Award Data

Abstract - The goal of this work is to enhance the productivity and comfort of computer access for people whose impairments affect their ability to use the computer keyboard and mouse. In Phase I, we will develop and evaluate a software tool for the automatic configuration of computer keyboards. The software will assess current user performance with their keyboard and recommend the appropriate Win ...

Ironically people who are blind or have visual impairments that should benefit the most from technology, have great difficulty in interacting with modern home appliances and electronics. This is primarily due to a combination of a lack of accessible features, device complexity, or the lack of a centralized strategy. Current strategies do not incorporate reminders, the possible fixed income status ...

Tactical Departure Scheduling (TDS) is a common activity in Air Traffic Control (ATC) in the National Airspace System (NAS) that requires significant coordination for individual flights and that has the potential to impose delay on impacted flights. Some of the delay that is imposed through the TDS process is necessary, but some of the delay may be unnecessary. The current TDS process is implement ...

Surface temperatures in atmospheric reentry simulations range from 1500-2300 K, while stagnation temperature on the leading edge of a Mach 6 flight vehicle at 25 km altitude is 1817 K. Sensors that can operate at temperatures well above 1273 K are needed to provide reliable validation data for TPS modeling and design tools.We propose to develop a low-intrusive fiber-optical pyrometer capable of m ...

Capitalizing on a potent confluence of expertise in III-Nitride epitaxy, GaN-Si power device designs, and wide-bandgap power electronics, researchers at GeneSiC Semiconductor and Cornell University jointly propose a SBIR program focused on the development of 15 kW/300?C-rated power converters using AlGaN/GaN-Si MOS-HFETs and Schottky rectifiers. The proposed AlGaN/GaN-Si power converters to be dev ...

The presence of energetic ions, that appear under high cathode current operation, stand as a showstopper to the realization of high power electric propulsion. Physical barriers such as the use of carbon electrodes (e.g. NEXT) are no longer sufficient as ion energies measured greatly exceed the sputter threshold of even carbon. Unless this problem is addressed, the prospect of inadequate life lo ...

A significant challenge in scaling micro-propulsion devices up to 100s of Watts as well as scaling macro devices down to sub-kiloWatt level is the lack of a compatible neutralizer technology in the meso scale. Sub-kiloWatt EP systems require cathode technology that can produce sufficient current while consuming little or no gas or power. The most promising technology for meso-scale neutralizers ...

NASA's long range goals of reducing the fuel consumption by 30% and increasing fuel efficiency by 35% can be partially accomplished through increasing engine operation temperatures. As a result, the disk section is desired to operate in increasingly higher temperatures, which will subject it to additional degradation mechanisms of oxidation and hot corrosion. One approach to enhance the tem ...

A new detector evaluation method (DEM) is proposed to determine the response of graphene detectors to low fluxes of photons, neutral atoms/molecules, and ions in the space environment of high to ultra-high vacuum. The method, aimed mainly at evaluation for space applications of new graphene detectors, is also applicable to other detectors operating in non-space environments. DEM will test graphene ...

This SBIR Phase I project will deliver a breakthrough in particle-detection sensors, by integrating an amplifying junction as part of the detector topology. Focusing on energetic particle detection in the heliosphere, the resulting leap in the resolution with which the deposited charge is measured results in far more precise energy and position measurements, from which the certainty in the partic ...