Lab may come to bay area
SRI International, a California technology business, is reportedly in talks to set up shop near USF St. Petersburg.
By ANITA KUMAR, CARRIE WEIMAR and CRAIG PITTMAN
Published February 3, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - The University of South Florida is negotiating with a prestigious scientific institute to put a new high technology research facility next door to USF St. Petersburg.
The University of South Florida is talking with SRI International, a Silicon Valley scientific institution founded by Stanford University in California, officials said. Among potential sites is the waterfront Salvador Dali Museum.
"It's a major step forward" for USF, said Harry Glenn, chief of staff for Rep. C.W. Bill Young. "The university wants to take the research they are doing and put it in the commercial sector."
SRI's scientists are intrigued by the work USF's College of Marine Sciences has been doing on sensors and lasers and foresee "exciting commercial applications," Glenn said.
For instance, he said, they could be used to analyze skin, study the atmosphere or detect underwater mines.
If the deal goes through, "It's a home run for USF," said Christopher D'Elia, associate vice chancellor at USF St. Petersburg.
"This is a big deal," City Council Chairman Bill Foster said. "Something like this would have a huge impact on the city. With all the good things that are happening to the city, this would take us to a whole new level."
Such negotiations typically involve more than one city vying for a contract, but it was not clear Thursday if other cities or educational institutions are competing with St. Petersburg.
Young himself, in an interview Thursday, said he did not know if SRI was considering other cities but thinks USF would make sense for the institute.
Because of its waterfront location and its sensor-related research, "I would bet on St. Petersburg," the congressman said.
SRI, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has had a hand in many of the major technological innovations of the past century. It invented the computer mouse in 1964, and, in 1976, produced what some consider to be the first demonstration of the Internet, using a converted bread van.
For 40 years, SRI has run the Artificial Intelligence Center, dedicated to creating a thinking computer. SRI and spinoff companies also developed liquid crystal display screens and high-definition television, as well as a hand-held instant language translator used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. SRI runs the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Security Research and Development Center.
SRI's revenues in 2004 totaled $374-million. It has a staff of more than 1,400. The company headquarters includes 40 buildings on 63 acres, and SRI has about 20 satellite locations across the U.S.
Now it's interested in St. Petersburg's waterfront, and the Salvador Dali Museum, said Foster.
Two years ago St. Petersburg voters approved moving the Dali to the site of the Bayfront Center and turning over the Dali's waterfront site to USF so the campus could expand southward.
Last year, the Legislature contributed $4-million toward moving the Dali. So far, USF has shown little interest in buying the land or the 30,000-square-foot converted warehouse at Third Street S.
SRI also has been in discussion for several months with the Poynter Institute - a school for journalists that owns the St. Petersburg Times - over land that sits across from the Dali, said Poynter president Karen Brown Dunlap.
She said SRI officials have expressed interest in leasing two acres of Poynter's property south of its building at 801 Third St. S. The discussions with SRI "are somewhat preliminary," Dunlap said. "They haven't come in with a proposal, but we've had good conversations."
That the neighborhood is attracting such attention is largely due to Young, R-Indian Shores.
As a longtime member and former chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, he has funneled more than $60-million into the USF marine science program over the past decade.
So far, no one has asked for any federal money for this project, said Glenn.
USF and SRI scientists met at a convention early to mid-2005 and realized they could work together, Glenn said. They met again in Texas in the fall, he said.
USF's Tampa administrators, including President Judy Genshaft, came to the St. Petersburg campus to discuss the project in January, Glenn said. Now, USF and SRI are working on specifics, he said.
Genshaft, asked about a potential partnership, would say only, "There is no deal."
Other USF officials referred questions to Peter Betzer, dean of USF's College of Marine Sciences. Betzer on Thursday would neither confirm nor deny that the deal was in the works.
"It's covered by the confidentiality agreement," he said.
City officials were tight-lipped.
"I'm not going to confirm or deny anything about that," Mayor Rick Baker said. City Development Administrator Rick Mussett said the same thing.
When the Times submitted a public records request for documents relating to the project, city economic officials said they were exempt from the state Sunshine Law.
SRI spokeswoman Ellie Javadi said she knew of no negotiations with USF.
"I think a story is premature," she said.
But public officials familiar with the deal said that, if USF succeeds, the arrangement would have a broad-based impact.
"It has research implications, science implications, technology implications," said Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg, who said Betzer spoke to him about the negotiations two months ago. "It's a fabulous collaboration for USF and the marine science program."
With the federal money that Young has poured into the marine science program, scientists developed tiny sensors about 10 years ago and lasers about three years ago that could be used for everything from analyzing skin for health problems to studying the atmosphere for pollen.
Glenn said USF hopes SRI would help find companies that would need USF's technologies, and then the school could receive royalties from its inventions.
The companies could use the technology in myriad ways, but a large part is based underground, where senors and lasers can detect mines, monitor tides or check water quality, Glenn said. The technology was used at last year's Super Bowl in Jacksonville to monitor port security.
Glenn said USF hopes that, with SRI's help, it can attract companies that specialize in medicine, the environment, defense and telecommunications.
SRI would be working with USF's Center for Ocean Technology. Created in 1994, the center has become a recognized leader in marine sensor research and development.
The center is led by Larry Langebrake, who before joining USF spent 15 years in the aerospace industry working with General Electric, AT&T and Lockheed Martin. His research interests include the marine sensor research and development, microsystems and nanotechnology. Langebrake could not be reached Thursday.
Gov. Jeb Bush did not respond to an e-mail from the Times late Thursday about the SRI talks.
When asked last week, he said he didn't know anything about it but said it is in line with the kind of economic development Florida needs to attract.
Times staff writers Jamie Thompson, James Thorner, Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Paul de la Garza and Joni James contributed to this report.
SRI INTERNATIONAL INC.HEADQUARTERS: Menlo Park, Calif.
FOUNDED: 1946 as a collaboration between industrialists and Stanford University
EMPLOYEES: 1,400
REVENUE (2004): $257-million
BEST-KNOWN INNOVATIONS: The computer mouse, ground penetrating radar, high-definition TV, artificial intelligence