Award Data

The goal for this Phase I research is to develop a stretchable dielectric ink that can be used for flexible applications. Printing electronics is a new and quickly growing alternative to traditionally manufactured electronics. Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is a novel approach to electronic circuit manufacturing that aims to combine the best of printed and conventional electronics. FHE devices ...

Face masks and respirators are frequently deployed in critical protective applications (such as medical and construction environments) where fit testing is not routinely performed before each shift. N95 and related testing protocols effectively assess filtration efficiency for respirators that remain tightly fitted throughout activity, but since these protocols prescribe sealing the tested product ...

The 21st century is the Age of the Network. Operators and clients of critical infrastructure networks are now vulnerable to cascading failures that they could not have seen coming. “Cascading” failure events remain a vital unsolved challenge as critical infrastructure network operators and regulators struggle to define and operationalize resilience, and measurement of interdependent network re ...

Fog and smog reduce visibility at sea, greatly impacting ship navigation and safety. Low visibility marine conditions decrease speed and safety of commercial fleets and increase costs through poor fuel load planning. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of maritime operations to the supply chain; therefore, decreasing associated cost and risk are of the utmost importance. Applied Ocean ...

"Metron proposes to develop user-friendly software to promote understanding of impacts due to cascading climate hazards and extreme weather events, in collaboration with George Mason University (GMU). Climate and extreme weather (CEW) hazards pose significant risks to life and property. As extreme events become more prevalent, risks associated with cascading, compound events come to the fore, such ...

This research aims to develop decision support tools for better maintenance and planning of renewable energy generation and storage assets using atmospheric, local weather, and on-ground environmental data blended with site-, regional- and national-generation data. The study will use a combination of these data to understand the relationship between non-cloud cover based atmospheric conditions and ...

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 ...

Criticality Sciences, Inc. proposes to test the feasibility of a novel process embodied in NetResilience™ software, for estimating risk (expected loss) and resilience (e.g. recovery time and cost), and proposing mitigation (including during recovery) associated with cascading failure in an infrastructure network. The process will be applied to the interconnected water utility sector with a utili ...

There is tremendous potential to manufacture printed electronics in a more sustainable, flexible, faster, and less costly way. However, innovations in materials have been required for full scale manufacturing. In their successful Phase I, ChemCubed (C3) developed a nanocomposite dielectric with electrical and thermal properties similar to those of FR4 boards currently used in PCB manufacturing. In ...

The ability to quickly test materials during new technology development would provide actionable insight that would significantly reduce materials and device design iterations and accelerate time-to-market. However, conventional characterization and test methods are increasingly ineffective when applied to structures less than 100 nanometers, causing challenges across R&D, process control, and fai ...