Quick: What was the name of the first integrated personal computer? Some say it was the Apple, some say it was the Sphere, and some say it was the Alto. All three computers have something surprising in common — each has a significant Utah connection.

When Steve Jobs demonstrated the Apple to his former employer at Atari, finances were too tight to give the technology a proper product launch. So Utah native Nolan Bushnell did the next best thing; he introduced Jobs to a venture capitalist.

There is no disputing that Brigham Young University graduate Michael Wise had his Bountiful-based computer company up and flying before BYTE magazine interviewed him in August of 1975. The only dispute about the Sphere, is how long it took Wise (and his customers) to work out all of the glitches. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Sphere influenced the rest of the industry. How else do you explain the ctrl+alt+del key sequence used to reboot your PC?

The Alto was the brainchild of Alan Kay, a graduate of the University of Utah. Whether or not you consider it a “personal computer,” it certainly was the platform responsible for a wide variety of firsts. One Alto model’s innovative graphical user interface was the inspiration behind the Macintosh and Windows environments. A later Alto was also purportedly the world’s first laptop computer.

So take your pick. Was one of these the first PC? Any way you slice it, Utah played a role.

Utah is home to the United State’s first condominium, built in 1960 on the former estate of Mary Fielding Smith. There seem to be ongoing semantic debates about what constitutes the nation’s first department store, traffic light, video game, odometer, alpine ski resort, fast-food restaurant, airline service and so on. Whatever your take is, Utah’s people and institutions were among the pioneers in all of these industries.

The history of the nuclear age cannot be told without mentioning Moab’s Uranium boom and Wendover airfield (where Fat Boy was secretly built).

The history of the information age, computer graphics and digital music cannot be told without mentioning a slew of graduates of and professors from Utah’s universities. One noteworthy example is Adobe founder, John Warnock, whose PostScript language was the key ingredient for the desktop publishing revolution.

Famous Utah sculptor Mahonri Young once taught Gutzon Borglum (of Mount Rushmore fame). Utahns played a critical role in the formation (and subsequent operations) of the pony express, transcontinental telegraph, ARPANET and the transcontinental railroad. Salt Lake City was generally either the starting or ending point for all stagecoach service in the West, and remains a hub for trucking and airline traffic today.

For six years, the Utah Innovation Awards has honored Utah’s long-standing tradition of innovation by recognizing outstanding inventors, entrepreneurs and university-developed technology.

Presented by the law firm of Stoel Rives and the Utah Technology Council, the Utah Innovation Awards is the first innovation awards program in the state.

“The program is much more than an annual awards luncheon,” says Scott Young, Stoel Rives attorney and program co-chairman. “During the past six years, the Utah Innovation Awards program has really become the premiere industry building event in Utah. It brings together entrepreneurs, investors and academic, government and industry leaders to recognize the incredible innovations that are contributing to the growth of our technology industries and to honor the companies and people behind them.”

The 2008 winners in each of the eight categories were announced during a luncheon on May 21. In the following pages, Business Connect profiles each award recipient’s innovation.

Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
Allocure, Inc.
Cell Therapy for Acute Renal Failure
Once a patient’s kidneys start to fail and Acute Renal Failure (ACR) sets in, there isn’t much a doctor can do for his or her patient except put them on dialysis for life. ACR can develop from a variety of factors including as a side effect from various surgeries. The doctors and scientists at Salt Lake City-based Allocure have developed and patented the very first procedure to prevent and combat the onset of ACR. Allocure’s technology can predict with 90 percent accuracy which types of patients are at risk for ACR. Allocure then processes adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) taken from the patient’s or a donor’s bone marrow and implants the modified MSC into the patient’s blood stream to prevent or reverse the damage from ACR. In May, Allocure began its Phase I human clinical trials for the cell therapy treatment.