Royal Purple

Issue date: 5/13/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Gregg Theune Art professor Dan McGuire received a grant to help fund a patent for a process called Ceramic Shell Investment Casting, an invention he created with a fellow professor.

Bertozzi [Click to enlarge]

Art professor Dan McGuire and assistant professor of communication Elena Bertozzi were recently awarded more than $8,000 in grants from the WiSys Technology Foundation Prototype Development Fund.

McGuire is working on a project with Eric Hellstrom, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Florida State University. McGuire said he and Hellstrom received a patent for a process called Ceramic Shell Investment Casting.

The purpose of the project is to bring their invention to commercialization. The grant McGuire was awarded is for $4,000.

"The reason the whole invention was invented originally was to expedite casting in my classroom, and as a benefit for my students," McGuire said. "In the process, we found out that it actually worked really well for industry too."

McGuire said once commercialized, the product will generate fees, and UW-Whitewater will receive a portion of the gains. He said he feels grateful of the support and financial assistance of the grant.

Bertozzi, was awarded a $4,535 grant to help fund three video games she is working on with her colleagues and students.

One of the games was nationally recognized, and it was developed for biology instructors. The game is an educational tool for students to learn about the species of frogs in Wisconsin.

"The goal of the system is to take faculty inventions and make them into commercially marketable enterprises," Bertozzi said. "So we want to take the frog game, which started in the advanced class as a student project, and we want to turn it into a commercially viable product that can hopefully make money for the university."

Bertozzi said they also are working on an interactive softball tutorial, as well as an emergency birth game that teaches the steps to delivering a baby.

Bertozzi said she hopes the grant is only a partial allocation, and she hopes the project will receive more money.

She said she was grateful to receive the grant, because she had applied for several grants she was not awarded. McGuire also said he is grateful for the grant for his project.

"I think UW-Whitewater is doing a great job to start to develop support for research through faculty and students," McGuire said. "And I think it will only turn into better stuff."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools