Award Data

"Rising sea levels and king tide flooding in coastal areas across America are saturating onsite wastewater disposal systems (OSDS), resulting in the degradation of coastal ecosystems and 200,000+ illnesses annually. Many States are mandating system upgrades, with 88,000 upgrades required by 2050 in Hawaii alone. Unfortunately, existing upgrade options are unaffordable for 97% of Hawaiian homeowner ...

Oceanit proposes the design, construction, and testing of a hyperspectral imaging equipped Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for the detection of various coral species and the monitoring of coral health. This system will be the prototype for the sensor part of a robust, COTS-based UAS system to aid the NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program. Different coral families and species will be identified ...

Electronic monitoring (EM) represents a promising opportunity for fishery management of the future. Yet after nearly two decades of implementation less than 1% of the world’s fishing fleet are able to participate in these programs. Cost remains a key barrier to the implementation of these programs and the primary cost drivers are manual video review, data transmission and data storage. Our SBIR ...

Modern lithium ion batteries are known for their poor safety performance, with many reports of battery failure and fire having been reported. One of the major causes of battery fire is from the use of flammable solvents, such as organic carbonates, as the electrolyte. These hazards have long limited the usage of batteries in dangerous conditions, such as on the battlefield. To combat this issue, t ...

To enhance U.S. Navy operations, a technology platform will be developed for fabricating environmentally robust, visible through near-infrared (NIR) band transparent, tapered resistivity films. After refining the operational requirements and updating the device design models, a design trade study will be performed using the measured electrical (i.e., conductivity) and optical (i.e., spectral trans ...

A cyber-physical trust anchor is an essential component of a secure additive manufacturing supply chain. Customer discussions show a strong need for low-cost trust anchors as well as high-security, more costly trust anchors. The concept underlying our trust anchor enables implementations that can be described as good, better, best. The two physical-digital components are first embedded digital cod ...

Modern lithium ion batteries are known for their poor safety performance, with many reports of battery failure and fire having been reported. One of the major causes of battery fire is from the use of flammable solvents, such as organic carbonates, as the electrolyte. These hazards have long limited the usage of batteries in dangerous conditions, such as on the battlefield. To combat this issue, f ...

Rising sea levels and increased storm events leave many areas around the country more vulnerable to accelerating rates of coastal erosion and land loss, resulting in the need for nation-wide coastal restoration initiatives to protect our infrastructure. Dredging and beneficial use of dredge material is a major component that helps maintain and protect the coast. However, there are numerous sites w ...

Monitoring modern-day fisheries is extremely challenging. Every day, millions of vessels harvest the oceans, and many remain unregulated, putting target and non-target fish populations at risk of overexploitation and collapse. To combat this, fisheries managers are increasingly turning to Electronic Monitoring (EM) technologies – integrated systems of cameras and sensors – to record onboard ac ...

U.S. Coast Guard personnel monitoring radio transmissions of vessels at sea must be able to identify distress calls despite interference, degraded conditions, and the stressed speech of those in emergency situations. However, not all distress calls are genuine. Hoax calls can be intended as malicious pranks, due to intoxication, or to distract Coast Guard assets from other tasks such as drug inter ...