State agency hopes to encourage commercial development of technology being developed at USU and other research places

This past Thursday, lawmakers, members of the media and members of USTAR (which stands for Utah Science, Technology and Research) paid a visit to the Innovation Campus at Utah State University to see some of the ground-breaking technology as applied to batteries, autonomous vehicles and a 20-seat electric bus that charges itself wirelessly through tracks embedded in the roadway.

While not yet available commercially, many lawmakers are hoping that the state can move entrepreneurs to harness some of this new research and do something with it. On KVNU’s For the People program on Friday, USTAR managing director Brian Somers said the bus was really amazing.

“You could have a bus that could charge itself and do some continuous loops around a given area without having to stop and recharge. It also allows you to have smaller battery packs on the bus which reduces weight and other things. So it’s a really promising and interesting technology that we were able to witness,” Somers said.

He said the bus has great acceleration and no emissions. Somers explained that USTAR has a very unique mission as a state economic development agency. Its’ purpose is to maintain a healthy technology eco-system within the state of Utah and to assist in developing, commercially, many of the technologies that are being tested and researched at institutions such as Utah State University.

You can find out more at <a href=”http://www.ustar.org” target=”_blank”>www.ustar.org</a> and <a href=”http://innovation.usu.edu” target=”_blank”>innovation.usu.edu</a>.

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