Purdue expert partners with law enforcement official on ink that could improve reliability of standardized test results

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  – A Purdue University professor is working with a central Indiana law enforcement official on a new type of ink that could help improve reliability of standardized tests by preventing answers from being altered after an exam is taken.

Still in final development, the duo’s time-dependent erasable ink innovation uses carbon-based ink that can be read by scoring machines, which read bubble form tests normally filled out using No. 2 pencils. The ink is temporarily erasable but eventually hardens to form an unerasable, cured ink.

Police Sgt. Randy Dodd teamed with Bryan Boudouris, the Robert and Sally Weist, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering in Purdue’s Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, two years ago to begin working on the technology.

“We take the same components of a lead pencil and combine them with an ink to suspend the particles and then add monomers so that once they are exposed to water vapor in the atmosphere they can crosslink and form a hard shell,” Boudouris said.

The idea is to create a device that can ease the test-taking process and improve reliability of test results.

“There have been some cases where test answers have been changed after a test is taken,” Dodd said. “This would help prevent that from happening.”

The team engaged in early research and development with a company that provides standardized testing materials for U.S. school districts.

The roots for the technology go back to 2005 when Dodd made a mistake on a lengthy crash report form. Police in his department were required to use permanent ink on the bubble form reports. 

“I was almost to the end and made a mistake,” Dodd said. “I had to do it all over.”

He got the idea to create a small ink stamp in the shape of the required bubble mark resembling a pen, which he began using on all future crash reports.

“People saw my pen and started asking if it could be used for standardized tests,” Dodd said.

Dodd created a prototype, which was presented to the testing materials company several years ago.

“They were intrigued by the possibilities of the device being used in high-value, paper-based testing,” Dodd said.

But true progress on the idea did not begin until Dodd was introduced to Boudouris a couple of years ago through Dodd’s involvement with the Venture Club of Indiana, an Indianapolis-based organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and investors.

The Venture Club works in collaboration on various projects with the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator housed within the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship.

Dodd and Boudouris were awarded $40,149 from the Trask Innovation Fund in 2015 to assist in commercialization of the technology.

“We’re working on a delivery device for the technology,” Boudouris said. “We want to know what people would like to optimize it for - a pen, a stamp - however they want to deliver the ink.”

A non-provisional patent application covering the ink formulation and delivery of the technology was filed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, which is also handling licensing for the technology.

While the main focus is testing, the team believes this technology could be used on many types of bubble form documents. Other ideas for the technology include marking election ballots, markings made on skin prior to medical procedures and other possible uses.

“We’d love to have industrial partners,” Boudouris said. “We are currently looking for collaborators to advance this technology.”

For information on this or other Purdue intellectual property ready for licensing and commercialization, visit http://www.otc-prf.org. For more information about available leadership positions, investing in a Purdue startup or licensing a Purdue innovation, visit http://www.purduefoundry.com.           

About Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the United States. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2014 Incubator Network of the Year from the National Business Incubation Association for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org

Writer: Curt Slyder, 765-588-3342, caslyder@prf.org 

Sources: Bryan Boudouris, 765-496-6056, boudouris@purdue.edu

Randy Dodd, 317-445-9717