Feb. 14, 2017

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The National Center for Advanced Wood Products Manufacturing and Design at Oregon State University has been renamed as the TallWood Design Insititute.

The institute brings together the OSU College of Forestry; OSU College of Engineering; and the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts. It’s the nation’s only research collaborative that focuses exclusively on the advancement of structural wood products, and will serve as a national research, education, teaching and outreach hub in the development of tall wood buildings.

Iain Macdonald, an international leader in high-rise wood structures who led the Centre for Advanced Wood Products at the University of British Columbia for the past 10 years, has been hired as its first acting director.

“Oregon’s forest products industry and sustainable design profession are recognized for their products and progressive leadership internationally,” said Thomas Maness, dean of the College of Forestry. “The TallWood Design Institute works to link these two together in order to grow and leverage the use of new wood products in sustainable building design. The addition of Iain Macdonald is one more step toward putting mass timber on the map and Oregon as the go-to place for expertise and new products.”

The institute’s applied research on the strength and durability of mass timber products is key to widespread adoption of this technology. Data from product testing and development enables building code officials to modify rules to allow for mass timber buildings in the United States. Mass timber has been successfully used in Europe for over two decades.

“I’m excited to lead the TallWood Design Institute and partner with two outstanding universities,” said Macdonald, who played a key role in garnering support for UBC to build the world’s tallest timber structure in 2016, an 18-story student dormitory called Brock Commons. “We are conducting collaborative, world-class research that will advance solutions for designers, manufacturers and engineers of advanced wood structures and encourage the widespread adoption of tall wood buildings.”

The institute and its affiliated wood science, architecture and engineering faculty have already played a key role in developing market-ready mass timber products that are either being used, or will soon be used, in commercial projects.

“There is a lot of excitement around mass timber in the design community,” said Judith Sheine, head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture & Allied Arts. “But for mass timber to be fully embraced in the U.S., we need demonstration projects, performance testing, and new product development. The TallWood Design Institute is doing the kind of research needed to make it possible for design professionals to realize the potential of mass timber and to make it practical to use in a variety of project types.”

Oregon State is one of only three locations in the world with a multi-chamber environmental conditioning system capable of conducting durability and advanced climate testing. The institute is equipped to perform structural, seismic, fire and acoustic testing on engineered wood products and their distinct components.

Currently, the institute is testing panels for the 12-story Framework project in Portland, one of two national winners of a U.S. Department of Agriculture mass timber design competition.

It is also partnering with D.R. Johnson Wood Innovations to conduct fire and structural testing on cross-laminated timber panels and is working with Freres Lumber Company, Inc. of Lyons to create a new Mass Plywood Panel for structural applications in buildings.

For more information about the TallWood Design Institute, please visit http://tallwoodinstitute.org.

Jan. 25, 2017

By Oregon State University

CORVALLIS, Ore – The Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA) has announced a gift of $1.5

million to support construction of a new Food and Beverage Facility at Oregon State University.

The planned facility, part of OSU’s Department of Food Science and Technology, will include space for innovative research, testing and teaching related to Oregon’s dairy industry and other food and beverage industries important to Oregon.

Total projected cost for the new dairy pilot plant facility is $6 million, which includes $3 million planned from philanthropic support and a matching $3 million proposed from state bonds pending legislative approval during the 2017 legislative session.

As part of OSU’s Oregon Quality Food and Beverage Products Initiative, the new dairy processing facility will include an automated, small-scale dairy manufacturing plant with state-of-the-art equipment for production of cheese, ice cream, cultured products and dairy-based powders. There will be contemporary lab and classroom facilities to ensure important educational experiences and enhanced research facilities for both student training and industry collaborations.

These innovations build on opportunities sparked by earlier contributions from Paul and Sandy Arbuthnot for OSU’s Arbuthnot Dairy Center. The new dairy facility will establish even greater emphasis on manufacturing for undergraduates. Graduate students will engage in high-level technical dairy research, which can be readily applied to the field as advised by industry.

The Tillamook County Creamery Association is a 108-year-old farmer-owned cooperative and producer of Tillamook-branded dairy products.

“We are extremely grateful to be part of such a thriving food and beverage industry here in Oregon and to operate in a state that has such strong education and research partners,” said Patrick Criteser, TCCA’s president and CEO. “This donation demonstrates our confidence in OSU to train the next generation of dairy scientists and to partner with other companies around the region to advance the industry in a significant way.”

Dairy foods are advancing in the Pacific Northwest on several fronts, with product innovation, expanded global markets and honors received for some of the world’s most respected dairy products, according to Pete Kent, executive director of the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council. The Northwest dairy industry has potential to advance even further, he says.

“OSU’s dairy foods program is well-positioned to drive future success by providing a well-trained professional workforce, Extension assistance to processors and research focused on the needs of regional dairies,” said Lisbeth Goddik, professor and leader of OSU’s dairy processing program. “OSU thanks the TCCA for helping us grow the Northwest dairy industry.”

Eric Bastian agrees. “The proposed pilot facility at OSU will be a significant step forward as we train the next generation of dairy scientists and technologists,” said Bastian, vice president for industry relations of United Dairymen of Idaho. “A technically trained workforce will enhance trust in the Northwest dairy industry and increase demand for Northwest dairy products.”

Nov. 7, 2016

By Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

A bipartisan group of 18 Oregon lawmakers signed a letter to Gov. Kate Brown Monday calling for the state to take on more debt in the upcoming biennium to approve high-profile construction projects at public universities.

The request comes as Brown and the legislature expect to tackle a more than $1 billion revenue shortfall tied to public pension obligations and expanded healthcare costs while navigating the fallout from a divisive proposed tax on businesses, whether Measure 97 passes or fails on Election Day.

“We understand the many demands on our state’s limited debt capacity,” the lawmakers, which included five senators and 13 representatives wrote. But the upcoming session includes two opportunities that the elected officials say “merit investment above historic levels.”

Those opportunities: The University of Oregon’s proposed Phil and Penny Knight Center For Accelerating Scientific Impact, a professor-driven initiative that school officials say requires $100 million in state bonds to achieve its full potential — and Oregon State University’s desired expansion at its campus in Bend. OSU is requesting more than $69 million from the state for new buildings and other projects in Central Oregon.

The University of Oregon said its new science center will benefit the state. Other institutions seem to agree.

The lawmakers, which collectively represent 20 percent of the Legislature, also said the two signature projects should not come at the expense of other proposals at the seven public universities across the state.

Last Friday, the state higher education commission approved a newly prioritized list of projects totaling more than $444 million, up from $252 million in debt approved in the current two-year funding cycle. There was some angst among commissioners that there’s not enough money to go around.

Lawmakers beg to differ.

“We believe increased investment in the upcoming budget will benefit Oregon students and the economy,” the group wrote. “Capitalizing on these unique opportunities should not come at the expense of others— instead universities should get a larger slice of the capital pie than has traditionally been served.”

Read the whole letter.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect figure for capital construction costs anticipated in 2017-19, and also didn’t accurately characterize the full nature of the projected more than $1 billion revenue shortfall.
— Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewth

 

Full Article here.

PORTLAND, Ore. – A new program designed to increase entrepreneurial activity and stimulate job creation in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest is now being offered in Portland by Oregon State University’s College of Business.

The goal of Launch Corps is to provide additional startup support services for select students who are enrolled in the college’s Innovation Management MBA program and are also developing a business idea. Innovation Management is a new track in the college’s MBA program that prepares students to start new companies and advance ideas within existing ones.

“Research shows rates of entrepreneurship are in a state of decline in the U.S.,” said Mitzi Montoya, dean of OSU’s College of Business. “That’s concerning news, especially given reports that indicate entrepreneurs are responsible for nearly all net new job creation. Oregon has unprecedented potential to address our regional and national need for entrepreneurial activity if we can effectively recruit entrepreneurs from the full pool of available talent and accelerate their success.”

As they progress through the Innovation Management MBA, students in Launch Corps will be connected to resources that can help move their startup ideas forward. Those resources include mentors in areas such as marketing, accounting and finance; office space at the college’s new Portland headquarters at WeWork, a co-working community for multiple ventures and startups; services, equipment and related amenities; and access to workshops and entrepreneurial training programs.

Launch Corps is open to all founders, co-founders or teams at the startup stage who have a passion for addressing a problem and an idea that offers market potential. Women, people of color, and others who have historically been underrepresented among entrepreneurs are particularly encouraged to apply for Launch Corps.

“Research shows that women lead about one-third of entrepreneurial activity, even though they make up slightly more than half of the population,” said Audrey Iffert-Saleem, executive director of strategic initiatives for the College of Business. “Our vision is that the population of entrepreneurs will grow to reflect the changing demographics of the United States.”

Supporting these entrepreneurs in their startup journey is about more than getting them in the pipeline, said Iffert-Saleem, who has led the development of several entrepreneurship programs for women and people of color.

“A recent report shows that only a tiny fraction of one percent of venture funding went to black women founders in 2014,” she said. “We need a culture shift, and we need support from the community.”

The fee for the two-year program is $5,000, and fellowships are available for selected students. The J.D. Power Launch Corps fellowships cover the costs of the program as well as a $2,000 business start-up grant and an $8,000 tuition scholarship.

All Launch Corps applicants will be considered for the fellowship, and priority will be given to women applicants. The program will begin in the fall term, and the deadline to apply for the fall MBA program is Aug. 22.

The college also is seeking mentors and startup coaches to support Launch Corps members, especially women and people of color who are entrepreneurs, investors and business professionals.

Full article here.

For more information about Launch Corps or to apply to the program, visit

business.oregonstate.edu/launchcorps

By Theresa Hogue

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State University Class of 2016 will celebrate a record-breaking number of graduates this Saturday when 6,406 of the newest members of Beaver Nation celebrate OSU’s 147^th commencement.

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. on June 11 in Reser Stadium on campus. No tickets are required for the event, which also will be shown on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s PLUS channel.

A total of 6,406 graduates will receive 6,723 degrees this year, according to OSU Registrar Rebecca Mathern. They will add to the ranks of Oregon State alumni, which have earned a total of 236,296 degrees over the university’s history.

Juan Felipe Herrera, a social activist and the first Mexican American to hold the position of United States Poet Laureate, will deliver the commencement address.  The son of migrant farmers in California, Herrera is the author of 30 books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and children’s books.

Some facts and figures about OSU’s Class of 2016:

• 295 graduates will be receiving two degrees, while 11 will be receiving three.
• A total of 692 graduates earned degrees in distance education in 32 different degree programs.
• OSU’s 2016 graduates come from all 36 Oregon counties, all 50 states, three U.S. territories or commonwealths, and 63 nations around the world.
• While the average age of the class is 25, the oldest graduate is 73 years of age; the youngest is 19.
• The graduating class includes 136 veterans of the U.S. military service.

When Magali Sánchez crosses the stage, she will be the first in her family to receive a college degree.

The second oldest of seven siblings, Sánchez spent her teen years picking strawberries alongside her family in Woodburn. While pursuing her degree in ethnic studies with a minor in Spanish, Sánchez also managed to devote much of her time to social justice work. She volunteered in leadership roles, including Greek life, campus-community relations, Latinx organizations, as well as many other cultural and community groups. After some international travel, she hopes to pursue a master’s program in ethnic studies.

Christopher McFarland began life in foster care, and ended up on the streets of Los Angeles as a homeless teen. He found himself addicted to drugs, and eventually landed in prison. But following a rough start, McFarland came to OSU, where he first received a bachelor’s degree in public health in 2013.

Throughout his academic career, he has worked with vulnerable populations in Benton County, and this June, he will receive a master’s degree in public health. He plans on continuing to work with the Benton County Health Department and work with at-risk adolescents.

A tragedy turned Marcia Vasquez’ life upside down, but also led her to pursue a doctorate.

In 1996, Vasquez was a master’s student at OSU with a 10-year-old son, Pablo, when her second son, Rodrigo, was born. After graduation she became a faculty member at the University of Talca in Chile, where she survived a major earthquake in 2010, which temporarily shut down the university. But shortly following the quake, Rodrigo was killed in a bicycle accident. The event spurred her to pursue something positive after his death, so she returned to OSU to pursue a doctorate in wood science, and dedicated the effort to Rodrigo.

As a child from Vadodara, India, Parth Khimsaria spent about 10 to 12 hours a day studying during high school and with academic coaches to get into a good engineering school. His path led him to Oregon State University where he was a part of the International Cultural Service Program with a partial scholarship, where he has spent the last five years working on his two undergraduate degrees – manufacturing engineering and industrial engineering, and a minor in business and entrepreneurship.

During his undergrad journey, he has done two internships at Blount International and Lam Research Corporation, has participated in a number of student engineer organizations, has been an ambassador for the College of Engineering, and has been an undergraduate research and teaching assistant. He has also helped build the International Peer Mentoring Program. After graduation, he will be joining Lam Research Corporation as a manufacturing engineer.

Mathern said OSU expects about 3,974 students to attend commencement. Oregon State is one of only a few universities of its size to hand out actual diplomas to students as they graduate.

By Hari Sreenivasan

A small community in Southeast Oregon was thrown into the national spotlight earlier this year when several dozen armed occupiers took control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, leading to a month-long standoff with law enforcement.

They were protesting federal government control of local lands, a longstanding grievance in the American West. But some local residents say they were surprised the conflict took place there, because they have been working together to resolve land management disputes.

Special correspondent Cat Wise reports.

CAT WISE: The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has reopened to the public, but the headquarters complex remains closed, for now.

CHAD KARGES, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Once the repairs are done, and we’re back in the buildings and operational again in full, then we will open up the headquarters.

CAT WISE: Refuge manager Chad Karges says that while cleanup efforts from the occupation are ongoing, everyone’s attention is now refocused on the most important visitors here, birds.

CHAD KARGES: Malheur Refuge is about migratory birds, and so this basin is one of the most important spring migratory stopover points for migratory birds in the Western U.S. The basin serves as kind of like an international airport. It’s a hub.

CAT WISE: More than 320 species are found here, including sandhill cranes, Ross’s geese, long-billed curlews, and red-winged blackbirds. But the birds don’t just hang out on the refuge. They land wherever they want.

And at this time of year, that’s often on local private ranchland wet with spring runoff. It’s wonderful habitat for birds and for cows. Cows outnumber people by 14 to one in Harney County. There’s a long, proud tradition of ranching here, and cattle and haying are the main drivers of the local economy.

Cows and birds seem to get along quite well on private ranches, and many in the community appreciate the tourism dollars that birders bring in. But it’s when those cattle have to graze on public, government-owned land, which makes up 75 percent of the county, that conflicts between ranchers, and environmental groups, and the federal government become evident.

So, about 10 years ago, refuge manager Karges and a small group in this community decided to try a fairly novel approach to resolving those conflicts, face-to-face conversations. And those conversations have led to this, the High Desert Partnership, a nonprofit that was formed with one goal, collaboration.

MAN: Can you add to the committee, or does it need to be a standing committee?

MAN: I would just recommend that it is a standing group.

CAT WISE: Participants at this recent meeting, held at the historic Hotel Diamond, included ranchers, federal and local government employees, scientists, and conservation advocates, a diverse group you might not expect would share so many laughs.

Brenda Smith is the group’s director.

BRENDA SMITH, High Desert Partnership: We wanted to go beyond litigation when land issues were being challenged, I guess. If we could bring people together, maybe those things wouldn’t happen, and that is where we have seen our success.

CAT WISE: The group has made progress in other areas, too, like reducing the number of invasive carp that are hurting the ecosystem in Malheur Lake on the refuge, and improving flood irrigation systems on private ranches that benefit both cattle and the birds.

But how to manage cattle on federal lands, especially on the refuge, is an issue they are still sorting out.

Dan Nichols is a local rancher and an elected county commissioner. He’s a firm believer in the partnership, but he says it’s not always easy to find common ground, when ranchers feel their way of life is threatened.

DAN NICHOLS, Harney County Commissioner: There needs to be some change in the way the federal lands are managed. The West is continuously bombarded by threats of monuments, national parks, further restrictions on grazing. The lockup of millions of acres over a succession of time is causing a demise, to a certain degree, in the rural communities.

CAT WISE: Nichols says working through those tough issues has been a lot easier with the partnership in place.

DAN NICHOLS: We can sit down and talk. You still don’t agree on everything. That’s a given. That’s people. But you respect one another to listen, and to look at the world through their lens a little bit. And others are starting to see, because they have been here enough, that cattle aren’t all bad.

CAT WISE: Malheur is one of a small number of federal wildlife refuges around the country that allow limited grazing and haying, largely to help control plant growth and invasive species during times of year when cattle won’t impact the birds too much.

But when a long-term plan was being developed for the refuge, some hoped to get cattle off the land entirely.

BOB SALLINGER, Audubon Society of Portland: We think public lands need to be managed for their ecological value. That needs to be the top priority. And, too often, those ecological values have been sacrificed for cattle grazing.

CAT WISE: Bob Sallinger is the conservation director at the Portland Audubon Society. He says cattle cause a number of ecological problems, including trampling vegetation and nests, but after many, many discussions with the group, he decided he could live with some cattle on the refuge.

BOB SALLINGER: As we talked, we recognized that we did have some common ground on some of the biggest issues, particularly carp and flood irrigation, that we could agree to move forward on those issues, and also that there needed to be better science in terms of understanding the role that cattle are playing in this ecosystem.

CAT WISE: In fact, better science has become the shared goal of the various high desert partners. And they have put their trust in this group.

Esther Lev, Dustin Johnson, and Jess Wenick are scientists with different backgrounds, but the three are collaborating on projects around the refuge aimed at understanding how vegetation responds over time to different management tools, like flooding and grazing, but what they aren’t doing, they say, is taking sides.

ESTHER LEV, The Wetlands Conservancy: We’re not trying to dispute this or agree to this. We really trying to say, what goes on here? What is the ideal plant communities that we want and water regimes that are going to give the birds the habitat they need?

DUSTIN JOHNSON, Oregon State University Extension Service: We’re really only two years really into the sampling which is being done. We’re just now beginning to understand some of these changes that we’re seeing when we do certain things.

JESS WENICK, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: The beautiful thing that I see in this collaborative effort is the value of the shared science, because, too often, politics removes some of the tools from the toolbox that you are able to use on a site like this to meet your objectives.

CAT WISE: The data from their experiments will ultimately help refuge managers determine how many cattle are allowed to graze from year to year. But not everyone in the larger community is supportive of the High Desert Partnership.

ERIN MAUPIN, Rancher: So, just hold it and be careful. She will be butt it.

CAT WISE: Erin Maupin and her husband, Jeff, own a 1,700-acre ranch and 350 cattle. They, like so many ranchers in this area, need much more land than they own to feed those cattle. But they say they feel under constant threat that their government permits to graze on public lands will be taken away to preserve habitat for wildlife.

Maupin says she participated in early High Desert Partnership meetings, but stopped going after she felt like her views weren’t getting traction.

ERIN MAUPIN: I thought, if we could just get the truth out there, that we’re not here raping and pillaging the land, that environmental groups would recognize our grazing rights. I think if people would listen to us more in the collaboration, instead of we’re the only ones that have anything to give, and so we’re constantly giving, and giving, and giving.

CAT WISE: But those who are committed to the collaborative process say the recent occupation has strengthened their cause.

Partnership director Brenda Smith:

BRENDA SMITH: I think it might actually encourage people that, yes, this is something that’s important, and that we really need to work hard at it.

CAT WISE: The group recently received a $6 million grant from a state agency for wetlands habitat projects on and off the refuge, and they are now collaborating about how to spend that money.

For the “PBS NewsHour,” I’m Cat Wise in Harney County, Oregon.

Read original story here