---

FEATURE

USTAR:  1st Quarter Report

During the legislative session last spring, business and industry leaders successfully lobbied the legislature to pass the Utah Science, Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR)a far-reaching effort to bolster Utah's economy with high-paying jobs and keep the state vibrant by recruiting world-class research teams in carefully targeted disciplines that have the potential to grow the economy through innovation and incubation.
Consequently, the Utah Senate passed SB75, which allocated funds for strategic investments at the University of Utah, Utah State University and other higher education institutions throughout the state. SB75 was based on a 30-year economic prospectus. In FY07, the spending includes:

• $50 million to initiate the planning and design of a Bio Innovations Research Institute at Utah State University and a Neuroscience and Biomedical Technology Research building at the University of Utah.
• $15 million allocated for the hiring of all-star research teams to complement existing strengths at the respective research universities.
• $4 million to fund development of a state-wide technology outreach program.

1st quarter update

Where is USTAR now, part way into its second quarter of operation? To answer that question, EDCUTAH interviewed Ted McAleer, executive director of the USTAR Governing Board. We caught up with Ted in Vernal where he was working on USTARs technology outreach program with Beverly Evans. who recently retired from the legislature and is now Director of the Rural Office Main Street Program for the Governors Office of Economic Development. Ted and Beverly spent two days in the Uintah Basin, meeting with a variety of industry leaders, community leaders and higher education administrators in order to map out the needs and priorities that will shape the form of the USTAR Tech Outreach program in the Uintah Basin.

A resident of Park City, McAleer was hired by the Governing Board in late September. Prior to assuming his new role, McAleer was the director of business development for the University of Utahs Technology Venture Development organization where he focused on industry sponsored research initiatives. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master of Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a BS in Engineering Management from the United States Military Academy at West Point. McAleer has 20 years of experience in technology innovation, business development, and in product, services and operations management at both start-up and mature corporations. His experience includes service as: COO for Teleoptic Digital Imaging, LLC; senior director of implementation services at Campus Pipeline, Inc.; and management experience with SunGard SCT, Procter and Gamble, Pepsi Co. and the U.S. Army.

Innovation Areas

McAleer says Utahs two major research universities have preliminarily identified 10 innovation areas. The universities are beginning to develop plans for actively recruiting distinguished faculty members to move to Utah and to join existing teams in each innovation area. The universities already have strong teams in these areas, which are recognized in the national academic community for their previous contributions to science and commercialization. By bringing in a few more all-star faculty members, McAleer says the new enhanced teams will help the universities get more national recognition, help garner more research funding, speed the innovation of new technology and ultimately lead to more technology for licensing or to spin off new companies.

The University of Utahs innovation areas are:

• Nano-technology - Bio-sensors
• Biomedical Device Innovation
• IT Networks and Memory
• Imaging Technology
• Diagnostic Imaging
• Personalized Medicine
• Circuits of the Brain
• Fossil Energy

Preliminary innovation areas identified by Utah State University are:

• Bio Fuels
• Directed Energy Sensor Initiative

Recruitment

McAleer says the University of Utah now has hiring committees in each innovation area, and both universities are actively engaged in recruiting. In fact, both universities are in detailed discussions with several researchers they hope to hire. Successful USTAR recruiting to date at USU includes the hiring of Dr. Krishna Shenai, whose background is in intelligent systems, and Dr. David York, whose background is in advanced nutrition.

Shenai has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford. Hes written more than 100 peer-reviewed papers about solid-state energy conditioning in commercial, military and space applications. Whats more, he has perfected 15 patents with 10 patents pending, and has co-founded three high-tech start-up companies: LoPel Corp., Shakti Systems, Inc., and Zeus Semiconductors.

York has a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Southampton, England. He has served as chief of basic science research and head of the Experimental Obesity Research Group at Pennington Research Center in Baton Rouge, LA. York has authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. Furthermore, he has garnered more than $24 million in research grants.

The U of U successfully competed against Stanford to hire Dr. Brian McPherson, who holds a BS, MS and Ph.D. in Geophysics. McPherson is a specialist in enhanced oil recovery using CO2 and has garnered $18 million in Department of Energy funding.

Despite these early successes, recruiting isnt easy. McAleer says there are 32 states with some type of USTAR initiative, so Utah will have to be smarter about recruiting and look for faculty with reasons to come to Utah that are beyond financial.

Technology Outreach Program

McAleer says USTARs Technology Outreach Program will connect the two research universities (U of U and USU) to regional applied technology centers, colleges, universities, businesses and entrepreneurs and promote local commercialization of discoveries and technologies. The outreach program has five objectives:

1. Provide a virtual innovation network that enables web-based connectivity for service providers and the various stakeholders of USTAR.
2. Broker ideas, new technologies, and services to entrepreneurs and businesses throughout each respective service area.
3. Connect the resources and expertise of the research universities with regional campuses and communities such that local entrepreneurs and businesses have access to emerging technologies for the benefit of regional economies.
4. Collect and report data on the states return on investment for the USTAR program in general and the Technology Outreach Program specifically.
5. Provide through the Utah higher education system, expertise and resources to advise new and/or existing businesses about technology transfer, protection of intellectual property, development of a business plan, business organization, financing, marketing and other skills useful or necessary to develop ideas into profitable businesses.

USTAR has identified 5 outreach centers that are responsible to broker technologies to existing industries and entrepreneurs in specific areas of the state:

1. Weber University will host a center that works with Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Rich, Morgan and Weber Counties. McAleer says this center will form a bridge to the Davis Applied Technology Center and its activities associated with business incubation and growth.
2. Salt Lake Community College will host a center that is co-located with the Larry Miller Entrepreneurial Center and will work with Salt Lake and Tooele Counties.
3. Utah Valley State College will host a center that works with Utah, Wasatch and Summit Counties. This center will also form a bridge to the activities of Brigham Young University and its associated technology transfer and entrepreneurship activities.
4. A Southern Utah center, to be housed in either Cedar City at Southern Utah University, or in St. George at Dixie State College, will focus on the needs of Beaver, Garfield, Juab, Kane, Iron, Millard, Piute, San Pete, Sevier, Washington and Wayne Counties.
5. The Utah State University Uintah Basin campus will host a center that works with Carbon, Daggett, Duchesne, Emery, Grand, San Juan and Uintah Counties.

Brokering Technology

The outreach program is critical, according to McAleer, because it can help local companies commercialize new technologies and best practices quickly. New companies take longer to get off the ground. Where possible, we want to license technologies with existing companies, which increases the transparency of the program and shortens time-to-market, he says. Furthermore, we can develop technologies at the university level and line them up with the applicable private sector companies anywhere in the state.

Projections developed by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah indicate the USTAR initiative has the potential to create more than 400 new companies and add 120,000 new, high paying jobs to the state during the next 30 years. "I'm very excited about USTAR and the opportunity to help make it happen," says McAleer.

---

EDCUTAH PARTNERS

Current Partners
Why Be a Partner?
Board of Trustees