High tech comes to Alaska.

• Author: Reid, Sean

From energy efficiency to mapping -- you'll never believe the power of software built in the Last Frontier.

Think of Alaska business, and what typically comes to mind? Oil, of course. And tourism, fishing and forest products. Then there are the support industries, telecommunications, retailers and a host of others.

But think of young companies researching and producing innovative products and services, and you're more likely to think of Silicon Valley than the Last Frontier -- a perception a handful of Alaska entrepreneurs and a public corporation may change just a little.

The public corporation is the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF), established by the state Legislature in 1988. Operating within the Alaska Department of Revenue, the foundation's board of directors awards competitive grants to applicants working in applied and basic research. Part of the agency's broad-based goal is to enhance the state's long-term economic development and technological innovation.

There may be at least one more good reason to spend state money on such projects: to slow what some skilled technicians and researchers perceive as the "brain drain" from Alaska for lack of more local high-tech business opportunities.

Since its inception, ASTF has funded 83 major projects, awarded 26 small grants and provided technical assistance to 50 teachers statewide. In its portfolio, the foundation highlights some major projects it regards as having high-tech business potential.

Power Programs

One of those projects is Arctic Pak Developments, spawned by LLR Technologies of Anchorage. LLR received a $130,000 grant to further develop and test an energy management device that charges a car's battery and controls engine block heaters and interior heaters used extensively in winter. The unit monitors air temperature and manages power to its multiple AC power outlets, turning devices on and off as necessary to save power.

What forces brought three Anchorage residents together -- a former computer store owner, a university electronics teacher and a computer management specialist -- to create Arctic Pak?

"We sat down and started looking through some 20 years worth of research projects, as well as current technology developments, looking for a gap that we could fill," explains Rex Plunkett, one of LLR's founders. "Our goal was to survive and to make a profit. Along that path, we wanted to use and hire Alaskan talent, to help stop the exodus of the best Alaska high...