AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Founded in 1939 expressly to assist in US industry, Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, has a long history of interacting with the commercial sector on research and development projects. Branching out over the years from its original aeronautics focus to other commercially viable areas such as computing and life sciences, Ames has instituted the necessary support offices to fulfill its mission.

Ames is one of the largest federal research and development laboratories in Silicon Valley. Besides the Commercial Technology Office (CTO), formed in 1994 from the former Technology Utilization Office, the field center also boasts the Ames Technology Commercialization Center, an "incubator " for developing new businesses.

"We have a strong emphasis on partnerships, joint work with industry, " said Syed Shariq, the Ames CTO director. "As opposed to looking for someone to take the technology from you after you have developed it, we are moving more toward proactive collaboration between the private sector and NASA. "

As Joan Salute, CTO marketing inreach officer, described Ames' approach, "We focus on partners in research. Instead of asking a company 'What are your problems? Let us help you solve it,' we work on problems that are common to both of us. "

CTO's outreach has had several successes. In 1994, Ames' Joint Sponsored Research Program, which the CTO oversees, established a partnership between NASA and aviation companies to help rejuvenate American general aviation. The CTO initiated a collaboration with General Motors to use Ames' thermal protection materials in developing cost-effective automotive emission systems that offer faster start-up after ignition while conforming to new environmental protection standards. A work-in-progress for the CTO is a regional (Bay Area) multi-media alliance composed of academic, government, and industry groups.

As a partnership between Ames, IC2 Institute of Austin, TX, and the University of Texas, the Ames Technology Commercialization Center helps entrepreneurs start new ventures based substantially on NASA technology. The Center provides access to a network of business experts in marketing and sales, high-tech management and operation, patent and corporate law, and financing, and technology transfer. It helps companies research NASA technology for suitability to commercial purposes and obtain rights to these technologies.

Further helping Ames' business outreach is the proximity of NASA's Joint Sponsored Research program, or American Technology Initiative (Amtech), a nonprofit entity located in Menlo Park that promotes collaborations with the private sector. Although not exclusively an Ames resource, the JSR Program regularly interacts with Ames as well as the other NASA field centers around the country. From a project's outset, the program seeks to match the research plan with a commercial application, identify government and industry customers, and negotiate intellectual property rights. Besides spin-offs from NASA, the JSR also looks for "spin-ins " to NASA.

Currently, Ames is in the process of spinning off several Ames-developed technologies to industry. These include spacesuit technologies to treat multiple sclerosis and burning limb syndrome; environmentally friendly deicing fluids (originally created for aircraft) to make winter roads safer; and a resistant biofilm coating to counter such contamination problems as bathtub mildew and tooth plaque. Exemplifyi ng the far-ranging applications of aerospace technology, Ames' thermal protection materials are being used in human bone implants, extravehicular system technologies incorporated into hazardous material-handling vehicles, and biological recycling technologies fashioned for remote areas such as Antarctica and Alaska.

One major effort at Ames that could have a significant impact on the private sector is the development of automation tools for air transport management, which are already in operation at Dallas and Denver airports' air traffic control centers. "Improvements in the air traffic management system are considered by aviation industry experts to be their first priority, " said Ames director Dr. Ken Munechika.

Each of the four Ames directorates--Aeronautics, Space Research, Information Sciences, and Center Operations--offers access and assistance to industry. in Aeronautics, Ames' wind-tunnel research facilities have long been a significant resource for the aircraft industry, such as for Boeing's 777, rolled out in April 1994. The airplane also incorporated Ames-developed human engineering concepts into the cockpit. Companies can schedule use of the 80x120 -foot wing tunnel, the world's largest, for full-scale aircraft, rotorcraft, and aeronautical models, or the subsonic 40x80-foot tunnel for such purposes as attaining an aeroacoustic environmen t for large-scale, high-speed aircraft components or testing full-scale rotorcraft. Ames also offers several smaller wind tunnels.

Information and computer sciences have gained prominence, and the center dedicates several resources to advanced studies in these fields. NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has named Ames the Center for Excellence in Information Sciences. The Automation Sciences Research Facility (ASRF) focuses on intelligent systems, many of which already have of promise commercial application. ASRF's AutoClass software, which performs automatic data analysis by classification, has been used in cancer epidemiology and criminology. Optical neural networks for robot vision processing may one day spin off new aids for the blind. Scheduling methods developed for telescope observation and spacecraft mission planning hold potential application to industrial processes that operate under similar optimization criteria. Ames annually reviews proposals for use of the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Systems--which houses two Cray C-90 supercomputers, a Thinking Machine CM-5, and three Convex super-comput ers--by both NASA and outside research groups nationwide.

Ames has spawned a life sciences research program, recently establishing the Center for the Health Applications of Aerospace-Related Technologies. The Center has set up projects in the battle against filariasis in the Nile Delta, schistosomiasis in China, and malaria in the Amazon. Facilities Available for collaborative studies or in some cases direct access include a biocomputation center, a vestibular research facility, and a neutral buoyancy research laboratory that simulates weightlessness.

The Center Operations Directorate offers a fleet of aircraft for airborne research. The C-130B laboratory supports earth science experiment s such as meteorology and sensor development for satellites; the DC-8 laboratory can be used for space technology, simulation, gas sampling, and local and remote sensing; and the ER-2 high altitude laboratory can carry aloft a 2700-lb. payload to 70,000 ft as a high-altitude simulator or an engineering testbed.

For further information, contact: Ames Technology Commercialization Office,
MS 292A-3, Moffett Field, CA 95035-1000
Tel: (415)604-1919;
or

Ames Technology Commercialization Center,
155A Moffett Park Drive,
Suite 104, Sunnyvale, CA 84089
Tel: (408)734-4700; Fax: (408)734-4946

or the
American Technology Initiative,
Suite 180,
Menlo Park, CA 94025;
Tel: (415)325-5353.