Monday, April 23, 2007

Swainsboro Has Major Nanotech Site in Its Sights
Small is Big (Business), Say Experts

By Strother Blair
TBR Staff

Imagine an antenna that could be printed in ink onto a soldier's uniform. Or a hospital bracelet that monitored a patient's vital signs and communicated them to off-site medical personnel.

"That is reasonably near-term doable," said Dr. Diane Lewis, president and director of Geogia NanoFAB, who is working closely with the new National Nanotechnology Manufacturing Center (NNMC) in Swainsboro to manufacture products utilizing nanotechnology.

This science of the small loomed large earlier this month when 100 people attended the Inaugural Symposium for the new National Nanotechnology Manufacturing Center in Swainsboro, which founders are hoping will generate a new technology corridor in the rural area.

Attendees included some of the more significant stake-holders in nanotechnology - from private companies, such as NanoMist Systems and nGimat; to research universities, like University of Missouri-Columbia and Louisiana Tech University; to those in the public sector: The Georgia Maritime Logistics Center and officials from the U. S. Army's Research, Design and Engineering Command in Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., the latter of whom has been involved with the center since its conception several years ago.

The NNMC, considered the first of its kind, was started to move the research done in the emerging field from the university shelf to the factory floor.

Lewis said that there are next to no facilities for producing nanotechnology-driven products at this time anywhere in the world. She believes the NNMC, Georgia nanoFAB and other companies the area's burgeoning tech industry hopes to attract will help fill this need.

"It sounds like a pretty amazing statement," said Lewis. "That this first-of-its-kind facility would be in Swainsboro, but we're confident of that because of our collaboration with the Army. They have actively looked for a place to do this, and they told us that if our engagement with them had not happened, they would have had to build it on their own."

Small Things, Big Dollars

NNMC is described as a nonprofit entity that will serve as a clearing house for projects involving manufacturing both in the nano and micro scale for both military and commercial use.

The overall vision for the Swainsboro area includes fusing the center and private companies into a network that will provide the U.S. military with a manufacturing infrastructure, regardless of the country's level of military involvement, by coupling it with commercial production.

The local hope is also to entice high-tech manufacturing jobs to the area.

"The creation of high-technology jobs in rural Georgia is always a cause for celebration. The expected benefits and advantages for our military makes this particularly exciting," said U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who center leaders credited as instrumental in securing congressional funding for the project.

Andy Riley, president of the Swainsboro-Emanuel County Joint Development Authority, said that creating a tech culture there, rather than dangling costly financial incentives, is the smart way to grow business in his area. "This is not a research facility, but it is a means to attract and generate high-tech companies and jobs for our area and for Georgia," he said.

Riley was on hand for the symposium, along with State Rep. Butch Parrish, Swainsboro Mayor Charles Schwabe, representatives from the Swainsboro City Council and members of the Emanuel County Board of Commissioners.

During the event, Barbara Stafford was named as the center's first executive director. Stafford is a technology entrepreneur, having founded two software companies, and she's also been involved in various statewide commissions under two Georgia governors. Most recently she was the lead consultant for The Strategic Industries Task Force for Gov. Sonny Perdue's Commission for a New Georgia.

"The NNMC will help in the commercialization of new products, which is essential in generating a return on the major federal investments in nano research. We are very fortunate to be able to work with Barbara Stafford whose vision, knowledge, and experience will provide dynamic leadership for our new center."

Nanoland

The strict definition of nanotechnology is anything where at least one dimension involved is between 1 and 100 nanometers, according to Lewis.

That's tiny. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. The wave length of light is 400 to 800 nanometers.

In the last 10 years, scientists have discovered that material that small behaves differently and has different properties. Go back to the size of a light wave length. In nanoscale, "Things are the right size to interact with light," said Lewis. "That opens up the possibility that what we now do with electricity, we could do it with light." For example, that opens up harnessing solar energy for all kinds of applications.

The first product of the new center will be the antenna technology for which the Army has so far identified nine different applications. The Department of Defense has issued to two $2 million contracts so far with the center since its opening last year.

According to Riley, the center will help utilize all the research generated by billions of dollars worth of federal subsidies that otherwise would languish. "The technology is developed and a lot of times, it never gets to the production scale," said Riley. "The center provides a way to scale technology to where it gets mass-produced."

On the private-sector side, the center will partner with universities and aid in the manufacture of prototypes, generate revenue projections and put together attractive packages to pitch to manufactures.

"Let's say you make 30 prototypes, you don't want to have to buy equipment to make those prototypes. It saves them from having to invest in a lot of expensive equipment until the prototypes are done," said Riley.

"It's a whole new way to attract businesses without using public money," said Riley, "so how can you do better than that?"

It took about two years to put the project together. "All during that time, people were saying, what are you talking about? Nanowhat?" said Riley. They wanted to know the definite outcome of the manufacturing, but applications are still being determined. "It could be everything from A to Z," said Riley.

"It's real easy to go start up a grocery store, but when you're doing something that's absolutely cutting-edge tech, there's no model to follow," he said.

"We're excited, and we think it's going to fun," said Lewis.