[2][3] Halaas was Head of the Computer and Information Department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim from 1982 to 1984, and from 1993 to 1994.
His research in algorithm construction and parallel computing was fundamental in the founding of the companies.
Interagon specialized in complex search tasks for bioinformatics, and has developed a super-fast microprocessor, a so-called Patent Matching Chip (PMC), for searching biological data to find disease genes and develop new medicines.
His research has also led to collaborative solutions for more than 1 billion people in SharePoint and Office 365.
[6] Halaas has since 1983 served on the editorial board of the VLSI Journal Integration and took part in establishing the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).