Pavilion Technologies Awarded Fourth DOE Grant in Five Years; Collaboration with Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Improves Performance of American Manufacturers.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Pavilion Technologies, a world leader in advanced process control and environmental compliance solutions, announced that it has been awarded a Phase II grant by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Technology Transfer program. The fourth consecutive DOE grant awarded to Pavilion, this grant funds Pavilion's continuing work with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) to develop advanced methods in process control of complex systems such as a high-energy electron accelerator in a physics research laboratory and a polymer reactor in a manufacturing plant. Such methods are geared to provide easier and faster development of a robust model for a given control process, and, after that, simpler model maintenance. This research will lead to an innovative approach to enhance efficiency in the accelerator laboratory and performance in processing plants.

"Pavilion's researchers are on the cutting edge of process-control science and technology," said Dr. Martin Lee, the collaborating project manager at SLAC. "The company has made breakthroughs in modeling control problems in the process industry. Since calibration and operational control requirements of accelerator systems that support basic and applied research missions at SLAC have much in common with those in the commercial process industry, SLAC's collaboration with Pavilion may unlock better ways to control our type of complex problems."

The collaborative project between Pavilion and SLAC will take crucial steps towards modeling complex systems using both first-principles and empirical information. Pavilion can leverage advancements resulting from the project to build next-generation process-control technology that facilitates the development and maintenance of model-based control and optimization solutions. Pavilion has applied similar approaches to industrial processes to reduce the variability, drive down variable costs, enhance product quality and increase production.

"Pavilion Technologies is proud to contribute its depth of experience in control and modeling to a research group which already has made such a huge impact on science and the world at large," said Dave Cooper, Pavilion Technologies CTO. "By collaborating with Stanford and the DOE for a fourth time, we are pushing the boundaries in the field of modeling and control that allow us to tackle some of the biggest problems facing the scientific community."

Working with SLAC researchers, Pavilion will deploy accurate and computationally efficient control models based on real accelerator data and available first-principles information in three important applications at SLAC. Those applications are: i) maximizing the electron beam quality from a radiofrequency photocathode for its application in the SLAC X-ray laser facility currently under development, the first of its kind in the world; ii) accurately modeling electron beam loss in the SLAC SPEAR3 electron storage ring with a goal to further increase efficiency at the synchrotron X-ray laboratory; and iii) optimizing local electron orbit correction in an electron storage ring for enhanced, robust control. The combination of practical knowledge and experience on the part of Pavilion's commercial, modeling and control-systems expertise and challenging problems posed by accelerator physicists in a basic research national laboratory such as SLAC will lead to new and valuable solutions relevant to both the process industries and the high-energy physics and synchrotron X-ray communities.

Established in 1962, SLAC has won numerous awards including three Nobel prizes in physics while pursuing its mission to design, construct and operate state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research. In a quest for answers to fundamental questions about the ultimate structure of matter, SLAC uses its accelerators to speed electrons and anti-electrons to nearly the speed of light and then study the collisions of those particles. Technology arising from this basic research has been incorporated into the design of commercial medical accelerators used in cancer radiotherapy, as well as radiotherapy treatment planning products, that are used worldwide in clinics and hospitals. SLAC's synchrotron X-ray techniques have been used to reveal the hidden text in an ancient scientific manuscript traceable to Archimedes.

Since 2001, Pavilion has worked with SLAC to develop effective algorithms for robust optimization-based control of highly nonlinear systems with varying dynamics. Pavilion currently holds 139 patents in the fields of predictive modeling, process control and optimization. Pavilion aligns its entire company -- its people, products and processes -- to deliver and demonstrate the incremental and cumulative value to its customers through its ValueFirst(TM) program.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program was created by the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982 to help facilitate the commercialization of research and development (R&D) and strengthen the competitiveness of small businesses in the United States. Currently, 11 Federal agencies participate in the SBIR program. To date, the DOE has provided $1.4 billion for SBIR awards over 22 years, and $71 million for STTR awards over 11 years. These funds are used to support an annual competition. Phase I awards are for exploring the feasibility of innovative concepts. Phase II projects are for carrying out the R&D effort with the goal of producing evidence of a technology viable for commercialization.

About the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (www.slac.stanford.edu)

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is a government-owned facility operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy. SLAC is one of the world's leading research laboratories and is located on approximately 430 acres of Stanford land in Menlo Park, Calif. Part of its mission is to design, construct and operate state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research.

About Pavilion Technologies (www.pavtech.com)

Pavilion Technologies is the leading developer of advanced process control and environmental compliance solutions. Pavilion's ValueFirst(TM) customer relationship methodology aligns the company's people, products and processes to deliver rapid and recurring value for their customers. More than 350 leading companies worldwide, including BP, Cemex, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company, Nestle and Weyerhaeuser depend on Pavilion's solutions to increase yield, enhance product quality, reduce variable costs and achieve environmental compliance each day. Pavilion Technologies is a privately held company based in Austin, Texas, with offices serving every region of the world.