The strangest tech to come out of Utah: August Edition: On trekking poles that double as water filtration systems, robot servers at the airport, and the new gold rush.

• Author: Stone, Zara

THE UNSPOKEN BUT ACKNOWLEDGED RULE of technology reporting is that the more mind-blowing the innovation, the less likely it is to ever get to market. Doesn't it feel like you've been hearing about drone taxi services for yearssss? Case closed.

Despite this uncomfortable truth, the flashiness of said tech products--toilets that analyze your poop! Robot hairdressers!--make great headlines (guilty as charged) but have about as much likelihood of getting into your hands in the next decade as I am to win American Idol.

However, the next generation is far less jaded. No surprise that most of the awesome-but-can-it-scale stuff is more press release than practical, but hey, when would a robot cougar be practical? Yes, COUGAR, because OBV, a robo-dog would be SO GOOGLE, and if you cant one-up our search-engine overlords, why even bother?

Said robo-cougar is the brainchild (and mascot) of engineering and art students from Brigham Young University, and may end up in their theater productions. Yay?

Next up, the brainiacs at Weber State University showcased a fully-electric house for the Solar Decathlon challenge and somehow took a super cool premise and complicated build and managed to make it look as exciting as Governor Scott's RBF, so ... success?

Finally, we have the startup TwoFerry, an absolute cracker of a ridesharing company, courtesy of Tiff Polmateer from the David Eccles School of Business, that delivers TWO drivers per call: one to transport the caller, and another to drive their car back home. An end to DUI's?

Now we've admired what the TikTok generation can do, let's take a look at what Utah's so-called adults are stirring up. To begin, as always, a little game: Two Truths And A Lie, the Utah Tech Edition. This month, we're taking a gander at the state's housing startups.

Out of the following housing startups, which one is the fake one?

(Scroll to the bottom for answers)

* A startup that designs tiny homes for cats (and their humans).

* A startup that sells house-in-a-box homes that can be erected in two days.

* A startup that recycles face masks into solar-powered shelters for the homeless.

PURTREK: THE SIP'N STICK YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED

Utah has some of the best outdoor trails in the nation--with 2,903 listed on AIITrails--and hiking is an awesome way to de-stress (if you can ignore those incessant cicadas, that is ...). Whatever, you know the drill: hiking shoes, socks that won't rub your ankles raw, an unflattering hat, and a...