Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development

The Center was established to commercialize image analysis, data analysis, and artificial intelligence technologies developed in the geosciences. Research at the University on fluid flow through porous media (i.e., aquifers, petroleum reservoirs) has resulted in generally useful image processing, image analysis, data analysis, and artificial intelligence techniques with commercial applications in geosciences and engineering.

Center technologies include Petrographic Image Analysis (PIA), which comprises four components: image acquisition, image processing, pattern recognition/data analysis, and linking to physical models. Each component involves specialized hardware, software, and expertise. The pattern recognition procedure within PIA has also proven useful in chemical fingerprinting in a variety of geoscience/environmental applications. The Center has begun to explore areas outside geoscience applications, including the application of PIA to medical imaging, and especially to automated screening of prostate biopsies. The Center also has been granted ownership of Integrated Paleontological System (IPS) software for further research, development, and commercialization. The Technical Alliance for Computational Stratigraphy (TACS), a consortium of nine petroleum companies, has been established to fund a three year commercialization and development initiative.

• GeoChem Metrix, Inc., was spun-off in September 1998. The company specializes in analysis of chemical data in the context of environmental and toxic tort litigation support.

• Two new software license agreements were signed with BP-Amoco Upstream Technology and Elf Exploration Production for the TACS consortium.

• GeoChem Metrix, Inc.

• BP-Amoco Upstream Technology
• Elf Exploration Production