Idaho Office of Science & Technology March 2005 Newsletter

In this issue:

# Statewide Entrepreneur Event Set for April

# Idaho Exports Surge in 2004

# Silicon Valley Firm Invests in Boise Start-up

# SBA Recognizes Idaho Science and Tech Efforts

# Boise Becomes Demonstration Site for Power Generation

# Vision Air Research Gathers Deer Data

# Idaho National Lab Technologies Compete Nationally

# Idaho Patents Run the Gamut

# Bacterium Fights Root Damaging Fungi

# Business Accelerator Becomes a New Model for Start-up Financing

Statewide Entrepreneur Event Scheduled for April

Macintosh evangelist and Garage Technology founder/CEO Guy Kawasaki is the featured speaker at Kickstart, the Northwest’s premier entreprenuer event. Kickstart will run April 4th-6th at the Boise State University Student Union Building and the Morrison Center. Kawasaki, author of the new book "The Art of the Start," will speak at 7 p.m. on April 5th in the Morrison Center. A series of workshops focusing on entrepreneurship and innovators will run on April 6th in the Student Union Building.
The 16 individual workshops will consist of four tracks: Creation, Implementation, Execution and Resources. Seminar topics include: ‘Assessing My Opportunity, Intellectual Property, Marketing My Business, University and Idaho National Lab Resources, Presenting to Investors and many others. Ticket prices are $25 for the Guy Kawasaki keynote speech and $20 for the day of seminars on April 6th (includes continental breakfast and lunch).
This event will also serve as a "boot-camp" for Idaho businesses interested in competing in June’s second annual TechLaunch competition. TechLaunch trains emerging companies in developing and presenting business plans, with cash awards provided to winners.
Kickstart will run in conjunction with Boise State University’s Northwest Venture Championship®, an international student business plan competition. The Northwest Venture Championship® provides an opportunity for both students and entrepreneurs that are looking for ideas and contacts.
Event sponsors include Hewlett-Packard Co., Kickstand (Treasure Valley entreprenuer’s group), the Boise Angel Alliance, Boise State University, BlueLine Marketing, Highway 12 and Village Ventures, Treetop Technologies and the Idaho Office of Science & Technology. Registration is limited. Visit kickstartidaho.com for details, or call Brian Critchfield at 208-426-6634.

Idaho Exports Surge in 2004

The dollar value of international sales of Idaho products and services surged faster than nearly every other state, driven primarily by the technology sector, according to new export data released by the US Department of Commerce.
Idaho’s exports increased 39 percent from 2003 to 2004 for a total dollar value of $2.9 billion.
Technology exports led the growth, with a 58 percent increase from 2003 to 2004, accounting for more than 71 percent of the state’s total exports.
The top five international markets for Idaho goods in 2004 include the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.

Silicon Valley Firm Invests in Boise Start-up

(NAMPA, Idaho) Dedicated Devices Inc. has received $6 million in funding from a group led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Palomar Ventures.
Other investors in the group include UV Partners, Village Ventures, and a number of angel investors that participated in previous funding rounds. Highway 12 Ventures in Boise led the initial funding round in 2003 and introduced DDi to Palomar Ventures.
DDi makes an easy-to-use digital home networking solution that allows homeowners to enjoy music, video and photos when, where and how they want. The product aggregates, distributes and manages all forms of digital media throughout the home eliminating the frustration of complex PC-based systems.
The high-performance architecture is standards-based and runs on a secure, high-speed wired and wireless backbone.
"We’ll be able to continue our extensive R&D and product development efforts, as well as aggressively support the delivery of our product when it ships in volume this spring," said Jeffrey Moeser, DDi co-founder and CEO.
Amanda Reed, a partner in Palomar Ventures’ Palo Alto offices, joined the DDi board as part of the investment deal.

SBA Recognizes Idaho’s Science and Tech Efforts

Efforts to encourage high-tech business development in Idaho have won federal recognition.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy has formally acknowledged the success of new programs in promoting entrepreneurship and economic development in the science and technology sector. The award was presented during an economic conference the first week of March in Washington D.C.
The conference highlighted the best state and regional initiatives to stimulate small business growth, create new jobs and improve local economies.
These three Idaho programs will be presented as best practices:
– The TechConnect Model, financed by Bechtel Corporation, for helping entrepreneurs commercialize their innovations;
– TEAMS, in which university students analyze innovations and assess the potential for commercialization; and
– TechLaunch entrepreneurial competitions, where aspiring companies present venture capital plans to prospective investors.
The SBA conference focused on effective approaches for creating business friendly climates, advancing local economic development resources and promoting entrepreneurship in technology and innovation. It was sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Council of State Governments and the National Lieutenant Governors Association.

Boise Becomes Power Generation Demonstration Site

(BOISE, Idaho) IdaTech, a subsidiary of IdaCorp. Inc., plans to power a city parks facility with a five-kilowatt fuel cell.
The 3,300-square-foot Foothills Environmental Education Center will be one of several places in the nation where a fuel cell will be put to everyday use. The facility was selected as a demonstration site and will function as a research tool to study fuel cell usage.
Fuel cells, while a "clean" technology, are still far more expensive than traditional energy sources. IdaTech continues to work on developing the technology to bring costs down so fuel cells can be a viable, future energy source.
IdaTech, a global fuel cell solutions developer and manufacturer, recently opened its first European office in Germany.

Vision Air Research Gathers Deer Data

(BOISE, Idaho) Boise-based Vision Air Research, Inc., is monitoring deer populations for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The firm uses an "FLIR" system, or forward looking infrared camera, such as those used in police and military planes and helicopters. The company specializes in wildlife surveys and uses the latest aerial infrared sensor technology which records heat-generated images.
The information will be used to track deer populations and assist in doe and fawn mortality studies.

Idaho National Lab Technologies Compete Nationally

(IDAHO FALLS, Idaho) The Idaho National Lab (INL) is nominating five of its technologies to the R&D Magazine’s annual Top 100 Competition. At least one winner for each of the past eight years has been from the INL.
The five technologies nominated this year include:
– DeepFocus Acoustic Microscope Transducer which offers a breakthrough in non-destructive testing.
– Bioreactor, a system that permits testing and identification of effective cleanup treatments on site.
– Fission Product Extraction Process, called FPEX, simultaneously and synergistically extracts cesium and strontium from spent nuclear fuel.
– Idaho Explosive Detection System, called IEDS, a transportable system that interrogates vehicles to determine the presence of explosives.
– Visual First Responder Wireless Video system, called VFR, permits experts to be on the scene by viewing secure, encrypted video signals from as far as five miles away from dangerous sites.
Fact sheets and video on each technology are available at http://www.inl.gov. Winners will be announced in July.

Idaho Patents Run the Gamut

From a horse owner’s and farrier’s stand to a frozen French fried potato product, to systems for electronically distributing mail, Idaho inventors were hard at work in February.
These examples are just a few of the patents issued in February to Idaho inventors by the U.S. Patent Office.
Other patented inventions included data security for digital data storage, electronic display devices and methods, and an archery arrow shaft gripper and puller.
Idaho continues to rank first in the nation for the number of patents received per capita, with most patents generated by the state’s large technology industry.

Bacterium Fights Root-Damaging Fungi
(MOSCOW, Idaho) In the war of bacterium versus fungi, who will win?
A University of Idaho researcher has found bacterium can be an effective and non-toxic weapon against major fungal diseases that cause extensive damage to greenhouse, nursery, turf and agricultural crops.
A pair of new pesticides recently registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are being used against plant-damaging fungi. The products grew from University of Idaho researcher Don Crawford’s study of bacteria found among linseed plant roots.
The bacteria, which colonize the plants’ roots, produce chemical defenses at the specific points where the fungus attacks, delivering microdoses of antibiotics to specific targets at specific times.
The two new pesticide products that have come out of the research are being produced at a small Moscow spin-off company called Innovative BioSystems. The products are named "Actinovate SP" and "ActinoIron."
Fungicides, pesticides that target fungi, tend to be toxic to animals because fungal cells are closer to plants and animals than to bacteria, Crawford said. That is the advantage of enlisting bacteria to provide protection to plants’ roots at the cellular level, serving as factories to apply microdoses of fungicide where they count the most.
Crawford’s continuing interest in bacterium could lead to new medical applications. He is now studying bacteria found among sagebrush roots as sources of new medical antibiotics.
Bacteria supply nearly two-thirds of the antibiotics used by physicians but microbiologists have barely scratched the surface in identifying potential sources of new drugs.
For more information on these studies, contact Don Crawford at 208-885-6113, [email protected]; or Bill Loftus, UI science writer, 208-885-7694, [email protected].

Column: A New Model for Start-up Financing
Entrepreneurial growth is resuming! That’s the conclusion of the latest report on the state of American entrepreneurship from the Kauffman Foundation, by Maria Minitti and William D. Bygrave and available free of charge from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation at http://www.emkf.org.
This 2003 study reports that after two years of decline, entrepreneurial activity in the United States showed a solid rate of increase in 2002 and 2003.
Almost one out of every eight Americans (11.9 percent) is currently engaged in entrepreneurial activity.
To read this full article, by Eric Mott, director of business development for Stellar Technologies in Meridian, go to http://www.wasatchdigitaliq.com/parser.php?nav=article&article_id=232.

Idaho Tech Fact
Did you know?
Boise was the first city in the Western hemisphere to harness geothermal energy when it tapped into hot springs. The state’s capitol building and dozens of other buildings in the city are still geothermally heated from underground hot springs.

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

2004 – 2005 Events Calendar
March 9-10
AURP 2005 Winter Workshop
Washington D.C.
Doing business with the federal government
For more information, click here

March 16
Change Management Workshop
MK Plaza Bldg. – Training Room
University of Idaho-Boise, 720 Park Blvd., Boise
Daylong workshop addresses the people and cultural issues that can prevent a successful transformation to a "lean manufacturing" operation.
Cost is $250. Contact Paula Peterman, (208) 364-6188 or [email protected].

March 16
Systems Thinking Seminar
Micron Technology – Boise
The American Society for Quality – Western Idaho Section, TechHelp, and Micron Technology will present a workshop on "Systems Thinking." The workshop will address how to overcome barriers to productivity in today’s workplace.
Cost is $79 for ASQ members; $149 for non-members.
Contact Melissa Jensen, (208) 426-3767 or [email protected].

March 28-30
World’s Best Technologies
Arlington, Texas
Showcase of new technologies before venture firms
For more information, click here

April 5-6
Kickstart — The Northwest’s Premiere Entrepreneurial Event
BSU Student Union Bldg./Morrison Center
Keynote speakers include Garage Ventures/former Apple Fellow Guy Kawasaki and a full day of workshops at Boise State University. The workshops are geared toward helping entrepreneurs and innovators. Visit kickstartidaho.com for details.

April 7-9
Annual Meeting/Symposium of the Idaho Academy of Science
Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho
Program information will be posted at IAS Web site as it becomes available – click here. For more information, contact IAS President Dr. Tom Mangum at [email protected].

April 12
Business Leadership Course
Boise
"Employing Maneuver In Your Business: A Strategy For Achieving Maximum Impact Results In An Uncertain World," is designed to teach business managers how to apply leadership and strategy concepts from the book "The Marine Corps Way." The course will be taught by Vincent Marino and Jason Santamaria, co-authors of the book.
For more information, click here

May 8-12
Nanotech Conference and Trade Show
Anaheim, Calif.
For more information, click here

June 7-9
SCP Global Technologies International Symposium
Boise Centre on the Grove
Event features presentations, panel discussions, the annual Werner Kern Award, a poster session and more.
For more information on this event, click here

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
05-62000-250

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

Idaho Commerce & Labor is an equal opportunity employer.
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[email protected] • Idaho Commerce & Labor