Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1972 [PAGE 296]

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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[ A p r i l 21

and officers of the Board and officers of the University were present as recorded at the beginning of these minutes.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY PATENT COMMITTEE (33) T h e University Patent Committee, with the concurrence of the Chairman of the University Research Board, submits the following recommendations relating to patentable inventions by members of the staff. 1. Procedure for the use of genie male sterility in the production of commercial hybrid maize — Earl B. Patterson, Assistant Professor of Plant Genetics in Agronomy, Urbana, inventor. This is a new method of producing hybrid maize without the necessity of detasseling, or otherwise artificially preventing pollen shed of female parents in foundation and production fields of commercial hybrid maize. The Committee recommends that, because a patent application should be filed as soon as possible, the rights of the University in this invention be transferred to the University of Illinois Foundation for further development and patent applications. 2. Persistent, biodegradable analogues of D D T insecticide — Robert L. Metcalf, Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department, and Professor of Entomology and Agricultural Entomology; Inder Kapoor, Research Associate in Entomology; and Ashalata S. Hirwe, Research Associate in Entomology, Urbana, inventors; developed under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation. This analogue of D D T is biodegradable in mammals and in a model ecosystem through formation of water-partitioning and conjugatable phenols produced in viva by O-dealkylation of one or both methoxy-groups. As a result methoxychlor fed to animals is rapidly eliminated in the urine and feces and does not accumulate in fatty tissues as does D D T , nor does methoxychlor accumulate in the tissues of animals at higher positions in food chains as does D D T . T h e Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be transferred to the University of Illinois Foundation for further development and patent applications. 3. System for sustaining and addressing plasma display panels — Ray L. Trogdon, Research Engineer in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, Urbana, inventor; developed under the sponsorship of the Joint Services Electronics P r o gram. The system has the following characteristics: (1) Other than logic power supplies, only one power supply with one output level is required to sustain and address a plasma display panel. (2) In both sustaining and addressing, the signals on one set of electrodes are only required to be two level signals. (3) T h e remaining set of electrodes require two level signals for sustaining. The write-erase signal levels are most easily achieved by series voltage addition using transformers. Optimum write-erase amplitudes may require that the transformers have other than unity turns ratio. (4) Signal amplitudes across partially selected cells place no significant restriction upon the allowable amplitudes of signals across a fully selected cell. The Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention be transferred to the University of Illinois Foundation, subject to the rights of the sponsoring agency, for further development and possible patent application. 4. Method for reliably lighting cells in a plasma display panel — Ray L. T r o g don, Research Engineer in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, Urbana, inventor; developed under the sponsorship of the Joint Services Electronics Program. This process for writing cells requires firing of the border cells simultaneously with the occurrence of a writing signal voltage. T h e requirements of writing discourage proper border utilization with most systems. This is because signals with amplitudes less than the sustaining voltage, but large enough when aided by wall charge to cause a discharge, tend to erase "on" cells. Accordingly, writing signals must be in the same direction as the preceding sustainer cycle. W h e n this is done, the writing signal is opposed rather than aided by wall charge of "on" cells. It is necessary to deliberately design a system to have write signals and border discharges simultaneously present. This technique also has the important advantage of significantly reducing the voltage required to turn cells "on." The Committee recommends that the rights of the University in this invention