Award Data

Millions of heat pumps are used to heat and cool homes and buildings year round. Continuous operation means that components wear out at a greater rate. As a result, maintenance of residential heat pumps is a major cost driver. Current methods focus on reduced use through control settings. Typically, demand has wide swings throughout the day and people are unable to customize controls. Inevitably, ...

The project team is developing a prototype of the LightSide Revision Assistant, a web-based writing program for students in grades 6 to 8. The product will include an interface where students write essays and receive instant and automatic feedback, including in-line comments. Feedback will support students using an iterative revision and reflection process when writing, in contrast with existing t ...

The project team is developing a prototype of Happy Atoms, a game to support middle school students in learning about the composition of molecules. Happy Atoms will include physical manipulative balls with embedded magnets wirelessly connected to a tablet application (app) to recognize whether or not the created molecule exists and explain why or why not. The app will also include teacher resource ...

The NIST patented six-degree of freedom micropositioner technology associated with this subtopic has been identified by E M Optomechanical, Inc. (EMOM) as a technology that could be incorporated into the company¿s long-working distance interference microscopes. A key element in these microscopes is a piezo-actuator device, installed in a manual pitch/yaw mount, which translates a small flat mirro ...

Modern supercontinuum (SC) light sources are generated by non-linear interactions between ultrashort laser pulses and optical fibers. These light sources have high brightness and are spatially coherent. Output in near-ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelength ranges has been demonstrated. SC wavelength ranges are constrained by the transmission and dispersion properties of the fibers. Previously, ou ...

Southwest Sciences¿ Phase 2 SBIR project will lead to development of residential fire sensing systems based on recently developed, low cost temperature and optical imaging sensors combined with newly introduced highly miniaturized, micropower CO sensors. Sensor modules will be part of a low power wireless network. Each module will be about ½ the size of a business card, a few mm thick, and w ...

A key factor of international efforts to identify and suppress the supply of and demand for nuclear materials, and thereby to deter potential traffickers, is the ability to accurately identify contradicted material and ultimately to trace it back to its origin. Alpha particle spectroscopy is widely used in nuclear forensics to assay trace quantities of sensitive nuclear materials, but the limited ...

Avencia will develop a prototype software application based on a user interface design. The software will be designed for the market as a cost effective yet sophisticated data access and analysis tool, and will form the basis of the educational data management tool. Phase I calls for the development of the open source version of the functional prototype which will assess the financial viability of ...

The project explores the feasibility of enhancing the well-established Lime notation software with features to benefit musicians with low vision. Enhancements include the presentation of musical measures for the low vision reader. Adding functionality by offering user-definable settings in adjusting magnification of staff notation, colors, and screen contrast, building on Windows accessibility fe ...

Evaluates and defines the Lime notation software a self contained music reading and writing system that allows low vision musicians to accomplish typical tasks important to performers and composers with normal vision