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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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2-4-2009 Ohio State Means Business
The MODS, or Multi-Object Double Spectrograph, units are a major part of Ohio State’s contribution to the most powerful telescope in the world, the Large Binocular Telescope at the top of Arizona’s 11,000-foot-high Mount Graham. And as it turns out, the MODS also has been a powerful force in the economy, even before the first of the large twin units emerges from the basement of McPherson Lab and heads out west later this year. According to Rick Pogge, principal investigator for the MODS team and a professor of astronomy, the project is a strong example how the work of the university can be a driver of business — not just here in Columbus but also throughout the state of Ohio, the Midwest and even worldwide. “People are kind of accustomed to hearing about these sizeable grants that come in for big-money projects around Ohio State, but it’s good to remember that we don’t just get the money and bury it or shoot it into space; we spend it,” Pogge said. “And when we spend it, we usually spend a good portion of it close to home.” In the case of the MODS, Pogge’s team secured about $3.5 million in funding over the 10-year cycle from design to next year’s final installation. Most of the money came from the National Science Foundation, a little more came from Ohio State’s Office of Research and still more from the Ohio Board of Regents. And, true to his description, the team has gone about spending it both near and far. The funding has added more than $900,000 to the economy in the form of salaries paid to Ohio State faculty and staff. MODS money pays for “relief time” so certain university personnel can be diverted from their regular positions to work on MODS full-time. The funds also pay summer salaries for the 75-percent appointment professors who work on MODS during break. More than $400,000 of that money has gone to Ohio companies — for everything from a single specialized vacuum-formed piece of plastic purchased from an Elyria company to precision connectors and gears made by a small machine shop in Columbus to the huge steel frames that will house all the unit’s delicate instrumentation and connect to the giant LBT frame on Mount Graham. “Our people were all pretty excited to work on that project,” said Rich Hunt, project manager at Indian Creek Fabrication near Dayton, the company that built the twin frame. “For a company our size, that’s not going to be a make-or-break project for us, but everyone in the shop wanted to be involved with it, and it’s the type of work that only helps our reputation and brings us more business down the road.” In all, more than 20 Ohio companies have had a hand in the MODS. Tom O’Brien, the project’s head mechanical engineer, said there’s more advantage to spending locally than just helping out the local economy. “There are a handful of things we know we just won’t be able to get from Ohio companies, maybe things that only a few places in the world are capable of producing for us,” he said. “But we like doing business in Ohio because those companies are close, they know our requirements and we’re able to build relationships with them. We know we have good go-to companies right here that will build exactly to our specs and that’s important. It’s not just some silly, high-minded idea to go local; Ohio is an industrial state and has plenty of shops that can do a lot of the jobs we need.” “I’m consistently impressed with the industrial depth in this state,” Pogge said. “And of course, we’re also part of a very specialized network of institutions who need this type of work done, and when we find someone reliable like Indian Creek, we’re going to spread the word and hopefully bring them even more business down the road.”
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