Salt Lake City good for High Tech

A story on deseretnews.com explains why Utah is good for technology. Here is my take.

Yes, we have a very technology thinking work force. It starts very early, in elementary school. Our children are exposed to a lot of technology. Spend a few hours in the afternoon at the local library and every computer has a student aged user sitting in front of it. Almost everyone that I know has at least one computer in their home (and if you're like me, several.) So our kids are exposed at the earliest age.

Then there’s the work force. You can't get a job today without being exposed at some point to a computer. Every police vehicle has a computer. Local Utility company vehicles now have laptops in them. We no longer have cash registers; we have computers with cash drawers hooked to them. You can apply for or renew licenses online. Pay your bills, order products, read news. It goes on and on.

But high tech isn't just about computers. It’s about the technology used in business. There are some very high tech companies in Utah that have nothing to do with computers. One example is Hexcel Corporation which has a plant in West Kearns. The plant is one of many throughout the US that manufactures a graphite composite used in a lot of products we buy. They primarily supply product to the Airline industry (next time your on a Boeing airplane, remember that the skin holding the thing together is made with a graphite material manufactured in Utah), golf club shafts, kevlar helmets and bullet proof vests, hi-end bicycle frames, ski poles, skis and many other product.

Utah is also home to Helicopter manufactures, medical supply manufactures, rocket engine manufactures, irrigation manufacturing and mineral mining. All of these companies rely on employees who know and understand technology. These people are smart, educated, and go outside the box with innovative ideas. The Utah work force seems to embrace this technology. They crave it. They expect it. It makes the work day fun and challenging. It also helps our economy.