Wednesday, June 22, 1983/The Battalion/Page 3
A&M institute promotes
technology, inventions
I ® by Jennifer Carr
Battalion Staff
ov. Mark White signed a bill
Friday which created a new insti
tute within the Texas A&M Sys-
■ tern — an institute designed to
I yt develop and promote new tech-
[ ] nology.
I 1^ ■ Dr. Arthur Porter, director
of the Texas Engineering Ex
periment Station, said PEES
ot urnJ! .had the authority to establish the
erlyanVllnstitute for Ventures in New
>n of technology, INVENT, which
t$ wouiaP as been in operation since
V toNovember, but submitted the
ear bill to the Legislature to give the
,u Bogram added support and
' thet " t Cib.li.y.
ms contr®
himacto.*i| INVENT is expected to cre
ate jobs in Texas by screening
inpir W duCl P rocesses anc ^ business
< last mcl,
ies Wrijl:
as Foleyj
ebeeaaj
'ship has |
:1 been®
of the tl
opportunities and helping en-
treprenuers execute potentially
successful ideas, INVENT dire
ctor Franklin J. Sekera said. The
screening process is divided into
four stages, and involves both
engineering and business ex
perts.
The first stage is the evalua
tion of the idea. Experts deter
mine whether the idea will work
and be marketable. If not, the
idea is eliminated. Ideas may
also be eliminated if Texas A&M
doesn’t have the faculty, exper
tise or facilities required to ex
ecute the idea.
Sekera said 90 percent of all
ideas and inventions are elimin
ated in this stage.
The second stage is the re
search. About a weeks’ worth of
research and market studies are
conducted to further determine
if an idea is viable.
The third stage is the creation
of a plan. If an idea is successful,
a program plan is designed for
the product which includes ex
actly what role INVENT will
play in developing and market
ing the product. An agreement
is defined between INVENT
and the entrepreneur.
The fourth stage is the im
plementation of the plan.
Sekera estimates that only 2 per
cent of the plans submitted will
reach stage four.
Of approximately 200 ideas
submitted since the program’s
beginning, two are in stage
three, and three are in stage
four. The plans in stage four in
clude a new oil drilling techni
que, a water purifying techni
que, and g new combustion en
gine prototype.
jpfficer rams car, injuring
Jwo in fatal suicide attempt
locrats :| 1 M» u / , w e , d , I> f ess Inte ^ na,ional
I II — I wo people
1 were in critical condition Tues-
to take ^ ^ victims 0 f a troubled
iidingprdp 0 ii ceman who rammed their
t Hr on a dark highway in an
ap| arent suicide attempt, and
then shot himself to death.
;e
vS
th the eld
ght toiM
hat has
An autopsy conducted in
Haarillo showed officer
Vaughn Maddox, 30, suffered
only minor injuries after he col
lided with a car on U.S. 385
north of Dimmitt shortly after
midnight Monday. The autopsy
showed he died of a bullet
wound to the heart, fired from
his service revolver.
A witness said Maddox’s pat
rol car appeared as if out of no
where with its headlights off and
rammed directly into the other
car.
Department of Public Safety
spokesman David Wells said a
suicide note was found in the
patrol car. The contents were
not disclosed.
Two people in the other car
— Robert Youngjr., 47, of Mid
land, and his nephew, Michael
Stephenson, 13, of Clayton,
N.M. — were transported about
60 miles to Lubbock Methodist
Hospital, where they were in cri
tical condition in the surgical in
tensive care unit a hospital
spokeswoman said. Young’s
wife, Jean, 45, was treated for
minor injuries and released.
Wells said an inquest had
been ordered by Dimmitt Justice
of the Peace Marshall Young to
determine officially • whether
Maddox’s death would be classi
fied as a suicide.
Maddox, a veteran west
Texas police officer who pre
viously worked in Odessa and
Plainview, had been suspended
from the Dumas force on Dec.
18, 1981, following an investiga
tion into eight arson fires. Offi
cials said Maddox had disco
vered or reported three of the
fires.
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