Idaho Office of Science & Technology September 2006

In this issue:

# Council to Finalize Legislative Recommendations
# Idaho Leads Nation in Second Quarter Job Creation
# TechHelp Lab Adds New Prototyping Capabilities
# Idaho Falls Listed as Tops for IT Jobs
# Boise State Receives $23.8 Million for Research, Projects
# Fish Culture Experiment Station Opens
# Boise State Receives Teaching Grant from National Science Foundation
# ISU Professor Studying Neural Control of Movement
# University Computer Security Program Increases Funding
# BSU College of Engineering Celebrates 10 Years
# BroadSign Releases Latest Software for Digital Signage
# Cougar Mountain Launches New Accounting Software
# Partnership for Science & Technology Names Executive Director
# High-tech Companies Sought for Publication Survey
# Premier Technology Exec Joins Science & Technology Advisory Council
# OST Internship Position Open
# Ideas Innovations Idaho License Plates For Sale
Council to Finalize Legislative Recommendations

(Statewide) The Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council will finalize its legislative recommendations during a telephone conference call on Sept. 12.
The council, which advises the governor on policy issues and infrastructure needs for the state’s technology industry, has been considering a multimillion-dollar package of tax and budget incentives and educational enhancements since late spring.
Earlier, the council tentatively endorsed several proposals including a second round of matching grants for extending broadband Internet connectivity to rural areas of Idaho. The proposal is for $10 million. This year’s initial round was for $5 million, and it was allocated to 79 projects that will improve broadband access for nearly 50,000 people.
The biggest pending proposal is a tax credit for investments in high technology startup businesses. The state income tax credit would be 35 percent of the investment in general high-tech operations and 45 percent of investments in bioscience operations.
The telephone conference call is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 12, originating from the department’s second floor conference room at 700 W. State St. in Boise.
For additional information contact Karen Lewis at (208) 334-2470 or at [email protected]. More information about the Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council is at http://technology.idaho.gov.

Idaho Leads Nation in Second Quarter Job Creation

(Statewide) The Idaho economy produced new jobs at the fastest pace in the nation between the second quarter of 2005 and the second quarter this year.
The 31,100 new nonfarm jobs generated over the four quarters represented just over 5.1 percent growth. Nevada was second right at 5.1 percent and Arizona third at 4.78 percent. Nationally, nonfarm jobs increased 1.4 percent. Over 3,100 more employers were operating in the state on June 30 than a year earlier.
"Job growth indicators point to another strong third quarter but at a more moderate, sustainable level," Idaho Commerce & Labor Director Roger B. Madsen said.

TechHelp Lab Adds New Prototyping Capabilities

(Boise) Idaho TechHelp has received additional 2006 funding to enhance prototyping capabilities at its New Product Development Laboratory at Boise State University.
The funds were used to purchase, test and put into service two new materials that allow the lab to make prototypes and production parts with a wider range of properties.
The new prototyping materials offer strength, flexibility and heat resistance not available in other materials. DSM Somos 14120 is a low viscosity liquid photopolymer that produces strong, tough, water-resistant parts. DSM Somos 15120 is a nanoparticle-filled liquid that produces strong, stiff, temperature-resistant, composite parts.
The laboratory serves 40 companies per year from throughout the state and acts as a bridge between Boise State and business sectors. Idaho businesses gain affordable access to university talent and resources and the university staff and interns gain valuable experience and contacts with innovative Idaho businesses.
More information is available at http://www.techhelp.org.

Idaho Falls Listed as Tops for IT Jobs

(Idaho Falls) Where are the highest paying technology jobs? Forbes.com in August rated Idaho Falls as one of the hidden treasures for those seeking top dollar as programmers, systems engineers, hardware technicians and in other high-skilled occupations.
In an article titled "Where the Best-Paying High-Tech Jobs Are," Forbes.com said that once cost of living is considered, Idaho Falls is among several small metropolitan areas that rival better known tech centers.
According to the article, there are 750 computer industry jobs in Idaho Falls with an average annual wage of $61,970. Applications software engineers averaged $86,560 and System software engineers $65,380.

Boise State Receives $23.8 Million for Research, Projects

(Boise) Boise State University received $23.8 million in federal, state and private research grants during the 2005-2006 academic year – the second highest annual total in university history.
The awards include grants from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health as well as from businesses and private foundations.
Cancer studies, wind energy research, watershed investigations and bird migration surveys were among the research projects funded.
The largest amount awarded from a single source was $3.17 million from the EPA to develop and test multipurpose sensors to detect and analyze contaminants and to develop hydrogeophysical imaging technologies that aid the mapping of contaminant movement in the subsurface.
Boise State also received two major National Science Foundation awards for scientific instrumentation that will enable researchers in a number of scientific and engineering fields to pursue new studies. The grants include $620,000 for a thermal ionization mass spectrometer that will be the centerpiece of a new ultra-clean laboratory in the Department of Geosciences. The instrument measures the products of radioactive decay in microscopic minerals and determines the age of geologic materials such as rocks and fossils and the composition of environmental samples such as dissolved minerals in water or lead contaminants in soil.
A second award is funding an analytical transmission microscope nicknamed the "Millon Dollar Baby." The instrument will be housed in the university’s new Center for Materials Characterization, which was approved this summer for the College of Engineering and will house scientific equipment for research in materials science, electrical engineering, computer engineering, physics, biology, chemistry and geosciences.

Fish Culture Experiment Station Opens

(Hagerman) University of Idaho President Timothy White and Idaho Gov. Jim Risch will cut the ribbon on the university’s new $3.2 million biotechnology aquaculture laboratory and office complex at the Aquaculture Research Institute in Hagerman on Sept. 14. The dedication ceremony is open to the public and begins at 10:30 a.m.
Construction on the 13,000-square-foot building began last August. The new building includes six analytical laboratories, 14 offices and eight cubicles for technicians and graduate students. It also houses two conference rooms wired for distance learning and video conferencing with the university’s Moscow campus and the university’s other collaborators – the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
The new facility will work on fish disease, fish nutrition, conservation fisheries research and fish genetics and breeding, said White.
The facility’s dedication comes on the heels of a report from Blackwell Science Publications at Oxford in England that the University of Idaho was rated the top university in the United States in this area in 2005 in a number of papers ranked by Institute for Scientific Information and published in the Journal of Fish Diseases. The University of Idaho ranked fourth in the world behind the University of Tasmania, the University of Montpellier and the federal Agricultural Research Service.

Boise State Receives Teaching Grant from National Science Foundation

(Boise) Boise State University has received a $494,000 Robert Noyce Scholarship Program grant from the National Science Foundation to encourage students majoring in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to become school teachers.
Students who enter the program will agree to spend two years teaching in a high-need school for every year they receive scholarship support. According to statistics provided by the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, more than one in four high school mathematics teachers and nearly one in five high school science teachers lack even a minor in their main teaching field.
Participants will receive $10,000 per year, enough to cover tuition, books, fees and part of their housing. In addition, each student will receive mentoring from a faculty member, who will check grades and arrange for extra study help if needed. The entire program will work with an advisory team representing both the university and the private sector.
Boise State will begin accepting applications for the program this fall, and classes will begin during the 2007 spring semester. For more information about the program, contact [email protected].

ISU Professor Studying Neural Control of Movement

(Pocatello) From toad tongues to turtle necks to liberally endowed fish, Curt Anderson, associate professor of physiology at Idaho State University, is excited about movement and with good reason. His research recently earned him and two colleagues from Northern Arizona University a National Science Foundation grant of more than $500,000 to study the neural control of movement.
The trio is studying the projectile movement of toads’ tongues when they are feeding in an effort to discover how they are able to move in a coordinated manner.
Anderson is focusing on finding out where in the brain the coordination is happening so that he can eventually discover how the brain is able to get all of the muscles to work together.
"It is phenomenal that we can coordinate and not have to think about all of our movements," said Anderson. "Think about playing the piano, 10 fingers coordinated but working individually. It’s very impressive."
Studying toads will lead to a better understanding of how animals and humans are able to coordinate their movement and could have major implications in neuro- and medical sciences.
This process will lead to locating where in the brain the movement is being organized and allow researchers to study and examine the actual process within the brain.
Anderson has research in the works examining how turtles are able to bend their necks to nearly a 140-degree angle without breaking anything or damaging their spinal cords. He is also studying how some fish are able to coordinate external genitalia that are nearly one-third the size of their bodies.

University Computer Security Program Increases Funding

(Moscow) University of Idaho will receive ongoing funding from the National Science Foundation to continue its National CyberCorps program.
The program supports promising young scholars intending to work on federal information assurance projects.
Designated a National Security Agency Center of Excellence in Information Assurance Education, the university’s research in information assurance involves many departments on campus, including computer science, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering and business and accounting.
Information assurance is the area of computer and network security that includes database security, real-time control systems and computer and accounting forensics.
The fellowships at the University of Idaho are limited to United States citizens, who are graduate or undergraduate students studying computer science, computer engineering or accounting. The scholars receive monthly stipends, all their tuition and fees, a free computer and living expenses. Details and application information can be found at http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~sfs/.

BSU College of Engineering Celebrates 10 Years

(Boise) Boise State University’s College of Engineering is observing its 10th anniversary with a yearlong celebration that includes a number of events.
Other upcoming events include an alumni recognition luncheon in October, Family Engineering Day and National Engineers Week in February and a special commencement celebration in May. Guest lectures, laboratory tours and other activities are also planned. The College of Engineering traces its roots to November 1996 when the State Board of Education approved four-year baccalaureate degree programs in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering. The programs, initially part of the College of Technology, were transferred to the new College of Engineering after the state board approved Boise State’s proposal to divide the College of Technology into two new colleges – one for engineering and the other the Larry Selland College of Applied Technology.
The College of Engineering now offers 13 bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering. The college enrolls more than 1,400 students in its graduate and undergraduate programs. Its researchers have $16.8 million in active grants, a 50 percent increase over the past year. In 2004, 68 percent of the engineering graduates from Boise State obtained employment in Idaho industries, according to statistics gathered by the college.
The college ranked 19th in the nation on the U.S. News & World Report’s list of best master’s level engineering colleges among public, comprehensive universities, and its Dean Cheryl Schrader was one of 11 recipients nationwide of the 2005 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

BroadSign Releases Latest Software for Digital Signage

(Eagle) BroadSign International, which creates software for digital signs, has released a new version of its network management software that can tell precisely how many times an ad was played on each digital screen.
The new version takes into account business hours, holidays and days off at each location and will turn off screens when a location is closed. It also enables advertisers to target their campaigns according to demographic and geographic criteria.
Network operators will have complete flexibility in how to configure their network and which criteria to assign to each screen, area, site, location or market. For instance, a camera film ad may be directed selectively to only those supermarket screens that have film processing stands, or a print cartridge ad can be targeted to the screens near printer sections.
The latest edition of the software further facilitates measuring sales increases resulting from ad campaigns as retailers can analyze detailed play logs against the point-of-sale data.

Cougar Mountain Launches New Accounting Software
(Boise) Cougar Mountain Software, publisher of accounting software for small to mid-sized businesses, has launched its Denali Premium Accounting Software Suite with the release of the accounts payable module.
It addresses the needs of businesses that have high transaction volumes, multiple locations, a need to accept multiple currencies or a desire to offer gift card or layaway payment options.
Denali provides users with the ability to create custom reports or modify one of the 65 pre-built report templates.
More information is at http://www.cougarmtn.com.

Partnership for Science & Technology Names Executive Director
(Idaho Falls) The Board of Directors of Partnership for Science & Technology has selected M. Lane Allgood as the new organization’s executive director.
Allgood will be responsible for managing the organization’s day-to-day operations as well as leading the group’s efforts to provide accurate and timely information on existing and proposed activities at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Allgood previously served as the public affairs specialist for North Wind, Inc., an Idaho Falls based environmental consulting firm. Prior to that, Mr. Allgood worked in the INL’s Public Affairs Department, serving as the director of the lab’s outreach offices in Twin Falls, Moscow and Pocatello.
The Partnership for Science & Technology is a newly formed nonprofit, grassroots organization formed to provide accurate and timely information on existing and proposed activities at the INL Site, and to advocate for nuclear and environmental technologies.
To contact Allgood call (208) 313-4160 or e-mail [email protected]. For more information visit the web site at http://www.partnershipforscienceandtechnology.org.

High-tech Companies Sought for Publication Survey
(Statewide) Idaho high technology companies interested in being included in an annual survey that will be published in the 2006 Idaho Statesman’s TechIdaho special edition are invited to contact Bonnie Thiele with KPMG in Boise at 208-389-6544 or via e-mail at [email protected] for a survey form.
KPMG’s Boise office is completing the survey. Companies will be ranked based on where they fit in different revenue ranges. Both private and public companies are encouraged to participate. All financial information will remain confidential and no specific financial information will be published about individual companies.
Surveys need to be returned to KPMG no later than Oct. 10. TechIdaho will be published in January 2007. TechIdaho celebrates will celebrate its fifth year of providing an annual overview of Idaho’s high technology industry that looks at both the industries accomplishments and challenges for the future.

Premier Technology Exec Joins Science & Technology Advisory Council
(Pocatello) Doug Sayer, president of Premier Technology Inc., has been appointed to the Science & Technology Advisory Council by Gov. Jim Risch.
Sayer, one of the owners of the technology company, was named along with two of his colleagues as the Small Business Administration’s Idaho Small Business Persons of the Year in 2006.
He has been very active in his community in eastern Idaho in terms of both his time and money and, according to SBA District Director Tom Bergdoll, has created an atmosphere of involvement for Premier Technology’s management team and employees.
Premier Technology, which is moving its corporate headquarters from Pocatello to Blackfoot this fall, is a manufacturer and industrial contractor working with a broad range of government and private sector customers. The firm specializes in industrial gloveboxes, shielding windows and low-level nuclear waste boxes.
The council, comprised of leading members of Idaho’s technology industry along with all three public university presidents, was created in 1999 to give direction to Idaho’s science and technology initiatives. It formally meets twice a year and advises the governor and the state Office of Science & Technology.
The Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council meets in a teleconference on Sept. 12. For information, call Karen Lewis at (208) 334-2650 ext. 2101.

OST Internship Position Open
(Boise) The Idaho Office of Science & Technology has an opening for a fall internship.
The office is seeking a college junior or senior level communications, marketing, economics, finance or related major who will work up to 19 hours per week within the Office of Science and Technology on various projects to strengthen Idaho’s science and tech economy and support the state’s industries.
To apply for an internship, students should submit a résumé of relevant work, volunteer, extracurricular or other experience, a cover letter explaining which division they are interested in and their reasons for wanting to participate in this program and two letters of recommendation. Salary is $7.80 per hour.
Mail materials by Sept. 8 to:
Idaho Commerce & Labor
Denice Gardner, Personnel Technician
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, Idaho 83720-0093
Telephone: (208) 334-2470 FAX: 334-2631
E-mail: [email protected]

Ideas Innovations Idaho License Plates For Sale
(Statewide) Specialty license plates that support Idaho’s science and technology industry are for sale through the Idaho Transportation Department.
A portion of the proceeds from each plate sold goes to a fund that is used to develop programs and market the state’s technology sector.
A picture of the license plate, and information on how to purchase one, can be viewed at technology.idaho.gov/license.

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

Sept. 12
Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council
Teleconference
Governor’s advisory group on science and technology will finalize its legislative agenda during a teleconference. Contact Karen Lewis, at the Office of Science & Technology, for information – (208) 334-2650 ext. 2101.

Sept. 12/Oct. 9
The Power of Play
Moscow
University of Idaho Humanities Fellows, English Professor Candida Gillis and Sociology Professor Debbie Storrs, will lead a yearlong program exploring the nature, history and uses of play. "The Power of Play" will look at how play shapes, transforms, celebrates, delights or diminishes individuals, institutions and societies, and how it can enrich personal, social and professional lives.
Two free sessions are planned for this fall.
• "The Nature and Issues in Video and Internet Gaming" is set for 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 12 in the University Commons And the second will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oct. 9 in the university’s College of Law Courtroom

Sept. 14
Kickstand
Ha Penny, Boise
Regular gathering of Kickstand, a monthly networking meeting of innovators and entrepreneurs. To join or RSVP, go to kickstand.org.

Sept. 16
E-Learning Conference
Boise State University
William Horton, an internationally recognized expert on e-learning, is the keynote speaker at a conference, "e-Learning: The World is Your Classroom – Knowledge Development, Distribution and Management in the 21st Century."
Registration is online at http://www.stc-src.org/, click on e-learning conference.

Sept 21-23
INL Engineering Expo
Idaho Falls
The Idaho National Laboratory partners with the Museum of Idaho for its annual Science & Engineering Expo at 1545 W. Broadway in Idaho Falls. The theme "Energy Synergy" will focus on students in grades 6 through 8. Family Day is Sept. 23 and admission is free. For information, go online to http://www.inl.gov/expo/

September 26
Idaho Innovation Awards
Boise
The first annual Stoel Rives Idaho Innovation Awards luncheon will be held Sept. 26 in conjunction with the Intermountain Venture Forum. For more information, go to stoel.com/innovation.

September 26-27
Intermountain Venture Forum
Boise
Annual venture forum brings together rising entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. For information, go to ivfboise.org.

September 28
Boise Angel Alliance
Boise
A group of private "angel" investors, meet. Entrepreneurs can apply to present to this group and interested investors can get more information online at http://www.boiseangelalliance.com.

October 4-6
Idaho Energy Conference
Boise
Longest running conference of its kind in the Northwest, the Idaho Energy Conference provides a casual forum where policy makers and technical implementers of code and energy efficiency programs meet to negotiate the future of conservation and energy in Idaho. Information at idahocities.org.

October 18-19
NASA Idaho Space Grant Consortium Research Symposium
Moscow
Symposium will be held on the University of Idaho campus. The deadline to submit an abstract is Sept. 15. For information on how to submit an abstract, visit: http://isgc.uidaho.edu/Information.php?Page=130.
Register by visiting http://isgc.uidaho.edu/information.php?Page=133. There is no registration fee to attend.

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

JAMES E. RISCH, GOVERNOR
ROGER B. MADSEN, DIRECTOR
KARL TUELLER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR & OST EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Idaho Commerce & Labor is an equal opportunity employer.
This document is available upon request in alternative formats for individuals with disabilities.
[email protected] • Idaho Commerce & Labor