About USTAR
About USTAR
USTAR
In March 2006, the Utah State Legislature passed Senate Bill 75, creating the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative. This measure provided funding for strategic investments at Utah State University and the University of Utah. These investments include recruiting world-class researchers and building state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research and development facilities, thereby forming first-rate science, innovation, and commercialization teams across the State.
At Utah State University, there are currently three research clusters where the USTAR funds for USU are focused. These clusters are Advanced Nutrition, Biofuels, and Active Imaging and Sensing. These strategic focus areas are based upon existing University strengths that have vast commercialization opportunities and address large, strategic global markets.
In the Center for Advanced Nutrition (CAN), the main goal is to study how people respond differently to food in order to learn ways to tailor individuals' diets to reduce risk of obesity, heart disease and other health problems, while isolating health-producing properties of certain foods.
In the Sustainable Energy Research Center (SERC) at USU, the primary goal is to maximize biomass production of oil-rich algae for use in alternative fuels.
Active Imaging and Sensing
In the Center for Active Sensing and Imaging (CASI) the main goal is to use radar-like, laser-based LIDAR technology to measure distances instead of radio waves, for a variet of industrial applications, including sitting wind farms, controlling emissions, and rapid replacement of bridges, runways and other infrastructure.
