Innovation originates all over Utah, not just from the 'Slopes'

Brice Wallace 

One Utah company is working to develop electric battery systems to enable 150-mile-range air taxis. Another is working on lightweight, conductivity-based polymers and composites that could someday protect the vital personal information in your smartphone.

They must be based in Silicon Slopes, right? Nope. Think instead of Logan and Heber, with that latter company also having operations in Emery County.

Having high-tech developments like those that are taking place in rural parts of Utah was the focus of a breakout session during the recent Utah Technology Innovation Summit, where company executives discussed the advantages and challenges of operating innovative companies in a setting away from the Wasatch Front and how their technologies eventually could have potential widespread societal benefits.

Take Electric Power Systems, for example. The Logan-based company is working with Utah State University and several other companies on energy storage systems for aircraft propulsion systems and hoping to enable hybrid electric air taxes to have ranges of 150 miles sometime in the mid-2020s. The technology also could allow drones to carry 200 to 500 pounds, enable thin-hulled aircraft to use rural airports currently without commercial service, and allow for less-expensive aircraft flight training.

Heavy-lift drones “would have significant range and be able to deliver goods and services to rural communities at a fraction of the cost of a piloted helicopter,” said Michael Armstrong, the company’s chief technology officer, who added that lowering operating costs of aircraft could result in dozens of flight training centers through Utah.

“The hub or the mecca for electric propulsion in aerospace hasn’t been defined yet,” Armstrong said. “We’re right at the initial wave of this technology becoming widespread and adopted, and for us, I think we make that Utah.”

Meanwhile, for Conductive Composites, based in Heber and with operations in Emery County, the goal is to produce next-generation materials that “answer the combined demands of conductivity and shielding performance in lightweight materials systems” — in other words, plastic and composites that can conduct and shield like metals do. Such composites would be one-fifth the weight and one-fourth the cost of using metal, according to George Hansen, chief technology officer and co-founder of the company. While that technology has myriad potential applications, the company is concentrating most on using it to protect smartphone data. Currently, the only option for that is to turn off the phone, put it down and hide it, he said.

Why did the companies choose rural locations? While Electric Power Systems is able to tap into partnerships with USU and the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative, panelists also said people living in their areas display ingenuity and a strong work ethic, among other qualities.

“An honest day’s work,” is how Hansen described it.

“In Emery County, it’s a great place to find a lot of space, but what we found were the workers,” said Hansen, whose company has 25 people at the two locations. “It’s the mindset of hiring somebody who already knows how to weld or already knows how to fix a tractor or already know it’s OK to work late and it’s OK to work on something you don’t know about, because if you’ve got to get the hay in, you’d better do it. And so that’s why we went down there, and we love it.”

Electric Power Systems has seen in its employees “the willingness to roll up your sleeves and learn something new and stay late and enjoy what you’re doing when it’s, in some cases, a stressful environment when you’re trying to deliver high-assurance systems to aerospace companies on a timeline,” said Armstrong, whose company has 40 workers.

While “rural” is a relative term — “People in Washington (D.C.) think Salt Lake is rural, people in Salt Lake think St. George is rural, and people in St. George think that Enterprise is rural,” Hansen said — operating companies in remote locations has its issues. For Electric Power Systems, there is a need for a better charging infrastructure for electric aircraft, and some workers lack “maturity” because the company’s industry niche is so new.

Hansen added that capitalization remains a trouble spot.

“Capitalization of early-stage businesses in Utah is really hard, and the reason it’s really, really hard is because in businesses like yours,” he said, turning to Armstrong, “you’re in it for the long haul. … [In] Silicon Slopes, go write an app, you’ll get money. You’ll get money tomorrow if you do a good app. Doing good materials? It’s going to take you 10 to 15 years just to graduate the material, let alone to get it into where it’s supposed to go. … The businesses that are really long plays have a really hard time.”

Another challenge for innovative rural companies is one their two companies are hoping to change: high-quality university graduates leaving Utah for better employment opportunities. Armstrong said USU provides a high-quality education, but there are not a lot of engineering opportunities in Cache Valley, so the grads move to other states. But many want to return, and he’s hoping Electric Power Systems can benefit from that desire.

“One of the things that Utah has exported well for decades is educated engineers,” Hansen said. If a person grew up in Salt Lake City, perhaps they might return to work in Price rather than out of state, he said.

“I don’t know how to do it, by the way,” he acknowledged. “But how do we reach out … and attract our talent back to Utah?”

Armstrong sees many potential benefits for rural areas if his company can reach its goals. At a time when urban centers are becoming even more urbanized, “what counters that or allows people to live where they want to live is connectivity, and not just, say, information connectivity but also physical connectivity,” he said.

A businessperson today might want to establish an office and live in Moab but cannot because shipping costs to and from there might be too high or a customer may find it cumbersome to reach that location for a meeting, he said. Both could be addressed with air taxis and heavy-lift drones.

“When you start looking at technology, especially transportation technology, that allows people to live where they want to live and get the ability to transport goods and services in a very effective way,” Armstrong said.

“At least in our opinion and in our field, this electrical aerospace revolution is going to enable and change the way we think about physical connectivity.”