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1975 NASA AUTHORIZATION

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1974

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AERONAUTICS AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room 2318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ken Hechler (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. HECHLER. The committee will be in order.

This morning the Subcommittee on Aeronautics and Space Technology begins its authorization hearings on the 1975 budget authorization request in the areas of technology utilization, aeronautics and space technology, tracking and date acquisition.

The first order of business is to examine technology utilization, which is an area of emphasis that both this Subcommittee and the full Committee of Science and Astronautics has stressed as being a vital part of the space program.

We have continuously placed greater emphasis than NASA in the area of technology transfer and technology utilization. Unfortunately, all that it has taken has been the flick of an OMB pencil to scratch out Congressionally authorized and modest increases for technology utilization.

I regret to say that the top management at NASA has not fought very vigorously against this type of action. In fact, NASA seems to have taken the position there are more important programs to argue about. So they contend they aren't going to fight very hard for more support for technology utilization.

We note with some small pleasure that there is an increase of $1 million in the budget request over last year's program. We hope that this represents at least a small and belated recognition of the value and importance of technology transfer.

I want to welcome Mr. Edward Z. Gray, Assistant Administrator for Industry Affairs and Technology Utilization, NASA, in his first appearance before the Subcommittee.

Mr. Gray, before I formally present you, I want to ask you a brief question.

Have you looked at any of the testimony of your predecessors before the Subcommittee?

Mr. GRAY. I did.

Mr. HECHLER. Have you noted the consistent question that the Chairman always asked? I hope that you will be prepared to tell us how many predecessors you actually have had. I trust you realize yours is

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a very hazardous job. In fact, one could almost say that the Administrators of Technology Utilization are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

However, we are very happy to have you before the Committee this morning.

I understand also that you have a number of associates and others who are going to participate from the regional dissemination centers and technology application teams. I would like to welcome both your visitors and you to the Committee.

Mr. Gray, you may proceed.

Mr. GRAY. Thank you very much, Mr. Hechler. I was going to comment rather than being an endangered species, this sounds to me more like a favorable spot to move out from, because I must be number seven. I hope that's a lucky number, and in the succession of Technology Utilization Assistant Administrators, I would like to indicate that I am particularly interested in this subject. I have 30-odd years in aerospace and I think it is particularly important that we try to use the knowledge that we have gained in this exciting activity that we have all been involved in, and try to use it for other areas as well. I am most impressed by my associates who have been in this program for a much longer period than I, Clare Farley, my deputy, and Jeff Hamilton of the TU program. I have been most impressed with their efforts, and with the enthusiasm and ability they have shown in doing what they have with the resources at their disposal. With that, I would like to get started.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD Z. GRAY, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR INDUSTRY AFFAIRS AND TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION, NASA

Mr. GRAY. It is my pleasure to appear before you to report on our activities and accomplishments in the NASA Technology Utilization Program.

Today I propose to deviate somewhat from the format we used in presenting our testimony in previous years.

Following a brief review of our program and the progress we have made in the past year, I will ask several representative people to present to you their own experiences using our program. I believe that the committee will get a more penetrating insight to our program by having the people who have benefited directly relate their experience in their own words. I regret that time does not permit your exposure to the many more people who have benefited from the program.

Mr. HECHLER. How many are you talking about? You said “many more people." What did you mean by that?

Mr. GRAY. Probably into the hundreds, if we could bring each one who had a direct exposure to our activities. I think you will get a feel for that as we have the different witnesses talk who are representative of their own particular areas.

Although I will be concentrating on the Technology Utilization Program in this discussion, you should recognize that the Technology Utilization Program is not the sole means by which NASA technology transfer occurs.

The natural process of technology transfer has always taken place when new information is available for use by creative people. For instance, NASA fuel cell technology from the Apollo program is now being adopted by private industry and the utility companies for the generation of electric power. And NASA research on the strength of materials has provided the basis for new standards in the design of turbines and other heavy structures in private industry.

Technology Utilization is documenting all such cases of natural technology transfer, and studying their development so that NASA will understand how we can best stimulate and accelerate technology transfer.

During the past year, in addition to our efforts directed toward increasing the transfer of NASA technology into the nonaerospace sectors, we have made some specific significant gains in transferring technology to small businesses, minority companies and state and local municipalities. In these new thrusts we have continued to serve the small business community through our Publication and Dissemination Programs, established a relationship with the Office of Minority Business Enterprise of the Department of Commerce, and continued a joint program with the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

All of these activities are directed toward improving and expanding the delivery of NASA technology to areas which in the past have not been effectively penetrated.

We are continuing and expanding our program of applying technology to the public sector with particular emphasis with working with other Federal agencies. In this area, we have developed in the past year programs with the Environmental Protection Agency in instruments development and testing, with the Interior Department's Bureau of Mines in mine safety, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in fire and lead paint detection and with the Department of Transportation in highway and rail safety.

These agencies have committed more than $700,000.00 toward NASA technology transfer projects in support of their work. A complete list of these cooperative efforts can be found in the statement submitted for the record.

We are proposing to develop a program with the Electric Power Research Institute to share NASA's reliability and safety assurance experience with the electric utilities. We have begun a program with the New York City Fire Department to assess and minimize the risks in the operation of liquid natural gas installation. Both of these activities are essential elements in the Nation's effort to resolve the current energy crisis.

As I mentioned earlier, understanding the transfer environment with all of its complexities is one of our major concerns. One step in this direction was an exchange of staff members between NASA and the State of Texas to gain a perspective of state oriented problems and possible technology solutions.

In addition, a NASA consultant has been working with the city government in New York City for more than a year to couple the needs of the Nation's largest city with possible technology solutions. Some significant advances achieved are the installation of the NASA developed school alarm system, the development of an improved fire

man's breathing unit, and the introduction of a portable drug detector.

Other applications of NASA technology in both the public and the private sector can be found in the statement submitted for the record, covering areas of applications in Housing and Urban Contruction, Safety, Transportation, Environment, and Biomedicine.

Let me now review the Technology Utilization Program's three major elements through which the technology developed in support of our aeronautics and space programs is channeled to the public and the private sector. These elements consist of a publications program, a network of Regional Dissemination Centers, and a Technology applications program. Each of these will be discussed in detail by the speakers I mentioned earlier.

In order to allow enough time for the speakers we have present today, I will first describe the Publications program very briefly. This program is aimed at announcing, through various publications, technical innovations developed by NASA centers and contractors, singly in Tech Brief, and in aggregate by compilations, in such fields as electric control circuits, adhesives, plastics and others. In 1973, over 550 new Tech Briefs were added to the over 5,000 innovations already published and available for American industrial use. These publications are distributed to more than 15,000 individuals and firms which, in turn, generated over 68,000 requests for additional information in the past year.

These tech briefs are imitated by other agencies. I have here an example which is put out by the Bureau of Mines called "Technology” and it follows the same pattern that we have initiated.

To illustrate how this program operates, let me describe one example of a technology transfer resulting from a Tech Brief publication. Early in 1970, the Research Director of Zeller Corporation, a small firm in Defiance, Ohio, asked for a copy of a Tech Brief announced in Commerce Business Daily.

His company wanted to produce a resistor spark plug for which a large market was predicted. The resistor plug eliminates the need for special resistive spark plug leads and allows regular wire to be used.

The Tech Brief they requested described the results of research done by Dr. Libby and associates at the University of California under NASA sponsorship on making temperature-independent resistors for microelectronic circuits.

The Zeller Research Director was able to utilize information to solve the production problem that his company had been struggling with for several years, and within a few months and with minimum investment in equipment, a production line was started for the new spark plug. In 1974, production is estimated to be 2 million plugs, which is double the 1973 production, which in turn doubled the 1972. Here are some of the sample resistor plugs which are made by the Zeller. They're made at the same cost as a regular plug.

These plugs are sold directly to the General Services Administration and also distributed nationally through Western Auto supplv.

Mr. HECHLER. Mr. Gray, could I interrupt. That's a good illustration. Supposing representatives from Zeller Corporation had simply not happened to read their Commerce Business Daily that day. Isn't there anything more aggressive that you do at the agency when you

see something that you feel will solve a particular problem like this? Mr. GRAY. Yes, there is. And I think we will cover it for you a little later as we talk about our technology applications. They will address themselves to things of that type.

Now I will cover our Regional Dissemination Center Program which has during 1973 serviced more than 3,100 industrial clients. At least one half of the clients had less than 500 employees.

There has been a 50% increase in clients during the past year. Much of this increase can be attributed to the added resources made available by the Congress last year which enabled us to strengthen the activities of these centers.

We have six Regional Dissemination Centers now in operation. One, serving the highly industrialized Northeast Region, is the University of Connecticut operated RDC known as the New England Research Application Center (NERAC).

To explain to you the operation of this activity, Dr. Daniel Wilde, Director of NERAC, has graciously come down from Storrs, Connecticut to testify to you.

Dr. Wilde earned his Doctorate in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His industrial experience included engineering positions with Motorola Incorporated and National Cash Register Company. Dr. Wilde's principal research work has involved planning, development and evaluation of computerized information retrieval systems. He has authored a number of papers and books on this subject and is listed in Who's Who in Data Processing. I am pleased to present to you Dr. Wilde, who will address the operations of NERAC

STATEMENT OF DR. DANIEL WILDE, DIRECTOR, NERAC

Dr. WILDE. Mr. Chairman. The New England Research Application Center, which I will refer to by the acronym "NERAC", was established at the University of Connecticut in 1966 as part of NASA's Technology Utilization Program. The purpose of NERAC is to help organizations in the Northeast, such as business and industry, colleges and universities, state and local governments benefit by using NASA's and other people's technology. In other words, we take technology that was invented in organization A and put it to work in organization B.

The University of Connecticut is located at Storrs, Connecticut, approximately 35 miles northeast of Hartford, Connecticut, NERAC operates as part of the School of Business Administration, which has close working relationships with the School of Engineering and the University Library.

NERAC's offices are located near the main university campus and its staff consists of 13 full time employees plus many part time undergraduate and graduate students. In order to better serve the high concentration of industry between New York City and Philadelphia, we have full time employees who live and work in each of these two cities. By April 1st, 1974, we hope to hire someone living in Eastern Massachusetts to better serve that area. Thus bringing our full time professional staff to 14.

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