Deal combines classroom and boardroom

MIAMISBURG, Ohio (WDTN) - Inside one company's labs is a grand experiment, but it has less to do with the lasers there and more with the leaders who are looking them over.

"It's a new model for American universities," says Dr. David Hopkins, president of Wright State University. "It's been done in Germany for years."

That model involves a deal signed Monday by Wright State University and the Mound Laser and Photonics Center.

According to the deal, a Wright State researcher will work at the Center and help it develop technologies that will be put to use right away.

"We're a unique type of business because we don't just do manufacturing," says Mound Laser and Photonics Center president Larry Dosser. "We do research and development and some of the research and development takes place at the doctoral level."

The center is literally on the cutting edge of technology, using lasers to create tiny devices for the medical and defense industries.

According to the deal, the company and university will share the costs of the faculty member and graduate students who work there, along with sharing any revenues generated from the technology developed.

"What we're seeing is an understanding now unlike ever in the 21st century," Hopkins says. "We have to link more closely with business and industry."

One of the Ohio's education leaders, Chancellor Jim Petro, wants to see other universities in the state try their hand in the business world.

"The concept of an enterprise university that gets engaged in business, that creates jobs, that keeps young people in Ohio, that brings young people to Ohio who don't live here now," Petro says.

Petro says he will unveil a plan in August calling for Ohio's universities to get more involved in business and job creation.