Idaho Office of Science & Technology May 2006

In this issue:

# 2006 Legislative Session Best Ever For Idaho Technology Sector

# Idaho Cattle Tracking Software to Help Safeguard Health

# TechLaunch Seeks Entrepreneurs Looking For Funding

# Idaho Firm’s Technology Finds Drowning Victim

# MWI Veterinary Supply Tops in Animal Drug Distributors

# Lifestream Strengthens Cholesterol Screening IP Portfolio

# Biogas Plant Expansion Foretells Nation’s First ‘Green’ Gas

# AMIS, ISU Sign Joint Research Agreement

# North Wind Opens Boise Office

# Idaho Teachers Receive GIANTS Awards

# University of Idaho Students Improve HP Technology

# Kestrelink Partners with Ubicom

# AMIS To Buy Starkey Laboratories Assets

# Grants Update

2006 Legislative Session Best Ever For Idaho Technology Sector

(Statewide) The 2006 legislative session ended with several initiatives for Idaho’s science and technology community. The session was one of the most successful with significant new funding directed to the technology sector.
Here is a recap of what legislation impacting the science and technology industry:
– $300,000 in one-time funding for Idaho TechConnect. This funding, recommended to the governor by the Science & Technology Advisory Council, will provide stability for the existing three offices, establish a fourth office in south central Idaho and link all four into a statewide network.
– $100,000 in one-time funding for the Idaho Small Business Innovation Research Program. This funding, also recommended to the governor by the council, will provide small grants to companies so they can prepare and better compete for federal research funds.
– $5 million in one-time funding to extend Internet broadband service to rural Idaho.
– $500,000 in additional funds for the Rural Development Block Grant program specifically targeted for a rural technology businesses.
– $50,000 in additional funding for the Office of Science & Technology to increase marketing and awareness.
– Establishment of the governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council as a permanent entity in state law.
– Creation of a tax incentives task force, comprised primarily of private sector representatives and staffed by the Office of Science & Technology, to study tax incentives for the biosciences industry during the summer and fall.

Idaho Cattle Tracking Software to Help Safeguard Health

(Boise) Micro Beef Technologies will integrate MobileDataforce Inc.’s software for mobile environments into its technology for tracking livestock.
Micro Beef provides technology that enables beef producers to identify and manage animals using everything from paper-based systems to laptops to mobile handheld computers using radio frequency identification technology. The systems help producers meet the 48-hour traceback requirements of state and federal health officials under the currently voluntary National Animal Identification System.
More information is at mobiledataforce.com.

TechLaunch Seeks Entrepreneurs Looking For Funding

(Statewide) Early stage entrepreneurs are encouraged to attend TechLaunch 3.0 and make presentations during the annual event that helps start-up firms connect with angel and venture capital.
TechLaunch 3.0 is set for June 28-29 at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley.
Staged as a competition, TechLaunch involves business presentations being judged by a panel of seasoned entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, legal experts and accounting professionals. Immediate feedback and analysis is provided after each presentation and the winner receives a cash prize.
TechLaunch is presented by Idaho TechConnect and sponsored by the Idaho National Laboratory, the Idaho Office of Science & Technology and the Idaho Economic Development Association.
Student teams from Idaho universities will also compete in a preliminary session on the strength of their ability to commercialize innovations directly assigned from the national laboratory.
To participate, attend or compete, contact one of these TechConnect offices:
Nampa – (208) 426-6613
Post Falls – (208) 262-2039 ext. 1450
Idaho Falls – (208) 523-9898
More information and registration is also at ieda.biz.

Idaho Firm’s Technology Finds Drowning Victim

(Kuna) Ralston and Associates, which uses specialized underwater search equipment, helped recover a drowning victim in Montana last month.
The Kuna, Idaho, firm, which also assisted in the high-profile Laci Peterson murder case, used an underwater robotic vehicle to find the man after search and rescue teams failed to find him over several days.
The firm used a torpedo-shaped robotic fish with side-scanning sonar that uses medical ultrasound technology to enhance search abilities.
More information is at http://gralston1.home.mindspring.com/

MWI Veterinary Supply Tops in Animal Drug Distributors

(Meridian) MWI Veterinary Supply was cited by Investor’s Business Daily last month for its tremendous growth, making it one of the top three animal drug distributors in the country.
Started in a Caldwell veterinarian’s office, the company reported $500 million in revenue for 2005 and employs 600 people. The firm went public last summer, netting $77 million in its initial public offering. The company’s ticker symbol is MWIV on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, and the price of the stock has doubled over the past eight months.
According to Investor’s Business Daily, the company’s customers included nearly 15,000 veterinary hospitals, clinics and private practices last year. Most of the sales are to vets who treat companion animals while about a third are in the production livestock market.
More information is at mwivet.com.

Lifestream Strengthens Cholesterol Screening IP Portfolio

(Post Falls) Lifestream Technologies has been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that a patent further strengthening its intellectual property portfolio has been advanced.
The patent for the company’s smartcard, secure medical data technology will be granted once the formal patent is printed, patent counsel, Mike Mehrman said.
Lifestream’s Personal Health Card technology, he said, means "a person’s medical data can be securely stored on a smartcard, as well as the secure storage of medical records on a backside server."
Lifestream believes the technology, which has already been licensed out, will be key in providing secure, portable medical records.
The announcement came as the firm shifted its executive team. Ed Siemens has been appointed chairman of the board of directors, and Matt Colbert has been appointed president and chief financial officer, replacing Christopher Maus. Maus will remain as a director and consultant to facilitate financing and strategic business development.
Lifestream markets a cholesterol monitor to consumers and healthcare professionals that provides total cholesterol test results in three minutes.
More information is at lifestreamtech.com.

Biogas Plant Expansion Foretells Nation’s First ‘Green’ Gas

(Idaho Falls) Intrepid Technology and Resources has started a major expansion of its Biogas Production Plant near Rupert, Idaho.
The five-fold expansion will increase Intrepid’s annualized gas production to as high as 95 million cubic feet annually, a quantity sufficient to heat 1,000 homes in the Boise area.
The expansion includes eight new digester tanks at the Whitesides location.
The project will transform the existing biogas being produced at the facility to saleable "pipeline quality" natural gas.
With this expansion, Intrepid will become the nation’s first alternative fuels company to produce renewable green gas for commercial and residential users, paving the way for Intrepid to begin installing biogas fields around the country.
Intrepid expects to deliver its first commercial shipment of gas for direct injection into the local utility’s distribution system during the first week of July.
The firm makes alternative fuels from renewable agriculture feedstock and industrial and agriculture waste materials.
More information is at intrepid21.com.

AMIS, ISU Sign Joint Research Agreement

(Pocatello) AMI Semiconductor and Idaho State University signed a joint research agreement to develop "organic semiconductors." They would produce optical devices such as light-emitting diodes, solar cells, photodiodes, contact image sensors and diode lasers.
Organic materials are an important new class of semiconductor that combines the virtues of plastics or polymers, which can be easily shaped, with those of semiconductors, which are the basis of all microelectronics.
The research will involve the university’s chemistry and engineering programs.
The agreement is a direct result of last October’s research conference during which 25 university students presented projects and answered questions posed by AMIS engineers.
Jon Stoner, AMIS senior vice president and chief technology officer, said the collaboration will look at materials for future products.

North Wind Opens Boise Office

(Idaho Falls/Boise) Idaho Falls-based North Wind Inc., which provides remediation, waste management services, is expanding its reach by opening an office in Boise.
The new office is the company’s fourth in Idaho and 21st in the United States. The other Idaho offices are located in Salmon and Kellogg.
Rachel Hall, previously with the Department of Energy, will head up the new office.
Hall can be reached at [email protected] or at (208) 589-1587.
More information is at northwind-inc.com.

Idaho Teachers Receive GIANTS Awards
(Statewide) Three Idaho science teachers were honored for connecting students to industry through classroom work.
Filer High School teacher Ed Richards, Murtaugh Middle School teacher Wallace Blacker, and Carberry Intermediate School teacher Vana Richards in Emmett each received a $2,000 cash award.
GIANTS – the Governor’s Industry Award for Notable Teaching in Science – is a program sponsored by industry leaders such as Hewlett-Packard Co., the Idaho National Laboratory, the Micron Foundation, Washington Group International Inc. and TreeTop Tech. The State Department of Education, the Office of the State Board of Education and the Office of Science & Technology also sponsor the program.
Honorable Mention awards were presented to three additional teachers: Cindy Lou Potts from Pioneer Elementary School in Meridian, Kevin Kramer from the Foothills School of Art and Science in Boise and Lee Pace from Carey Schools in Carey.
All of the participating teachers were nominated by the student councils and parent groups at their school for the impact they have made on students by bringing science to life. A cash prize of $500 goes to each school or student council that nominated the GIANTS award recipients with a cash prize of $100 going to each school or student council that nominated the Honorable Mention award recipients.

University of Idaho Students Improve HP Technology

(Moscow) One University of Idaho engineering capstone project improved a new Hewlett-Packard Co. technology by as much as 10 percent.
The project, featured at the university’s Engineering EXPO, involved a "Smart Comment Stripper," a tool used to strip comment statements from source code text files without prior knowledge of the language used in the file being stripped. The tool incorporates an efficient detection algorithm to determine the type of comment style used.
The "smart" part is the program’s ability to recognize the "comments" – code written as annotation to help those who are developing the software – and then strip them from the program. The company uses the tool in managing the code that supports its laser jet printers.
"When they’re developing a new printer, they use code from previous versions, and they monitor how much of that gets changed," said William Junk, a computer science professor at the university. "Changes to the comments are irrelevant to that measurement so they strip that out to see how much code has actually been modified."
An accurate measurement of the amount of change to the code is a factor in estimating how many defects have been inserted into the new software as well as how much testing is needed to find those defects before they can release the new product.
The 2004-05 EXPO student teams demonstrated the feasibility of stripping comments without knowledge of the programming language in which they were written. They then greatly improved the speed of the program, reducing its running time from more than two hours to 15 minutes while also improving program accuracy. The technology went into production use at HP’s Boise plant last summer.
The 2005-2006 EXPO team made the program run 10 percent faster and added stripping capabilities for additional styles of commenting.

Kestrelink Partners with Ubicom
(Boise) Kestrelink Corp., a Boise firm that designs middleware for network printing and streaming multimedia, has partnered with Ubicom Inc., a major provider of network central processing units.
The partnership will provide networked printing and multi-function printer solutions for original equipment manufacturers targeting small office and home office users.
KestrelPrint automates the initial setup of low-cost printers connected wirelessly in a small office network, including streamlining the network connection and driver installation processes.
More information is at kestrelink.com.

AMIS To Buy Starkey Laboratories Assets
(Pocatello) AMIS Holdings Inc., parent company of AMI Semiconductor, plans to purchase some assets of Starkey Laboratories Inc.’s integrated circuit design center in Colorado for $6 million.
The Starkey Laboratories facility designs specialized, low-power audiology integrated circuits used in the company’s hearing aids.
AMI Semiconductor designs and manufactures state-of-the-art integrated mixed-signal products and structured digital products for the automotive, medical and industrial sectors.
In connection with the proposed acquisition, AMI Semiconductor and Starkey Laboratories also intend to enter into a long-term supplier agreement whereby AMI Semiconductor will be the major supplier of silicon for Starkey Laboratories’s hearing aids.
Founded in 1967, Starkey owns the Audibel, Micro-Tech, NuEar, Omni and Qualitone companies and operates facilities in 24 countries. It is the recognized world leader in the design and development of innovative custom digital hearing instruments.
More information is at amis.com.

Grants Update
Here are two federal grants currently available:

The U.S. Department of Defense is soliciting proposals for a second round of funding under its FY 2006 Small Business Innovation Research program. Firms capable of conducting research and development in any of the solicitation’s 12 critical technology areas and then commercializing their results are eligible to apply. Phase I awards are typically $60,000 to $100,000 over six to nine months. Proposals may be submitted between June 14 and July 14 of 2006. The full solicitation is expected to be available on May 1 at http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/
For other SBIR solicitation information, go to sbirworld.com.

NASA will be soliciting proposals for a contract award to support development of a single-frequency, high-peak-power fiber amplifier for spectroscopy. The laser will be used in both laboratory and field environments. Eligibility is unrestricted. A full solicitation is expected to be released about May 19 with proposals due June 9. More information is available at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/synopsis.cgi?acqid=119871

Have an Idea/Submission for this Newsletter?
Contact Julie Howard at the Idaho Commerce & Labor’s Office of Science & Technology at (208) 334-2650, ext. 2147, or at [email protected]

Read More Idaho Technology News
Miss last month’s Science & Technology newsletter? Find the complete newsletter archives at technology.idaho.gov and click on "news."

2006 Events Calendar
May 14-19
Professional Development Program
Sun Valley, Idaho
The 21st Annual Program for Management Development will cover the power of teams, leading in times of change, becoming a more effective manager and more. Deadline is approaching to register for this one-week course. Go online to cpd.boisestate.edu/

May 15-18
National SBIR Spring 2006 Conference
Louisville, Ky
More information is at sbirworld.com.

June 20
Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Governor’s advisory group on science and technology will hold its quarterly meeting in Idaho Falls. Contact Karen Lewis, at the Office of Science & Technology, for information – (208) 334-2650 ext. 2101.

June 28-29
TechLaunch 3.0
Sun Valley, Idaho
Annual event helps emerging companies learn how to present and connect with angel and venture capital. For information and registration, go to ieda.biz.

For more calendar information, visit Conferences and Events at cl.idaho.gov

"We Create Jobs, Strengthen Communities and Market Idaho."

IDAHO COMMERCE & LABOR
PO Box 83720, Boise, Idaho 83720-0093
Tel: 208-334-2470; Fax: 208-334-2631
Web: cl.idaho.gov
06-62000-250

DIRK KEMPTHORNE, GOVERNOR
ROGER B. MADSEN, DIRECTOR
KARL TUELLER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR & OST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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