WASHINGTON – Representative Dale E. Kildee (D-MI) announced that $4 million covering three separate projects has been appropriated for both Mott Community College and Kettering University in the Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2007, which is expected to pass the U.S. House of Representatives later tonight.  At Kildee’s personal request, the bill will provide $1 million for Mott’s Rapid Product Development and Deployment Portal Project, $1 million in funding for Mott’s Intelligent Orthopedic Fracture Implant System (IOFIS) program, and $2 million for Kettering’s Chemical Warfare Agent Fate Model Verification and Validation Phase II.  Kildee has previously secured over $3.5 million in funding for all three programs in recent years.

“I am very pleased that the House Defense Appropriations bill will provide this funding so that Mott and Kettering will continue to play an important role in making the men and women who serve our armed forces as safe and effective as possible,” said Kildee. “The research conducted right here in Flint will assist our military men and women in the field, will enable them to recover more quickly from wartime injuries and chemical threats, and it will ultimately make our citizens safer here at home.”

Kettering University will be a key partner in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Agent Fate Program, which uses indoor and outdoor experiments and computer modeling to help better protect our troops against chemical warfare agents in the field.  Agent Fate conducts chemical agent testing to develop computer models that accurately predict how long the chemicals will remain harmful after they are deployed.  Phase I has developed the computer and mathematical modeling analyses for the program that Kettering will provide.  Phase II will cover the modeling of chemical agents in the various materials it is expected to be deposited upon.

Agent Fate data has already begun to show positive effects on military operations, affecting US Air Force practices as more knowledge about the physical transfers of chemical WMD are known.  It will allow military planners to take full advantage of knowing the magnitude of the contaminated environment in which they must operate.  The $2 million was included in the Chemical and Biological Defense Program budget for the Department of Defense.

The Rapid Product and Development Portal project at Mott Community College will create a web-accessible repository that captures advanced and emerging technology resources and puts them within easy reach of Defense Department personnel and their contractors.  The project will leverage an existing data repository framework developed by Mott’s Workforce Development Institute for Simulation Technologies, expanding it from its current Automotive sector to a Tank-Automotive database.

The IOFIS will be capable of monitoring and/or reacting to the healing process to deliver bone growth-promoting drugs on a specific schedule or in response to sensing of a fracture site.  The fracture repair system IOFIS uses will reduce patient immobility time and could be applicable to other bone fracture injuries with similar healing concerns.  Research and system development for IOFIS is being jointly undertaken both by Mott and Kettering, as well as Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI, and Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. 

Kildee has secured over $3.5 million in funding for DOD programs at Mott and Kettering in recent years. The FY05 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which included the Defense Appropriations bill, designated $3,175,000 for Kettering’s Agent Fate program Phase I.  Last year, Kildee secured $1.5 million for the Rapid Product and Development Portal and $1 million for IOFIS in the Defense Appropriations bill for FY06.

The House will vote on final passage the evening of June 20. The Senate will take up their version of the FY07 Defense bill later this summer.  Kildee will work to ensure all three projects are fully funded when the two bills are reconciled and signed into law later this year.