UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Tuesday February 8, 2005 Volume 51 Number 20 www.upenn.edu/almanac Commercial Development and Entrepreneurship Regan Professor of English: The Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) forefront of commercialization. Charles Bernstein announced the formation of two new business Moving forward, OSIʼs strategy is to Charles Bern- units: Commercial Development and Entrepre- strengthen and evolve Pennʼs commercializa- stein, a leading fig- neurship. There are three new positions in Com- tion activities by: ure in contemporary mercial Development at the Center for Technol- • Improving the overall decision making poetry, has been ap- ogy Transfer: Managing Director of Commercial process by which Penn creates its intellectual pointed the Donald Development, Director of Intellectual Property property estate T. Regan Professor and Director of Technology Licensing. • Creating an enhanced revenue stream by li- of English in SAS. censing inventions via a greater range of channels Dr. Leslie Hudson, Vice Provost for Stra- Professor Bern- • Creating investment grade technology & stein has been pub- tegic Initiatives also announced that Dr. Louis companies lishing his work for Berneman has been appointed Special Advisor, The entrepreneurship business unit will be more than three de- Strategic Initiatives, and will work with him to responsible for Pennʼs strategy to mature its cades, and he is con- design Pennʼs new entrepreneurship business technology through partnership and innovation sidered a pioneer of unit within OSI. with our faculty and to secure the opportunities “language writing,” The newly created positions in Commercial offered by external partnerships with private a movement that be- Development will be filled on an interim basis by: equity investors. Dr. Berneman will leverage gan in the mid-1970s Charles Bernstein • Dr. Lawrence J. Botticelli as Interim Man- his commercialization experience and expertise and focuses on the aging Director of Commercial Development to work directly with Dr. Hudson to shape and structures and codes • Timothy Raynor as Interim Director of In- of language. He has published three collections define the strategy and implementation plans tellectual Property of essays and over 20 books of poetry, and his for this new business unit. “Dr. Berneman is an poems have appeared in more than 350 literary • Dr. Robert McGrath as Interim Director of asset to Pennʼs technology transfer efforts and Technology Licensing magazines and anthologies in North America. I look forward to working with him as Pennʼs The Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) His recent works include the poetry collections efforts in entrepreneurship evolve,” said Dr. With Strings and Republics of Reality: 1975- is the home of Pennʼs commercialization efforts Hudson. 1995, as well as the pamphlet World on Fire. In and over the past decade has built an interna- OSI was formed in July 2003 to serve as a addition, Professor Bernstein has written libret- tionally recognized technology transfer pro- single portal for the Universityʼs commercial- tos for five operas including Shadowtime, which gram. While CTTʼs mission will remain to bring ization, corporate alliance and economic devel- was premiered at the Munich Biennale, an inter- Pennʼs discoveries to the marketplace for public opment activities. OSIʼs mission is to optimize national festival for new music theater, this past good, the efforts of the OSI Internal Advisory the Universityʼs ability to successfully transfer May and will be coming to the Lincoln Center Board have identified a series of opportunities its technology to the marketplace, foster corpo- Festival in July. to leverage CTTʼs success and bring Penn to the rate collaboration and drive economic growth. Professor Bernstein teaches courses on po- etry and poetics, with an emphasis on modernist and contemporary art and performance. In ad- UPS Foundation Professor of Transportation: Vijay Kumar dition to his teaching activities, he is a driving force behind PENNsound, the Center for Pro- Dr. Vijay Kumar has been named the UPS the editorial boards grams in Contemporary Writingʼs new digital Foundation Professor in Transportation. Dr. Ku- of the following poetry archive project, www.writing.upenn.edu/ mar received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in mechanical publications: IEEE pennsound. engineering from Ohio State University in 1985 Transactions on Ro- Before coming to Penn in 2003, Professor and 1987 respectively. botics and Automa- Bernstein was a SUNY Distinguished Professor In 1987 he joined the Penn faculty in the de- tion, the Journal of and David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters partment of mechanical engineering and applied The Franklin Insti- in the department of English at the State Uni- mechanics. He has a secondary appointment tute and the ASME versity of New York at Buffalo, where he taught in the department of computer and informa- Journal of Mechan- for 14 years. During his tenure, he helped to tion science and served as Deputy Dean of the ical Design. establish the universityʼs poetics program and School of Engineering and Applied Science for He has been the served as executive editor and co-founder of five years. recipient of several the Electronic Poetry Center, an international Dr. Kumarʼs research interests lie in the area awards including poetry website. of robotics and networked multi-agent systems. the 1991 National Professor Bernstein has received fellowships He directs the GRASP Laboratory, a multidisci- Science Foundation from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Presidential Young plinary robotics and perception laboratory. Vijay Kumar John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the He is also a co-founder of Bio Software Investigator Award, Systems, a start-up company commercializing the 1996 Lindback Award for Distinguished (continued on page 2) novel software tools for the analysis of regula- Teaching, the 1997 Freudenstein Award for sig- IN THIS ISSUE tory networks. nificant accomplishments in mechanisms and 2 SENATE: SEC Agenda; Death: Dr. Aviado Sr.; Dr. Kumar is a Fellow of the American So- robotics, and the Kawamori Best Paper Award No Council Meeting; HERS Information Session; Payroll Tax Changes; Pilot: Alzheimerʼs & IME ciety of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a at the 2004 IEEE International Conference on 3 Trusteesʼ Open Meetings; Speaking Out: Safety Senior Member of the Institution of Electrical Robotics and Automation. 4 Government Affairs Update and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and a mem- This Chair in Transportation, one of three UPS 6 40th Anniversary of Pennsylvania/Bahia Partnership; Fire Alarms ber of Robotics International and of the Society Foundation Chairs at Penn, is focused on trans- 7 Update; CrimeStats; Classifieds of Manufacturing Engineers. He has served on portation management as enabled by technology. 8 CCP Course Development Grants ALMANAC February 8, 2005 www.upenn.edu/almanac 1 Payroll Tax Changes for 2005 SENATE From the Senate Office Please be advised that the following tax rates and limits have changed for calendar year The following is published in accordance with the Faculty Senate Rules. 2005. Among other purposes, the publication of SEC actions is intended to stimulate discussion • Social Security taxable wage base increased to among the constituencies and their representatives. Please communicate your comments to $90,000 (up from 87,900 in 2004) Kristine Kelly, either by telephone at (215) 898-6943 or by e-mail at [email protected]. • Social Security Tax maximum withholding in- creased to $5,580.00 (up from $5,449.80 in 2004) Senate Executive Committee Agenda • Philadelphia City Wage Tax for Residents–re- Wednesday, February 9, 2005 duced to 4.331% (down from 4.4625% in 2004) 2:30 to 5 p.m., Room 205 College Hall • Philadelphia City Wage Tax Non-Residents–re- 1. Approval of Minutes (1 minute) duced to 3.8197% (down from 3.8801% in 2004) 2. Chairʼs Report (5 minutes) The new tax rates are effective for all payroll 3. Past Chairʼs Report on Academic Planning and Budget and Capital Council (5 minutes) checks dated on or after January 1, 2005. 4. Update from Lee Stetson, Dean of Admissions (45 minutes) If you have any questions please contact the Guest: William Schilling, Director of Student Financial Aid payroll office by phone at (215) 898-6301 or by 5. Election of Committee on Committees (15 minutes) e-mail at [email protected]. 6. Social Responsibility Advisory Committee Update (5 minutes) —Payroll Office 7. Faculty Club Name Change (10 minutes) 8. Presidential Search Committee Proposal (10 minutes) Regan Chair: Charles Bernstein 9. New Business (continued from page 1) 10. Adjournment by 5 p.m. National Endowment for the Arts, among oth- ers. He is also a recipient of the Roy Harvey Pearce/Archive for New Poetry Prize in recog- No Council Meeting in February nition of his lifetime contributions to poetry and Dear Council Members, scholarship. He holds an A.B. from Harvard Since there are no items ready for discussion, the Steering Committee has canceled the College. Wednesday, February 16, 2005, Council meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednes- This professorship was established in 1981 day, March 16, 2005, 4-6 p.m. in Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall. with gifts from Merrill Lynch & Co. and friends To place an item on the agenda for the next Open Forum, submit it to the Steering Com- of the late Donald T. Regan, HON ʼ72, former mittee Chair at [email protected] by February 23, 2005. chairman of the Universityʼs Board of Trustees —Leslie Laird Kruhly, Secretary of University Council who was an executive at Merrill Lynch before he became chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan. It recognizes a distinguished scholar in HERS Information Sessions English who has a strong commitment to under- Penn Professional Womenʼs Network, (formerly the Association for Women Faculty and Ad- graduate teaching, particularly the teaching of ministrators), and Penn HERS alumnae will host two information sessions for women interested in writing. This chair reflects Donald Reganʼs inter- learning more about the Bryn Mawr Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education.