Award Data

There is an ever-present need to know what is in our nation’s water in order to protect our people and the environment. The issue of ensuring the safety of drinking water has become more critical in light of homeland security concerns. Water systems must guard against contamination from typical wastes, and be able to monitor for bacteria, toxins, spores, and viruses that can be introduced into d ...

Eltron Research & Development, Inc. (Eltron) proposes to develop an ion-selective, polymer membrane electrode capable of detecting perchlorate in water at low parts per billion (ppb) concentrations. With the discovery of perchlorate contamination in an increasing number of drinking water sources and an increase in regulation of perchlorate in drinking water, some wells are shut down because no cos ...

The current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SBIR solicitation states that “technology is needed to better identify and monitor sources of pollution and protect water quality.” Microarrays may be particularly well suited to identifying environmental toxicity because of their ability to determine both specific and global effects of toxicity. So far, however, microarrays have been empl ...

In many urban areas the emission of particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from commercial kitchens contribute significantly to a failure to achieve air quality goals. These emissions are chiefly secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) formed by condensation of fats, oils, and other organic materials vaporized during the cooking process. In some instances, these emissions can ...

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) contribute to the formation of ground level ozone, aerosols, and acid rain. Considerable progress has been made in reducing emissions from stationary and highway sources. New emissions standards will require that new off-road (non-road) diesel engines achieve emissions of NOx and other species comparable to those from on-road sources. Currently, there are no inexpensive, effe ...

Biodesel is a fuel that is made from processing vegetable oil or animal fats into a liquid fuel that can be combusted in a standard diesel engine. Biodiesel is made from a renewable resource such as soybeans or tallow, does not contribute to global warming, and can be made from domestic resources. However, the growth of the biodiesel industry has been slowed because the current production processe ...

The project addresses the needs of students and adults with intellectual disabilities forwritten self-expression by designing, developing, and testing a universally designed, multimediacompositioning software application. This application creates a specific format for independent expressionof thoughts, ideas, experiences, knowledge, personal history, and other typical literary output. Thesystem pr ...

This project develops a location-based method for improving access to information in thecommunity (i.e.: public places such as parks, zoos, bus station and stops, information kiosks, touristattractions, and other places of public accommodation) that is not solely in text format. This projectaddresses the need for alternative formats by designing, developing, and testing a Pocket PC-basedsoftware s ...

This project addresses the critical need for money management skills training necessary forindependent community living through the development of a software system (Money Coach). MoneyCoach utilizes both hand-held technology and desktop software to assist individuals with intellectualdisabilities with money management and related skills. Project goals include: (1) developing project requirements ...

This project develops and evaluates a multimedia instant messaging (IM) system, VisualMessenger, that is designed to be usable independently by individuals with intellectual and othercognitive disabilities. The prototype software system developed in this project is used in a betweensubjectspilot study comparing it with mainstream IM applications to measure its effectiveness in termsof independent ...