Award Data

Industrial Microbes is developing a green fermentation platform to replace carbon-emitting petrochemical production with newer methods that build chemicals out of methane and carbon dioxide.Chemical production is a major source of carbon pollution, responsible for 18% of direct industrialemissions. Our innovation is an engineered microbe that can consume carbon dioxide and methane and produce a ch ...

Mosaic crystalline monochromators define performance of neutron scattering devices employed in condensed matter research on research nuclear reactors. This project is devoted to development of a manufacturing technique for slow neutron Germanium mosaic monochromators with reflectivity exceeding reflectivity of pyrolytic graphite crystals. Germanium has small slow neutron absorption; its diamond cr ...

A-ACPTS Phase 2 transitions NIST Access Control Policy Tool (ACPT) R&D with innovative enhancements into commercialization, developing a commercially successful access control policy testing product that improves access control policy testing (minimizes error potential, faster, more usable, more efficient). A-ACPTS Phase 2 extends ACPT through a number of innovations that improve testing beyond th ...

Over 50 million Indian households cook on a bio-mass fire and have unreliable or no electricity but are anxious to purchase an affordable power stove which will provide on-demand power and lighting to their homes. Annually, projected sales of the power stove could save sixteen million trees, reduce cooking fire particulates by 90%, reduce the two million premature deaths caused from indoor air pol ...

Discharge of nutrients (e.g. phosphorus and ammonia) to surface waters can cause eutrophication and the formation of toxic algal blooms, threatening human health and the environment. However, current phosphorus treatment technologies such as chemical precipitation and conventional biological systems can be costly and ineffective to reliably achieve impending effluent regulatory limits of

Suspended ceiling tiles are widely used in commercial and residential construction because they offer flexibility and easy access to utilities. Most of the available tiles absorb water, resulting in sagging, staining, and mold/mildew growth. They also contain potentially hazardous chemicals and release airborne fibers when broken or cut. Existing tiles are not durable, requiring frequent replaceme ...

The Air Movement Efficiency Monitor is composed of small, inexpensive Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensors, connected wirelessly to the Internet, and distributed through a building to measure pressure readings at key points. We consider this a “FitBit” for a building’s air-movement efficiency, employing many of the sensors used by a fitbit – temperature, humidity, acceleration. We ...

Symbio Robotics is developing a robust, fast, and low-cost perception engine for identifying parts and detecting their six degree of freedom pose. Our perception engine is driven by deep convolutional neural networks and draws upon recent advances in computer vision and deep learning. Current automation systems largely run blind, without perception driven feedback. Our proposed system seeks to clo ...

More than 10 million tons of polyurethane (PU) foams are manufactured globally each year, and as much as 20% of that production is unsellable scrap. Combining that manufacturing scrap with end-of-life recycling or disposal of PU foam, every year there is a tremendous waste of material that was made with a large investment of energy and still contains some very useful chemical functionality. Mobi ...

Advanced sensing technologies are needed to more efficiently address the requirements for the long- and short-term monitoring of groundwater, specifically for chlorinated hydrocarbons such as trichloroethylene. Current monitoring procedures can be expensive, as they generally require on-site visits to collect groundwater samples, or employ “portable” systems (gas chromatograph instruments), wh ...