques that reduce waste and improve productivity; high-resolution fabrication processes that forge thinner electronic components. With research roots going back more than a decade at OSU and UO, the center has spun off two startup companies, generated more than a dozen U.S. patents and developed an educational partnership to inspire more Oregon high school students to attend college. It also helps graduates to create their own careers. In cooperation with the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, CSMC students join business leaders in the chemical and electronics industries to identify commercial opportunities stemming from research.

“About two-thirds of all Ph.D. graduates in the physical sciences now find their first job in a startup company,” says Keszler. “There is very little education to prepare students for that career path. We train them to recognize market value in their research, so they can work effectively with entrepreneurs and business development people.”

Two startups have already hired the center’s graduates. Amorphyx (www.amorphyx.com) is commercializing a new electronics manufacturing process that limits the production of unwanted industrial byproducts. Moreover, it trims a six-part process to two steps, offering the possibility of tripling production capacity in an existing facility.

In collaboration with another spinoff, Inpria (www.inpria.com), the center has broken a barrier in high-resolution circuitry, going below the 20-nanometer scale and enabling computer chips to accommodate more functions at higher speeds.

New materials and water-based manufacturing process may be key to reducing waste in the semiconductor industry, says Doug Keszler. (Photo: Jeff Basinger)

These achievements reflect gains reported by Oregon State engineer John Wager, physicist Janet Tate, graduate student Randy Hoffman and other researchers as early as 2003. They noted that transparent thin-film transistors made of zinc oxide could lead to new kinds of liquid-crystal displays, the dominant type of flat-panel screen. In 2006, HP licensed the technology and has been developing applications in collaboration with OSU.

At UO in 2003, researchers in Darren Johnson’s chemistry lab discovered a solution-based process for making nanoclusters, leading to the possibility that new semiconductors could be made without hazardous chemicals. Jason Gatlin, the UO graduate student who discovered the process, instigated a new UO-OSU collaboration when he shared his findings at a conference sponsored by the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute.

“We’re pushing the boundaries of science and seeing things no one has ever seen before,” says Keszler. “There’s a lot of joy in the intellectual exchanges in such a diverse group.”

To attract more young scientists to their journey, CSMC students will begin working with Hermiston High School teacher Lisa Frye and her chemistry classes this fall. They will provide support, advanced instruction and resources to inspire high-school students to consider careers in science.

“What we’re after over the next 10 years,” says Keszler, “is to put the (industrial) ecosystem together that allows you to print electronics on flexible glass. They will be high performance, durable, and include applications such as solar collectors.”

We’ve come a long way from the futuristic idea of hanging TV screens like paintings on the walls of our homes.

Xihou Yin, president, AGAE Technologies (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

AGAE Technologies

Surfactants enhance cleaning, dispersion and emulsification in paints, household cleaners and other products. However, many are known to be toxic. Based on research in the Oregon State College of Pharmacy, AGAE Technologies has developed a biological method for producing surfactants that are environmentally benign and biodegradable. Based on licensed OSU technology, the new product is known as a “rhamnolipid” and is produced by a strain of the common bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Scott Gilbert, left, chief technology officer, and Todd Miller, president of Microflow CVO (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

Microflow CVO

The problem seems simple: mix two liquids with consistently uniform results. Manufacturers usually perform this step in vats where batches of liquids are stirred and then processed. Through research in OSU’s Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, Microflow CVO has developed stainless-steel micromixers that achieve high-quality mixtures by pushing liquids through channels slightly larger than a human hair. The dime-sized devices can be scaled and adapted to manufacturing needs in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and personal-care product industries.

Applied Exergy
Renewable energy sources tend to be intermittent: They produce power when the sun shines or the wind blows. Based on research in the OSU College of Engineering and the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, Applied Exergy is developing methods for storing energy as “low-grade heat,” temperatures from 40 to 80 degrees Centigrade. The technology has multiple applications: energy recovery from steam plumes, integration with carbon capture systems and energy storage for use during peak demand.

The company opened its doors in May 2011 and today employs five people. AGAE licensed the patented technology from OSU and has conducted its own research on cost-effective, high-yield processes for manufacturing a compound known as a rhamnolipid biosurfactant.

Xihou Yin, Oregon State University College of Pharmacy (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

Surfactants, also known as “surface active agents,” are commonly used in personal and household products, paints and manufacturing processes to enhance cleaning, wetting, dispersion and emulsification. Synthesized by the newly discovered NY3 strain of the common bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, AGAE Technologies’ rhamnolipid biosurfactants “are nontoxic, environmentally benign and completely biodegradable,” said company CEO Harrison Parks.

Biosurfactants are a novel group of microbial compounds, which are made by living cells. “The increasing use of biosurfactants is being driven by technology breakthroughs, environmental awareness and tightening of regulations regarding chemical surfactants,” Parks added.

101 Active Licenses

AGAE is one of the latest companies to commercialize OSU research. In 2011, the university increased licensing revenues by 63 percent with 101 “active” technology licenses from mass spectrometry to mold and yeast inhibitors. “We are taking steps to help accelerate innovation through our partnerships with start ups like AGAE, as well as with established companies,” said Ron Adams, OSU executive associate vice president for research. “AGAE’s rapid move to sales is an example of the results of our effort.”

Xihou Yin, president and founder of AGAE Technologies and senior research faculty member in the OSU College of Pharmacy, has received customer inquiries from North America and Europe. “We are now able to meet their demand with laboratory research-grade rhamnolipids, and we are developing commercial-grade products of various purity specifications for pharmaceuticals, environmental bioremediation, personal care and several other application segments.”

Rhamnolipids contain L-rhamnose and β-hydroxyl fatty acids, with amphiphilic properties (both hydrophilic and hydrophobic). Based on Yin’s research, AGAE Technologies is now producing a product known as R-95 (HPLC/MS-grade) rhamnolipids, allowing the company to become the only known supplier of pure rhamnolipid compounds to the world market.

Cutting Costs

“Rhamnolipids were discovered about 60 years ago,” Yin said. “The real bottleneck to replacing synthetic chemicals with biosurfactants like rhamnolipids is the high cost of production. We are applying the latest genome sequencing technologies to strain improvement for NY3 and creating a nonpathogenic, high-yield rhamnolipid producer. Using renewable low-cost sources of ingredients, we are optimistic about further increasing the yields, reducing costs by scaling up production and promoting the global applications of these very eco-friendly biosurfactant molecules.”

Parks noted that the company already has a list of potential customers interested in applying the compounds to their products. “The industry expanse is quite broad, from pharmaceutical and cosmetics-grade customers to biopesticide, soil enhancement, bioremediation and oil spill/tank cleaning companies,” he added. “And it is international. All of our customers are asking AGAE for evaluation quantities and are interested in exploring our potential to become a strategic supplier.”

In addition to Parks, who has over 25 years of international technology sales and marketing experience, AGAE also has hired Martha Cone to oversee technical operations and to manage customer technical engagement.

Such networks would offer continuous, real-time health diagnosis, experts say, to reduce the onset of degenerative diseases, save lives and cut health care costs. The ideal monitoring device would be small, worn on the body, low cost, and perhaps draw its energy from something as minor as body heat. But it would be able to transmit vast amounts of health information in real time and help to prevent or treat disease.

Illustration by Teresa Hall

Sounds great in theory, but it’s not easy. If it were, the X Prize Foundation wouldn’t be trying to develop a Tricorder X Prize — inspired by the remarkable instrument of Star Trek fame — that would give $10 million to whomever can create a mobile wireless sensor and give billions of people around the world better access to low-cost, reliable medical monitoring and diagnostics.

“This type of sensing would scale down to the size of a bandage that you could wear around you,” says Chiang, an expert in wireless medical electronics and assistant professor in the OSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).

“The sensor might provide and transmit data on heart health, bone density, blood pressure or insulin status. Ideally, you could not only monitor health issues but also help prevent problems before they happen. Maybe detect arrhythmias, for instance, and anticipate heart attacks. Or, monitor the indoor location of an elderly person or the early onset of cognitive decline. Finally, it needs to be non-invasive and able to provide huge amounts of data while consuming little energy.”

Several startup companies such as Corventis and iRhythm have already entered the cardiac monitoring market.

In the EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Chiang and his team reported that one of the key obstacles is the energy required to run the device. A type of technology called “ultrawideband” might have that capability if the receiver getting the data were within a “line of sight” and signals were not interrupted by passing through a human body. But even non-line of sight transmission might be possible using ultrawideband if lower transmission rates were required, they found. Collaborating on the research was Huaping Liu, an associate professor in EECS, and clinical researchers at the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology at the Oregon Health & Science University.

Patrick Chiang (Photo courtesy of the College of Engineering)

“The challenges are quite complex, but the potential benefit is huge and of increasing importance with an aging population,” Chiang says. “This is definitely possible. I could see some of the first systems being commercialized within the next three years.”

Chiang’s collaborators on projects to develop non-invasive wireless monitoring devices include colleagues at OSU’s Center for Healthy Aging Research, the Linus Pauling Institute and OHSU in Portland. Chiang also collaborates with researchers at Tsinghua and Fudan universities in China.

_______________

Rachel Robertson contributed to this story.

Online: learn more about Patrick Chiang’s research.

Illustration by Heather Miller

Chain saws, baseball bats, truck bodies, jet engine parts and bridges. All from America’s industrial heartland, right? Or made in China? Wrong. Companies that produce these and other metal products — from kitchen knives and laboratory incubators to steel fabrication stock — employ thousands of Oregonians. One of the tools in their toolbox is a research partnership with Oregon State and Portland State universities.

Thanks to a program known as the Oregon Metals Initiative (OMI), companies from ATI Wah Chang in Albany to Precision Castparts Corporation in Portland have access to faculty and student talent to solve problems and explore product improvements. Engineers and students have teamed up to answer practical questions that production line workers and managers face daily in their drive to stay ahead of the competition.

“We are an industrial engine for the state,” says John Parmigiani, OSU mechanical engineer and representative to the 10-member OMI Board of Directors. “Historically, there’s been an emphasis on metallurgy, developing alloys for specific applications. But the OMI allows for much broader investigations, and we’ve expanded the research to other areas.”

According to OMI annual reports, among those topics are optimal job tracking systems, safer chain saws, improved pruning blades for home gardeners and the use of high-strength composite materials to reduce vehicle weight. Other projects have focused on self-cleaning chemical processing tanks, more efficient metal grinding operations and new materials for electronic systems. Some projects have resulted in patents for companies, internships for students and full-time jobs for graduates.

In all cases, teams of business employees and university researchers match wits and skills in improving operations and developing products.

Participating companies have included

• In Hillsboro, DeMarini Sports (athletic equipment, include aluminum bats)
• In Portland, Blount Manufacturing (chainsaws); and Daimler Trucks North America; ESCO Corporation of Portland (precision components for aerospace, energy and turbocharger markets)
• In Gresham, The Boeing Company (aircraft parts)
• In McMinnville, Cascade Steel (specialty products made from recycled scrap metal)
• In Oregon City, Benchmade (knives)
• In Cornelius, Sheldon Manufacturing (laboratory ovens and incubators) and Advanced Surfaces and Processes (extended wear surfaces for durability)
• In Corvallis, Hewlett Packard (electronics products including printers and computers)
• In Albany, ATI Wah Chang (specialty metal products for chemical processing, energy and other markets)
• In Reedsport, American Bridge Manufacturing (bridges and other civil infrastructure)

The State Legislature created the program in 1990. Projects are financed by state funds and matching dollars from businesses.

According to a 1998 survey of the state’s metals industry, Oregon hosted more than 1,700 metals manufacturing companies accounting for more than 55,000 jobs. These five recent projects are among those that are helping to shape the Oregon economy.

Company: Daimler Trucks North America, Portland

Project: Effective composites to replace metals
Goal: Reduce vehicle weight to create more fuel-efficient trucks and tractors

Company: Sheldon Manufacturing, Cornelius
Project: Humidity and Temperature Control of Thermal Chambers
Goal: Add features to an incubator and vacuum oven

Company: Hewlett Packard, Corvallis
Project: Materials for high-performance actuator applications
Goal: Develop thin-film piezoelectric material (exerts a force by changing shape in response to an electric current)

Company: Benchmade, Oregon City
Project: Blade steel alloy formation
Goal: Determine how different metal alloys perform in cutting experiments

Company: Blount Manufacturing, Portland
Project: Self-contained cutting-fluid system for concrete- and metal-cutting chain saws
Goal: Increase saw portability by designing an internal bar lubrication and cooling system

OSU researchers Leslie Burns, Brigitte Cluver and Hsiou-Lien Chen watch Newton go through his paces in the OSU design laboratory. (Photo: Jeff Basinger)

The OSU Design Network

The network brings together professionals across the industry for informal gatherings and annual events in Portland, like last year’s Recycled Fashion Show — the longest-running fashion show of designs made from recycled materials in the country.

OSU’s Apparel Research Center

The center offers fabric-testing services to small firms and start-ups. At the Textile and Apparel Performance Testing Lab, clients can get measurements on a full array of variables in fabric and clothing construction (yarn count, weight, thickness), aesthetics (wrinkle recovery, drape, stiffness), durability (tear strength, abrasion resistance) and comfort (thermal properties, moisture management).

This fall, the center is expanding into Portland, where it will host a series of research-based workshops for design professionals at the university’s Food Innovation Center on N.W. Naito Parkway. Topics on the agenda include sizing and fabric grading, sourcing and sustainable textiles and materials.

Design Forum/PDX

This partnership among the Portland Development Commission, the City of Portland and the Oregon University System, along with private-sector businesses, is compiling the West Coast’s first materials resource library available to design professionals. OSU’s Leslie Burns serves on the forum’s board of directors.

OSU nanotechnology researchers are leveraging the power of molecular-scale processes to create new products. (Illustration: Santiago Uceda)

“Made in Oregon” means more than lumber, hazelnuts and pears. At the annual Willamette Innovators Night (WiN) on Nov. 10, established manufacturers from Oregon Iron Works to startups such as Trillium FiberFuels and the AirShip Technologies Group will discuss how research and industry partnerships are changing the state’s economic landscape.

“WiN provides a seedbed for ideas and partnerships that create new businesses and help existing businesses remain competitive,” says Mark Van Patten, chair of the WiN planning team and director of the Oregon State University Business Solutions Group.

Presentations begin at 1:45 p.m. in the LaSells Stewart Center, and a business and research expo will open in the CH2M-HILL Alumni Center at 4:30 p.m. The public is welcome. A schedule is available at http://bit.ly/w090rx.

Chandra Brown, vice president of Oregon Iron Works/United Streetcar, will explore the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy and describe the company’s evolution from a streetcar maker to a wave energy pioneer. Brown serves on the Oregon Innovation Council and Oregon Small Business Development Commission as well as the U.S. Manufacturing Council.

Michael Baker, managing partner in The Baker Group and CEO of Applied Exergy and HD Plus, developer of a home kidney dialysis system based on OSU research, will discuss opportunities for technology development in biomedical devices, energy and other industry sectors.

At a breakout session on prototyping, Scott Schroeder of Mega Tech of Oregon and Ben Berry of the Airship Technologies Group will focus on product development. Located in Corvallis, Mega Tech specializes in contract engineering services. Airship Technologies of Lake Oswego is developing a futuristic personal transporter that flies through the air and zips down the highway.

Other sessions will offer new developments in biofuels, product marketing and family business. Participants will have the opportunity to connect directly with elected representatives through chat.gov.

WiN is the Willamette Valley’s largest gathering of businesses, researchers, inventors and policymakers focused on creative collaboration for economic growth. In addition to presentations and industry sessions, the event will feature displays from more than 50 business and research groups, recognition of recent OSU patent awardees, announcement of the Linus Pauling Innovator of the Year Award and the popular Ignite! Corvallis, a series of rapid-fire presentations on creative ideas.

Held in collaboration with the Software Association of Oregon, WiN is sponsored by businesses and research organizations including Hewlett Packard, Oregon State University, Silverman Studios, Samaritan Health Services, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, Peak Internet, Proworks Corp., Coelo Company of Design and the Madison Avenue Collective and other regional businesses and associations.

Steve Strauss, OSU Distinguished Professor and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

EXZACT™ provides a versatile and comprehensive toolkit for targeted genome modification, according to the company, and has already been licensed for use in research elsewhere on algae, maize and other plants.

As part of the agreement, Strauss and his team will make modifications to essential genes for flowering and reproduction. Dow AgroSciences is providing its technology as well as access to intellectual property, to validated, high-quality compounds known as zinc-finger reagents and to scientific expertise.

“Tree biotechnology is an exciting new field for agriculture and represents an important opportunity for both traditional industries like lumber and paper and newly emerging bioenergy companies,” says Kay Kuenker, Vice President for New Business at Dow AgroSciences.

————————-

The Society of American Foresters honored Steve Strauss in 2011 with the Barrington-Moore Memorial Award.

Abi Farsoni, right, and his graduate student, Abdulsalam Alhawsawi, discuss gamma and beta radiation waves visible on a computer screen. On the desk is the detector developed by Farsoni and colleague David Hamby. (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

Now, detection technology has taken a notable leap forward. A newly patented invention from Oregon State University uses “phoswich” technology (short for “phosphor sandwich spectrometer”) to detect both beta particles and gamma rays simultaneously. Texas-based firm Ludlum Measurements has signed a contract with OSU’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics to produce two of the detectors for engineering giant CH2M Hill to use in its Hanford cleanup project in Washington, where the U.S. government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to remove radioactive soil. Ludlum also has expressed interest in licensing the detector for commercial production and sale.

Eventually, the detector may find applications in nuclear energy and medicine, according to David Hamby and Abi Farsoni, professors in nuclear engineering, who developed the device with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

A Corvallis-based spinoff called Avicenna Instruments soon will begin production of the device’s electronic components. The fledgling company sees a ready market for the new technology in universities and laboratories, which currently make do with outdated analog equipment. “Detection systems that use digital spectrometers are more reliable, efficient and intelligent,” says Farsoni.

Besides being an important advance on earlier technologies that measured only one type of radiation at a time, the device can be linked to a PC via a simple USB port, the researcher says.

Hot Lines

To demonstrate, he fires up his computer and points to a bright red line pulsating across the screen. The line, which resembles the reading on a heart monitor, indicates background radiation, the levels that occur naturally in the environment. Then, picking up a nickel-sized capsule from the table, he holds it close to the detector. The red line reacts immediately. “See how the waves are going faster and faster?” he says. “This is a gamma source. It emits only gamma rays.” Then, holding up a second capsule to the device, he says, “This is a beta source. See how the shape of the beta pulses is totally different from the gamma pulses?

“With this new system,” the researcher explains, “there’s very little ‘cross talk,’ or interference, between the two types of radiation. It’s very easy to separate the pulses.”

Another plus: Test results can be processed at warp speed. The device, which runs on a small battery, takes a sample every five nanoseconds, giving users 1,000 samples in five microseconds, according to Farsoni. These mega-fast results can then go global instantly on the Internet.

“Now I can email pulses to my friends in India or Europe,” Farsoni says.

Adds Hamby: “This system will be able to provide accurate results in 15 minutes that previously might have taken half a day. That saves steps, time and money.”

Using MATLAB (a technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and numeric computation), users can quickly and easily change algorithms in the coding to customize the device for specific detection needs.

“You can reprogram it any time you want,” says Farsoni.

______________________

See Resources for Industry for more stories about OSU research with commercial potential.

Brian Wall, Office of Commercialization and Corporate Development

With a research enterprise of more than $275 million and a history of successful partnerships with industry, Oregon State University helps companies from discovery through commercialization to solve complex research issues and develop innovative new technologies. OSU research is driven by the university’s commitment to sustain healthy ecosystems, a healthy economy and healthy people.

The OSU research community through the years has valued collaboration and an entrepreneurial spirit. Leadership plans to reinforce its support of innovative organizational structures that enable a diverse portfolio of both individual and team-based research. It includes a healthy spectrum of fundamental and applied research. Undergraduate and graduate education will continue to develop leaders and sustain a work force that meets current and anticipated employment needs.

OSU’s Vice President for Research Rick Spinrad is working with a team to develop a comprehensive Research Agenda. Defining the university’s research values and principles, thrusts, and implementation plans, the plan demonstrates that support of commercialization and corporate development are increasingly integral to the future contributions of the state’s land grant institution.

The diverse OSU research portfolio has grown dramatically – for instance, OSU industrial research agreements have risen by 57% over the past three years. In addition, OSU start-ups are fueling the Oregon economy. In the past five years, eight start-up companies were created, based on licensed OSU intellectual property. These eight start-ups have attracted more than $95 million in investment capital and created more than 180 new jobs in the state. An additional six start-up companies are sponsoring OSU research projects using OSU facilities or equipment, employing current OSU students or in other ways benefiting from OSU resources. Nine additional companies are currently emerging from the use of OSU intellectual property.

With increasing innovations and commercial opportunities, the Research Office has been transforming operations to keep pace. OSU’s former Office of Technology Transfer is now the Office for Commercialization and Corporate Development (OCCD), directed by Brian Wall. Focusing on connecting entrepreneurs, investors and existing companies to OSU’s capabilities, and helping transform research into applications that impact the world, the OCCD is the bridge between researchers and commercial entities, from Oregon-based start-ups to large international companies.

The newest member of the OCCD team, Dan Whitaker, a “serial entrepreneur” with experience in 16 start-up companies, is working throughout OSU to guide new business creation and corporate development. The result will be a substantial increase in start-up activity and connections with existing companies.

Safer, greener wood products are on the horizon thanks to a novel research partnership funded by the National Science Foundation. Backed by a five-year NSF grant, Oregon State University and Virginia Tech will collaborate with a veritable who’s-who of private wood-products companies to design a new generation of environmentally friendly wood-based composite materials. Weyerhauser, Jeld-Wen and six other leading companies are kicking in $30,000 each.

With matching funds from Oregon BEST (Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies), the new Industry/University Cooperative Research Center will have total support of $2.2 million to investigate new generations of adhesives, plywood and other materials for building homes, offices, schools and other spaces where people live and work.

“OSU and Virginia Tech are both international leaders in wood science and technology,” notes Fred Kamke, a wood sciences professor who will direct the new center at OSU. “This major new initiative will build on those strengths. Composite products allow for more efficient, sophisticated and competitive uses of wood, and they’re the future of the wood products industry.”

Microtechnology research by Goran Jovanovic, Oregon State University professor of chemical engineering, has contributed to new health-care and energy products.

Venture capital firms, too, have been bullish on OSU-originated firms. Home Dialysis Plus and Azuray Technologies, for example, received investments of $55 million during the first half of 2010 alone.

Since 1982, Oregon State has spun out 23 companies. Four or five more startups are in the pipeline for the coming year, says Brian Wall, director of OSU’s office of technology transfer.

“We’re at a point where we’re analyzing the technology to be sure it doesn’t need significant R&D investment,” Wall told Business Journal Web editor Suzanne Stevens. “Then we’ll help make introductions to potential investors and CEOs.”

Neil Shay directs the Oregon Wine Research Institute at Oregon State University (Photo: Lynn Ketchum)

“Neil understands how to connect research and business in large-scale projects that are results-oriented,” says Sonny Ramaswamy, dean of OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Adds Oregon wine pioneer and industry leader David Adelsheim: “He’s also a passionate wine consumer. Having made his own wine, grown his own grapes, worked informally at a winery and toured wine regions of France makes him quite rare in academia.”

Simulated tsunamis crash into scale model buildings at OSU's O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, the nation's largest tsunami test facility. Engineers have run tests with the Oregon coastal communities of Seaside and Cannon Beach (Photo: Frank Miller)

It may come like it did the last time, in the middle of a cold and blustery January night. Suddenly the ground will begin to shake, windows will shatter, bridges collapse, the electricity will go out and parents will frantically try to find a flashlight and dig sleepy kids out of bed, ignore everything else and run – because they know they only have minutes before the water arrives.

Even worse, it may come on a warm and breezy summer afternoon in July, when tens of thousands of visitors fly kites, build sand castles and play fetch with their dogs on one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world. The rumble and shaking on the crowded beaches will quickly be replaced by a receding shoreline as the water eerily slides away, and people will start to run, anywhere they can, to get to higher ground – because they know the water will soon be coming back.

It will be scary, it will be destructive, and it’s going to happen, reasonably soon. People will talk for generations to come about the great subduction zone earthquake and tsunami of ____. Fill in the blank with a date; science can provide some guidance, but no one knows for certain when it will be.

Pat Corcoran, a coastal hazards outreach specialist with Oregon Sea Grant, is mindful of these risks and calls the disaster that’s waiting to happen “arguably the greatest recurring natural hazard in the lowest 48 states.” That’s about right. Subduction zones – like the Cascadia Subduction Zone that lurks just off the coast of the Pacific Northwest – produce the most massive earthquakes in the world. And their “up and down” ground motion triggers tsunamis, one of the most deadly ocean wave events in the world.

Like Clockwork

The problem is, at least in the United States, these events don’t happen very often. In fact, until the mid-1980s, scientists didn’t think great earthquakes and tsunamis were caused by Pacific Northwest fault zones. Then some pioneering research by the U.S. Geological Survey, Oregon State University and others began to unravel some ancient mysteries. Scientists found that not only do they happen here, they occur pretty regularly, about every 300 to 500 years on one part or all of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which runs 700 miles from Cape Mendocino in California to Vancouver Island in Canada. The last event was pinpointed because the enormous tsunami it created raced all the way across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, where written records were kept. It occurred here about 9 p.m. on Jan. 26, 1700.

“The Native Americans at the time of the last subduction zone earthquake in 1700 had a rich oral history surrounding earthquakes and tsunamis,” Corcoran says. “One tradition encouraged people to weave long ropes. That way, the saying went, following the earthquake a person could tie one end of the long rope around a tree and the other onto their canoe in order to ride out the tsunami waves.”

It’s now 2010, more than three centuries later. The newest studies produced by Chris Goldfinger, an OSU marine geologist and one of the world’s leading experts on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, indicate that there’s a 37 percent chance of a partial rupture of the zone within the next 50 years, an event that could be similar in magnitude to the earthquake just experienced in Chile.

“Perhaps more striking than the probability numbers is that we have already gone longer without an earthquake than 75 percent of the known times between earthquakes in the last 10,000 years,” Goldfinger says. “And 50 years from now, that number will rise to 85 percent.”

So it’s coming soon, possibly tomorrow. Possibly in 10 years. A better than one in three chance within the next 50 years. But no one knows for sure, and that isn’t going to change. With existing science, earthquakes cannot be predicted with precision; we can only prepare.

But Are We Prepared?

A few years ago, local residents in Cannon Beach, Oregon, were pondering that question, as they followed the developing science on subduction zone earthquakes and worked with officials from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries on evacuation maps for the anticipated tsunami.

Preparation for a tsunami, in this context, would be defined as people knowing what to do, where to go, getting to high ground and having the time to do it. Jay Raskin, a longtime resident, community leader and local architect, didn’t like what he was hearing.

“Around then, the scientists were describing and updating the potential risks for an earthquake and tsunami caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone,” Raskin says. “We talked about the distances we needed to go, how high the water might get, where high enough ground was, the bridges that probably would be destroyed.

“And then we’re thinking, oh darn, this strategy of getting to high ground might not work for everyone,” he says. “For some people there just might not be enough time. We needed another option.”

Then Hurricane Katrina struck, and another lesson was offered to the Cannon Beach residents. In the aftermath of the storm, not only had the devastation of coastal communities been enormous, but there was no functioning city government, no working facility to help rebuild.

A Sunny Day at the Beach

Cannon Beach is a small coastal community a little south of Seaside, Oregon. It’s butted up against coastal headlands and stretches for several lovely miles along the Pacific Ocean coast. Most of its 1,700 residents live within a few blocks of the beach, and about half of them, and 75 percent of the businesses, reside within a tsunami inundation zone. But it could be much worse. On a peak summer day, up to 12,000 people may crowd the beaches around Cannon Beach. The city presents a microcosm of an issue that affects a vulnerable shoreline about 900 miles long.

Tsunami Evacuation Building

In addition to a tsunami response plan, the city needed a new city hall. So Raskin and others had an idea. Why not build a structure that could survive a tsunami, stand above the incoming water, give local residents and visitors a safe place they could run to on short notice, save many lives, and also serve as a base of operations after the disaster to help the city recover and get back up and running?

It was the comparatively new concept of “vertical evacuation” to escape a tsunami, and it was a good idea. Two problems: No structure of that type had ever been built in the United States, and in the few places in the world where such structures had been built, such as Japan, none had yet experienced a tsunami. So as an engineering challenge, this was literally uncharted water. Also, it would cost more. A design has now been created for a new 10,000-square-foot structure, and it’s estimated to cost around $4 million, about double the cost for a more conventional building.

But the issues are real, and the Cannon Beach residents knew it. They had watched the devastation from the Sumatra earthquake and tsunami in 2004, where 230,000 people died, most of them not from the earthquake, but rather the tsunami. The geology of that region is nearly identical to the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

“After the Sumatra earthquake, I saw on television this scientist from Thailand, who had tried years before to convince local authorities to put in warning buoys, but no one did anything,” Raskin says. “He was in tears, he considered it a personal failure.”

“That struck me hard,” he says. “I was a city councilor at the time, I knew we faced the same issues, and I didn’t want that to happen here, to have to say years later that we knew all about this but didn’t do anything.”

For a nearby subduction zone earthquake like the one expected on Cascadia, warning buoys are not really the point. The earthquake itself will give any informed person all the warning they need, and only minutes will be available to get to high ground before the water starts rising and just keeps coming – an event Raskin likens to “a sneaker wave on steroids.”

The Real Enemies: Time and Transportation

So last May, at the Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at OSU, a small model of the proposed new city hall building at Cannon Beach was being hit by simulated tsunamis repeatedly, to help address some of the questions. It’s not fancy, essentially a square structure on stilts, but very strong and with a sturdy foundation. But how strong is strong enough? What will be the effect of debris, such as floating cars, slamming into the pillars? OSU was helping Cannon Beach to answer those questions, in research supported by the National Science Foundation.

“We have to know just how strong this building has to be, so the community can build something that will work, but at the same time keep costs as low as possible,” says Dan Cox, an OSU professor of coastal and ocean engineering. “Some buildings may slow the force of the waves before they hit, for instance, and other debris may cause additional impacts.

“In engineering, this is new territory. We’re just scratching the surface of everything we need to know, but these studies should give us a higher degree of confidence in what we build, and in the process our students are learning how to build structures of this type for the future.”

Other work to aid Cannon Beach is also under way at OSU. Harry Yeh, the Edwards Professor of Coastal and Ocean Engineering, one of the world’s leading experts on tsunamis, has been involved with the community for years to help it address concerns, design the new structure. He is now working on an evacuation plan.

“We know we can build a structure that will survive an earthquake and tsunami, and could serve as an emergency shelter,” Yeh says. “Strong, reinforced concrete buildings can stand up to that, we saw that in Indonesia in 2004. And pretty much everyone agrees this structure would be good to have. But it will cost more, so to make this feasible, we have to figure out the best way to balance cost and function.”

The initiative in Cannon Beach is unique, and if implemented, will be the nation’s first structure designed specifically to survive an earthquake, resist the forces of a tsunami, and hopefully save lives. OSU has worked closely with state and federal agencies, as well as private companies, to make this happen. The result could form a model, both physically and inspirationally, for many other coastal communities that face similar concerns. And community support so far, Raskin says, has been reasonably strong. People have raised some fair and intelligent questions, but almost no one is advocating the status quo. Funding support may ultimately be sought from both local, state and federal levels and the private sector.

But Cannon Beach is one small town, on one short section of beach. The earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone, when it happens, could be one of the great geologic events in world history, affecting three states, some of British Columbia, major cities and many millions of people. That’s a big problem, which goes well beyond the issue of the expected tsunami.

Living in the Quake Zone

Are we prepared?

OSU researchers are doing what they can. Earthquake and tsunami simulation modeling is being done in several Oregon sites. A course has been created and is being taught on “living with earthquakes.” OSU researchers have worked with the Oregon Department of Transportation to simulate tsunami loads on coastal bridges. Scientists have gone to Sumatra, to American Samoa, to Chile, to the sites of all the recent major subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis in recent years to learn whatever might help.

To further explore these questions, Scott Ashford and Solomon Yim from OSU were part of a group supported by the National Science Foundation who went to Chile this past spring after the February 8.8 magnitude earthquake — also on a subduction zone similar to that of the Pacific Northwest. Yim, a professor of civil engineering, led a team of tsunami, structural and geotechnical engineers and surveyed damages to ports, coastal buildings and bridges. Ashford, professor and head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at OSU, said the group wanted to learn as much as possible about what had happened, what worked and what didn’t.

Chile, even more than the United States, has experience with subduction zone earthquakes. They happen with more frequency there, and a massive 9.5 event in 1960 was the largest earthquake ever recorded. Because of that, they have modern and aggressive building codes, as good or better than those in the Pacific Northwest, and much better than those used when many of the urban structures in Oregon and Washington were built 30 or more years ago.

“Part of what was striking about the Chile earthquake was the geographic extent of the damage. It was spread out over an area essentially from Seattle to Medford here in the U.S., and from I-5 to the coast,” Ashford says. “The damage itself, as you often see with earthquakes, was variable. Some areas were very hard hit, others much less.”

Chile, Japan and New Zealand – like the U.S., all situated on the notorious “ring of fire” around the Pacific Ocean – have some of the best seismic design standards in the world, Ashford adds. Engineers in Chile were able to observe certain types of architecture, often square, unimaginative buildings, that tended to resist damage much better than more innovative and irregular designs. But it still wasn’t good enough.

“In Concepcion, all the bridges from the south were collapsed or out of commission; people were cut off,” Ashford says. “You would see people living in tents, staring at the building they used to live in but afraid to enter it even for a few minutes to get their belongings, fearing it would collapse. And of course in the areas hit by the tsunami, the damage was just devastating; it was really heartbreaking.”

Engineer for Resilience

Oregon and Washington, Ashford says, face even greater devastation in the future. “We’re going to get hit worse than Chile did; I suspect much worse. We have many large buildings in our cities that were built in the 50s, 60s and 70s that will not do well in the earthquake.”

A prime lesson Ashford says he took away from the recent Chilean experience is to preserve the lifelines: electricity, gas, water, communication and transportation, as well as critical facilities like hospitals, fire stations and schools.

“What we need here is resiliency, to provide the infrastructure for rescue, relief, and recovery efforts that will enable Oregon to bounce back from such a disaster,” Ashford says. “Like the proposed city hall at Cannon Beach, that will save lives and give you something to build around.”

Ashford sees OSU as the logical institution to lead that effort. Working with the Oregon Department of Transportation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, utility companies, cities, and other agencies, OSU has the engineering and scientific and management expertise to help coordinate preparation for a major disaster, to build in that resilience that can literally mean the difference between life and death after a major disaster.

Fortunately, there may still be time to accomplish a great deal. Oregon Sea Grant’s Pat Corcoran noted that “we are the first modern generation to intellectually understand that we will experience great earthquakes and tsunamis.” The next event could happen tomorrow, but it also might not be for 30, 50 or 100 years. If so, that could offer a pretty good window of opportunity for public education and outreach for both local residents and tourists, community preparations, new and better building designs, sustained research programs, replacement of aging and dangerous structures. All of that is possible and many of these issues can be addressed if everyone involved — government, universities, agencies, people — work together to create a safer future.

But there’s a lot to do and only a limited time available to do it. Because a massive earthquake is coming that will destroy homes, buildings, roads, bridges and infrastructure across the Pacific Northwest. And a massive tsunami is coming with waters that will sweep ashore with deadly force. They are coming. We know that.

Are we prepared?

No.
________________________________________
See a, April 2012 video about tsunami preparedness by Tom Bearden, National Public Radio.

Watch Risky Business in the Northwest on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

For information about supporting research and teaching through faculty endowments, contact the Oregon State University Foundation, 1-800-354-7281 or visit CampaignforOSU.org.

Swainson's thrush is a common visitor to the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest where Matt Betts and his students are recording birdsong. You can listen to its call here. (Photo: Greg Lavaty)

Recording the subtle syllables, notes and motifs that distinguish one bird species from another requires some pretty sophisticated gear. But for OSU researchers, collecting audio data in an old-growth forest last summer was a walk in the park compared with analyzing it. “It’s a lot of data,” reports Jed Irvine, a faculty research assistant in the OSU Bioacoustics and Machine Learning group.

Confronted with a terabyte of digital sound from the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Irvine and a team of students in the College of Engineering are building a website that will let them borrow the ears of experienced birders to identify avian singers. These IDs will then be used to “teach” computers how to distinguish a robin from a Swainson’s thrush or a tree swallow for a study being led by forest ecologist Matt Betts.

The terabyte gets its name from the Greek word tera, meaning “monster.” The etymology is apt. Trying to grasp the size of a terabyte – a trillion bytes of computer data – is like trying to wrap your mind around the number of water drops in Crater Lake or sand grains on Cannon Beach. Besides their monstrous size, these audio files may contain all sorts of extra sounds, from streams to airplanes to distant highway traffic. Also complicating the task of automatically recognizing bird sounds is the fact that birds can sing in regional “dialects,” and some even mimic other species.

Where the Birds Are

“The bioacoustic team is developing software that will automatically identify bird species – perhaps even individual birds – so that we can assess population distribution on an ongoing basis,” Irvine explains. Then, without a hint of irony, he adds, “It’s a lofty idea.”

An amateur birder himself, Irvine came up with the idea of creating a website that would allow birders to upload bird images and audio for annotation and discussion. The bioacoustics and machine learning problem being worked on by professors Xiaoli Fern and Raviv Raich was a perfect task for the Web, Irvine says. Once the website was ready for the first round of user testing, he asked local birders to test-drive the site by listening to sound clips online and then posting species IDs for each clip. By the end of June, he had gotten 85 identifications from about a dozen volunteers.

In the next phase of website development, he hopes to make the experience of using the site as close to the experience of “birding by ear” as possible. Each online session will be designed as a “birding trip” into the forest, where volunteer birders can employ their knowledge of birdsong to further the goals of science.

“The next iteration will be more interesting,” says Irvine, who started birding with his dad as a kid in New Jersey. “We want to make the site addictively fun for birders, so that we can get as many bird sound snippets identified as possible.”

Visit the site at http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/bird.

In the tropics of Costa Rica, this violet sabrewing hummingbird is helping researchers understand the effects of forest fragmentation on ecosystems.

A thrush’s melody, warbler’s trill and sparrow’s chip-chip-chip form the musical backdrop for a hike in the woods. When birds sharing a forest patch all sing at the same time, the cacophony suggests the jumbled chatter of a human social gathering, with competing tones and pitches. In the din, distinguishing among species of warblers, for instance, or tracking individual chickadees is tricky. Scientists who study birdsong call this the “cocktail party” problem. Further muddying the forest sound-scape is background noise: rushing wind, splattering rain, crashing branches, foraging animals. Making sense of this audio hodgepodge can test a biologist’s mettle.

Matthew Betts is not deterred.

The OSU researcher is taking an innovative approach to recording birdsong in old-growth and second-growth forests. About a dozen microphones recently installed in Oregon’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest are capturing the calls of bird communities from high in the canopy to low in the understory. A parallel study is under way in New Hampshire’s experimental forest, Hubbard Brook.

Concerned with widespread reports of declines in bird populations, Betts is developing new ways to analyze trends in biodiversity. “We’re looking at the distribution of 40 or 50 species across the entire elevation gradient at each experimental forest,” explains the assistant professor of forest landscape ecology. “We want to know why species live where they do. Why do some species cut off at 1,200 meters yet others persist higher? Is it competition among species? Is it vegetation that’s driving that relationship? Is it climatic? It’s basic research, but it has big implications for how we predict the effect of climate change on animals.”

Matt Betts

Birds by Bytes

Gathering acoustic data digitally, he says, has big advantages over the current practice: putting people in the woods to count birds, song by song. Still another technological advance – artificial intelligence – will streamline the analysis of the electronic data. By employing smart computers that can “learn” to sort ambient noise from distinct species sounds, a team of computer scientists in OSU’s Ecosystem Informatics Program is translating the recordings into signals that can be read by computers. Betts and his collaborators hope to push forest ecology to a new level of efficiency and sophistication.

“We spend an immense amount of time and money every year surveying birds with technicians,” Betts says. “The overall idea of setting up microphones in the forest was, wouldn’t it be cool if we could have cheap, long-term data?”

But Betts’s investigations don’t stop there.  His research program, which has taken him and his graduate students all over Central and North America – from pollination experiments in Costa Rica to molecular studies of migratory birds in New Brunswick, Canada – has chalked up a lot of firsts: first to influence warblers’ nesting choices with recorded sound. First to put radio transmitters on tropical hummingbirds. First to test continental-scale geographic-dispersal patterns in the chemistry of feathers.

Each study launched from the Betts Forest Landscape Ecology Lab, no matter how far-flung geographically or out-front technologically, has one overarching goal: to isolate the effects of habitat loss, landscape fragmentation and climate change on biodiversity and species persistence (survival over time).

Betts cites a 2010 report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature showing that steep declines in populations of birds, mammals, amphibians, plants and invertebrates are continuing across the planet, despite some successful efforts at conservation.

“Habitat loss and fragmentation are known to be the primary cause of species extinctions worldwide,” he notes. “With thousands of species verging on extinction, discovering how animals respond to habitat degradation and disruption is urgent if we hope to reverse the trends.”

By opening all sorts of new windows onto avian behavior – such as using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology in a recent habitat study with Woods Hole Research Center – Betts has become a noted innovator in the field of landscape ecology.

“Matt’s research on the response of bird populations to forest fragmentation has served as a critical guide for many young and aspiring ecologists,” says Benjamin Zuckerberg, a research associate with the Citizen Science Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  “Using advanced statistical approaches, he has made significant contributions to the study of ecological thresholds and breeding-site selection in forest birds. Land managers and policymakers, as well as graduate students, appreciate his ease in communicating complex scientific concepts.

“Most importantly,” Zuckerberg concludes, “the results of Matt’s research emphasize the role of landscape ecology in natural resource conservation.”

Lab-Rat Bird

In the hardwood forests of New Hampshire’s White Mountains lives the black-throated blue warbler. Nesting in low-growing shrubs, this abundant warbler is easy to find and count, making it a favorite subject for East Coast ornithologists.

“The black-throated blue warbler is the lab rat of eastern avian demography,” jokes Betts, who first studied the species as a post-doctoral fellow at Dartmouth College.

These handy birds have given Betts surprising new insights into the purposes and powers of song. Wondering how birds choose nesting sites, Betts and a team of researchers from Wellesley College and from Queen’s University and Trent University in Ontario, Canada, recently ran an experiment to see whether, in essence, they could “trick” the warblers into picking poor places by making them think other warblers favored those spots. The scientists played electronic warbler songs at 54 White Mountain locations – scrubby areas with scant cover that warblers normally would bypass. But having heard their species’ songs broadcast as they flew over in the late summer, many returning warblers chose the sub-par nesting sites the following spring. In fact, more than 80 percent of first-time breeding males settled in the bad habitat, Betts and his colleagues reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

“We were very surprised,” Betts told Science magazine’s blog, ScienceNOW. “It was almost as if we’d attracted a spotted owl (secretive old-growth dwellers) to a parking lot.”

Taking cues from fellow warblers is a shortcut to scoping out optimal breeding grounds, Betts explains. It’s a behavior that can aid the species’ adaptability to rapidly changing landscapes.

“The approach this bird uses can be very efficient in allowing individuals to find new habitat quickly when old habitat has been lost or degraded,” he says. “We’re developing a library of species that use this nest-site selection strategy, which may make them less sensitive to environmental changes than species that are poor at finding new habitat.”

Flight Paths

The green hermit hummingbird of Central America weighs over three-tenths of an ounce – approximately the heft of a good-sized chickadee. By hummingbird standards, that’s huge. (In contrast, the Pacific Northwest’s ubiquitous rufous hummingbird tips the scale at just one-tenth of an ounce.) The green hermit’s heavyweight status makes it a prime candidate for tracking by radio transmitter because although the transmitter weighs less than one-hundredth of an ounce, it’s too heavy for the tiny rufous to carry on its back.

Betts and Ph.D. student Adam Hadley wanted to investigate hummingbirds’ travels through the rainforests of Costa Rica to help explain why pollination levels around the world appear to be dropping. In particular, they wondered how fragmented forests – patches of trees left stranded amidst areas cleared for roads, crops or timber – affect the flight patterns of the iridescent, curved-billed pollinators.

“Recently, people have started realizing that landscape configuration, especially fragmentation – how habitat is distributed – can be quite important for some species,” Betts explains.
So in the winter of 2008, the researchers glued miniature transmitters to 19 green hermits with false-eyelash adhesive and then monitored the birds’ movements for several weeks until new feather growth made the transmitters fall off. In the journal Biology Letters, the scientists reported that the birds adhered closely to  forested corridors in the landscape, clinging to treed areas while avoiding open patches devoid of cover – even when that meant flying longer distances. Not only are the longer distances potential stressors for the birds, but the avoided patches may miss being pollinated, thus losing plant diversity over time.

“We don’t yet know for sure if pollen dynamics are being disrupted by forest fragmentation, but we think so,” says Betts. “Our hummingbird research suggests that maintaining riparian corridors of forest between patches could be quite important for pollination dynamics.”

Heroic Triumvirate

Betts’ heroes – three titans of biology, Edward O. Wilson, Ernst Mayr and Paul Ehrlich – all began their careers studying animals (ants, birds and butterflies, respectively). But over time, they extended their inquiries to such sweeping scientific questions as the mechanisms of evolution, Earth’s ecological thresholds and the origins of human nature. All became active in the political sphere, advocating on behalf of the planet’s long-term survival.

While not presuming to share the lofty status of these science superstars, Betts imagines his career taking a similar beyond-the-lab trajectory. For him, however, public-policy work will be a homecoming of sorts. As an undergraduate – motivated by his childhood wanderings among the woods of New Brunswick – he aspired to conserve the forests where so many mysteries were secreted. So he studied political science. He soon realized, however, that if he hoped to influence policy, he first needed grounding in the fine and complex details of ecosystems – in what he calls the “micro” sphere of forest management and conservation. So he went back to study biology and ecology.

Still, it’s at the policy level where discoveries give rise to action. Betts sees himself looping back more strongly to the macro sphere as time goes by. “It can get very frustrating doing science when you’re just pumping out scientific papers and nobody’s paying any attention to it,” says Betts, who serves as OSU’s representative on Oregon’s State Forest Advisory Committee, which provides input to the Oregon Department of Forestry on forest management issues. “That’s what drew me to the College of Forestry, actually. There’s this potential link between basic research and applied work, and then translation into some kind of action.”

If science can, for instance, reveal how fragmentation affects animals – as opposed to simple habitat loss – the findings can guide decision-makers in tangible ways.

“We have the power to design landscapes in different ways,” Betts notes. “Losing the same amount of habitat, developers or foresters could decide to leave wildlife corridors, or they could decide to leave a single big patch instead of making four little ones. It becomes pretty important when thinking about the persistence of species.”

Still, he says, doing science – even stopping for a minute to enjoy a warbler’s stirring call – can be a satisfying refuge from the contentious political arena.

“Basic research is nice because it doesn’t depend on people that much,” he admits. “So if I’m depressed about the rate at which my findings get turned into policy, at least I’m finding out some interesting things about nature. That’s good in itself.”

To support forest ecology research in the OSU College of Forestry, contact the OSU Foundation.

OSU forestry student Steve Ashley has spent six summers fighting forest fires in Central Oregon. (Photo courtesy of Steve Ashley)

Which of Oregon’s abundant tree species can provide not only logs for your vacation cabin but scented oil for your afternoon massage and flavor for your evening cocktail? Juniperus occidentalis, western juniper. This hardy species – which is endemic to the dry, rocky grasslands east of the Cascades – has heartwood that is both beautiful and enduring, fragrance that is coveted for soaps and lotions, and berry-like cones that give gin its characteristic taste (indeed, the word “gin” is derived from the Dutch word for “juniper,” genever or jenever).

Despite its potential market value, this high-desert native is viewed mainly as a worrisome invader across much of Oregon’s rangeland. Its dense roots suck up gallons of water, stealing scarce moisture from sagebrush, grasses and streams. Habitat for wildlife and forage for livestock are becoming lost or degraded. Ranchers are fighting back, downing the trees with chainsaws and tractors. Much of the wood remains where it falls, unused.

From Logs to Lotions

Transforming juniper from problem to profitability is the vision of OSU forestry student Steve Ashley. Cultivating new markets for juniper products could benefit not just Oregon’s ranchers but also its mills, builders, landscapers, furniture makers, garden centers, retailers and enterprises in specialty niches such as essential oils, craft distilleries and animal bedding, he says. And then there’s the growing demand for sustainable energy. Juniper is a vast source of biomass just waiting to be tapped, Ashley asserts.

So what’s getting in the way? That’s the question Ashley explored for his senior thesis in the Wood Science and Technology program with guidance from his adviser, Scott Leavengood, director of OSU’s Wood Innovation Center. For the young man from Albany who spent boyhood summers working on the 700-acre Prineville farm where his grandfather grew mint, alfalfa and sugar beets, it’s more than just an academic question. He is constantly drawn back to the sage and rimrock and dry, desert winds of Central and Eastern Oregon. For the past six fire seasons, he’s been back out among the junipered hills battling wildfires with the U.S. Forest Service.

“Since I was a kid helping out on my grandpa’s ranch, I’ve seen the juniper grow up and take over,” Ashley says.

Reviving Ecosystems

An estimated 6.5 million acres of private and government lands in Oregon are classified as juniper savanna or juniper forest. That’s up from just 1.5 million in the 1930s. Suppression of wildfires on rangelands has allowed young seedlings to survive and flourish in recent decades. Yet despite the abundance – and landowners’ eagerness to be rid of it – juniper occupies a very small place in Oregon’s wood-products industry. Typically a short, limby tree that tapers sharply and has a swirling grain pattern, juniper is not ideal for mills, which are geared for long, straight-grained, knot-free logs, Ashley says. With only one large-scale juniper mill in the state – the nonprofit REACH (Rehabilitation, Employment and Community Housing) mill in Klamath Falls – transportation costs and logistics hinder large-scale logging.

Harvesting presents its own set of hurdles. Scattered widely and randomly across the landscape, juniper doesn’t lend itself to efficient logging like dense stands of, say, Douglas fir or ponderosa pine, Ashley explains.

But none of these impediments is impossible to overcome, according to Ashley. In his study, he makes recommendations for expediting the western juniper market, including using alternative harvesting methods such as mule or horse logging and creating a “value-added” product such as wood chips right on the harvesting site.

His vision for juniper in Oregon centers on its “green” assets.

“The ecological effects of removing western juniper have yielded great results in increasing stream flows and native grasses,” Ashley says. The ranchers he interviewed have seen “drastic ecological changes” after cutting juniper on their land. In fact, one of those ranchers, Bill McCormack of Brothers, told Ashley that “the grasses seem to grow overnight” as soon as the juniper is cut down.

Besides reviving ecosystems, harvested juniper can be used in all sorts of green products, from long-lived fence posts and landscape timbers that don’t need to be treated with chemicals to pellets for woodstoves to biofuels for energy generation.

Down to Business

For the juniper market to take off in Oregon, however, landowners, mill operators and government agents need to reach a meeting of the minds on how to move it forward, Ashley says. This “communication triangle,” he insists, must collaborate more closely to benefit all stakeholders. In the meantime, he plans to seek investment capital for a start-up company where he can put his extensive juniper knowledge to work.

“The public needs to be re-educated about western juniper,” he says. “They may be very interested in juniper products because the harvest restores ecosystems and yields ‘green’ products. Anything green is selling these days.”

To support student scholarships, contact the OSU Foundation.

Marsha Lampi brings the discipline of a long-distance runner to her research in bioengineering as well as to OSU cross-country and track. (Photo: Jan Sonnenmair)

By Nick Houtman and Darryl Lai

Marsha Lampi runs for distance – 5,000 or 10,000 meters in track, 5,000 or 6,000 meters in cross-country. The former Lincoln High School student from Portland enjoys pacing herself but is always looking to improve. “I usually think, if only I had done this or that differently, I could have run a little bit faster,” she says.

This summer will take the Oregon State University athlete, a junior in bioengineering and the University Honors College, further than she has ever gone, at a pace that surprises even her. She is one of two-dozen students from around the world who have been accepted into an eight-week internship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (known as the EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Lampi will work in the Hubell Laboratory, which specializes in research on biomaterials, drug delivery and tissue engineering. It’s a great fit for a student who is setting her sights on med school or biomedical research.

Lampi’s laboratory experience at OSU has prepared her for the challenge. Last summer, she worked in OSU’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate research program on a subject of great interest to runners: the fluid that lubricates knees, hips and other joints. Under guidance from Willie “Skip” Rochefort, associate professor of chemical engineering, Lampi looked at how proteins in this so-called synovial fluid affect its ability to help joints absorb shock.

She credits Rochefort and the College of Engineering for giving her the opportunities and academic support she needed to qualify for the Swiss program. “Dr. Skip has been there every step of the way to help me,” she says. “He made me think about the big picture.” As a result, she developed the confidence to apply to internship programs (Berkeley, Stanford, MIT and EPFL) that she didn’t think would accept her. No worries: She got into each one.

“I chose to do research at the EPFL because of the international opportunity of working with people from around the world,” she says. Although she speaks fluent Spanish, she is looking forward to learning new languages and the by-ways of an unfamiliar country.

Rochefort says that Lampi is one of the best students that he has mentored at OSU. “She has the talent to go a long way and the desires to make an impact on people’s lives, both with her research and as a role model in both her professional and personal lives. She is possibly the most disciplined and organized student, with a huge capacity for work, that I have met in my 17 years at OSU!”

Lampi has served as a mentor for other students in high school and at OSU. In her own family, she looks to her older brother (an engineer) and sister (in med school) for inspiration. “They showed me I can do whatever I want,” she says.

Despite her new surroundings, Lampi will continue to work on her running in preparation for the fall cross-country season. And she’ll have additional support through her coach, Kelly Sullivan, and the OSU Athletics Department, which has arranged for friends to meet her in Switzerland.

To support student scholarships and the University Honors College, contact the OSU Foundation.