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PENNTAP wins two national awards for technical assistance By Barbara Hale
	The Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP), Penn State’s statewide technical outreach network, has had two projects honored as “outstanding” in the 1997 National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers Project-of-the-Year Awards Competition.   In one project, PENNTAP helped a nonprofit nursing home select software and computer hardware to meet Pennsylvania regulatory mandates. In the other project, PENNTAP helped a plastics manufacturer recover from violent weather and plan for the future.   Dave Robertson, PENNTAP technical specialist based at the College of Engineering at University Park, directed the nursing home project. He helped the Garvey Manor Nursing Home staff prepare for hardware vendor demonstrations and plan for the location and installation of computers and network cables. When the new software provided by the vendor proved less than promised, he helped get approval to return it.   “In a climate of high-tech demands on a traditionally low-tech sector, an unequal situation developed because of the greater technical knowledge on the part of the vendor,” Robertson said.   PENNTAP assistance was able to relieve the situation and provide installation support. The state is now receiving the mandated information at lower cost, thanks to informed planning and advocacy in the software dispute.   Jay Schenck, PENNTAP technical specialist based at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, led the plastics project. He helped assemble technical expertise to recover 17 tons of raw plastic material that had been fused into a giant, unusable “blob” by a lighting strike at Port Erie Plastics company in Harborcreek, Pa. A second call for help occurred a few weeks later when severe wind uplift extensively damaged the plant’s roof for the second time in three years.   Dr. Jan Mutmansky, Penn State professor of mining engineering, helped Schenck resolve the lightening strike problem. At Mutmansky’s suggestion, PENNTAP located equipment for use above ground that replicated below-ground mining operations and could return the fused plastic, valued at $29,000, to workable condition.   For a solution to the uplift problem, Schenck turned to experts in wind engineering, meteorology and mechanical engineering with the help of Dr. Edwin Biederman, PENNTAP technical specialist at University Park, and Dr. John Wyngaard, professor of meteorology and mechanical engineering. The Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, also provided counseling.   “Port Erie has since contracted with a roofing firm to implement the corrective measures the specialists suggested. They estimate that PENNTAP assistance resulted in savings of 50 person-days in problem resolution and cost avoidance of $25,000,” Schenck said.   PENNTAP’s scientific and technological assistance is provided at no cost to smaller businesses that do not have the in-house expertise or time to resolve specific technical questions or problems. A network of PENNTAP technical specialists is located throughout the Commonwealth. The program is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Commerce and Penn State.   The National Association of Management and Technical Assistance Centers Project-of-the-Year Awards Competition is held annually to identify outstanding efforts in assisting members’ clients to become more globally competitive, more viable in their fields of expertise or more capable of delivering services to the public sector.