Exodus Escape Rooms opening on Park Avenue

Jennifer and Steve Jones

Steve and Jennifer Jones are getting ready to open what will be a first for Idaho Falls, Exodus Escape Rooms, at 387 Park Avenue.

An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players are locked in a room and have to use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles and escape within a set time limit. Inspired by "escape the room" video games, they started in Asia about 10 years ago, spread to Europe and eventually the United States. Games are set in a variety of fictional locations, such as prison cells, dungeons and space stations, and are popular as team building exercises.

The Joneses said they had fun participating in escape rooms in Utah and California, and saw the field was wide open in Idaho Falls. “We wanted to give people the opportunity to connect with each other,” said Jennifer Jones. They are looking at opening Nov. 1, and are busy remodeling two rooms.

Nobody gets locked up in either room, it’s more of a race against time. The first room, “The Family Jewels,” for two to eight players, involves playing at being cat burglars assigned to break into “Great Auntie’s” house, find her fortune and escape with it within an hour, because the alarm has notified the police. The second room, “Contagion,” involves preventing a mad scientist from releasing a deadly virus onto the world. It has to be found and extracted within an hour.

The scenarios can accommodate two to eight players. “We’re just looking to provide something for date night that’s different from dinner and a movie,” Jennifer Jones said.

Jennifer was working at Biolife International before embarking on this small business adventure. Steve remains employed by the Sleep Center at Mountain View Hospital.

To learn more or book an engagement, visit the web site at Exodus Escape Rooms. The Facebook page can be found here.

Idaho Falls man develops Slydisk game, giving demo Friday at Tautphaus Park

Tracy Scott of Idaho Falls has a new game to introduce to the community, Slydysk, which combines elements of bocce, curling, bowling, and shuffleboard.

He will be giving a demonstration, and inviting guests to play, Friday night at 9:15 at the Tautphaus Park ice rink.

Scott has developed Slydysk with a company called TESENT Games, and has been funding the project with a Kickstarter page. As of this morning, he’d raised $2,790 from 22 backers. You can visit the link here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icebocce/slydysk-playing-the-game-of-icebocce.

Scott grew up playing hockey in Idaho Falls, so he is no stranger to what might be possible. Here is a video of him explaining his inspiration for this game.

“Slydysk can be played individually or with teams,” he said. “It is easy to learn and suitable for all ages, meaning anyone can get involved. The team behind this fun game is crowdfunding on Kickstarter to get the product launched. Backers will get to enjoy awesome rewards, including stellar deals on Slydysk sets.

Small businesses in clean energy invited to collaborate with national labs

Small businesses in the clean-energy sector have another opportunity to apply for technical help from U.S. Department of Energy labs through the Small Business Vouchers Pilot.

Johanna Wolfson, Technology-to-Market director in the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, launched the pilot’s third round on Oct. 10 at South By Southwest Eco in Austin, Texas. The pilot, part of EERE’s Lab Impact portfolio, aims to help small businesses bring next-generation clean-energy technologies to market faster by giving them access to expertise and tools at national labs.

The SBV Pilot opened its first funding round in fall 2015 and launched its second last spring. Since then, nearly 800 applications have been reviewed, and 76 small businesses from 25 states have been awarded a total of $14.7 million in vouchers.

EERE recently announced a Small Business Voucher to help Idaho National Laboratory continue work on an electrochemical process to recover gold, silver, palladium and other metals from discarded cell phones and other electronic devices. The lab has received money to work with e-Materials Recovery, a company based in Austintown, Ohio, that has developed a processes that reduces printed circuit boards to char without producing the toxic fumes associated with more widely used smelting processes.

INL researchers Tedd Lister (right) and Luis Diaz-Aldana are reclaiming base metals and rare-earth elements from used cell phones and other electronics. Through the Small Business Voucher program, they are collaborating with a e-Materials Recovery of Austintown, Ohio. (INL photo by Chris Morgan)

To read the story, follow this link: Recyling Critical Materials: Collaboration With Ohio Company to Recover Gold, Minerals From Electronic Devices.

For this third round, EERE welcomes the chance to collaborate with small businesses that have little to no experience working with a DOE national laboratory.

Individual vouchers range from $50,000 to $300,000 per small business and can be used to perform collaborative research or access to lab instrumentation or facilities. Companies selected must also provide a 20 percent, in-kind cost share for completing voucher work.

Vouchers are available in nine clean-energy research and development areas:

• Advanced manufacturing
• Bioenergy
• Buildings
• Fuel cells
• Geothermal
• Solar
• Vehicles
• Water
• Wind

Businesses interested in SBV funding must be U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, with no more than 500 full-time employees worldwide. In rounds three and four, $12 million is available for vouchers. Companies have until Nov. 10 to submit RFAs.

To learn more about Idaho National Laboratory’s expertise and the process to submit a RFA, please visit http://www.SBV.org or contact Tammie Borders, tammie.borders@inl.gov (208-526-3992).

Teton Guitars auctioning off guitar for Breast Cancer Awareness

Teton Guitars, a subsidiary of Chesbro Music, is auctioning off one of its models this month to help raise awareness about breast cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so this is the time of year you see a lot of efforts like this.

The auction, for a STF105CENT, is on eBay, and you can find it by clicking here. The STG105CENT is Teton Guitars’ best-selling acoustic-electric. It features a solid western red cedar top with layered mahogany back and sides. It includes Fishman electronics with its grand concert body shape and has a 25.5” scale length. The front of the guitar has a pink ribbon painted on it with a finish applied over the paint. The ribbon was hand-painted by  Jeremy Webster, host of Teton Guitars’s “Teton TV” YouTube channel, and was applied to mask a slight cosmetic irregularity in the wood, which rendered it “B” stock. The classic Teton sound, structure, and playability are not compromised The guitar comes with a Teton Guitars branded gig bag.

Every penny the auction raises (minus eBay fees) will be donated to the Teton Cancer Institute to help them provide treatment to those who are unable to afford it. The auction ends next Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 7 MDT.

Anyone with questions can contact Ben Parker at 208-932-1228 or ben@tetonguitars.com.

INL welcomes first Russell L. Heath Postdoctoral Associate

Dr. Cheng Sun

Idaho National Laboratory is welcoming Dr. Cheng Sun as its first honoree under the Russell L. Heath Distinguished Postdoctoral Associate Program.

“This is INL’s first distinguished postdoctoral appointment and we look forward to it being the first of many,” said Mark Peters, INL lab director.

Sun comes to INL from Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he has been a postdoctoral associate since May 2013. He holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Texas A&M University. His research areas include advanced structural materials, nanostructured materials, and mechanical property relationships of materials in extreme conditions such as high temperature and high flux.

"We are pleased and excited to announce and introduce our first Russell Heath Distinguished Postdoc to the INL," said Kelly Beierschmitt, deputy laboratory director for Science and Technology. "Dr. Sun's expertise and passion has distinguished him among his peers and we look forward to what he brings to our scientific community."

The Russell L. Heath postdoctoral appointment has been established to attract, recruit, develop and inspire early-career researchers who have the potential to develop into INL’s future scientific and technical leaders. It is named after Dr. Russell L. Heath, who came to the Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station in 1952, gained an international reputation as the "Father of Gamma Ray Spectrometry." The national laboratory now called INL was established as the AEC’s National Reactor Testing Station in 1949.

“We have high hopes for all of our postdoctoral appointments and believe we are going to see great things from our first distinguished postdoc, Dr. Sun,” Peters said. “This marks the beginning of a new adventure for INL, one we anticipate brings even greater attention to our reputation for outstanding science and innovation.”

Idaho National Laboratory is part of the Department of Energy’s complex of national laboratories. The laboratory performs work in each of the strategic goal areas of DOE – energy, national security, environment and science. INL is the nation’s leading center of nuclear energy research and development. Day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory is the responsibility of Battelle Energy Alliance.

For more information on Dr. Cheng Sun’s appointment as Russell L. Heath postdoctoral associate, see www.inl.gov. See more INL news at www.inl.gov. Follow @INL on Twitter or visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/IdahoNationalLaboratory.