Award Data

From 2012-2015 the world’s first printed amperometric gas sensors were developed at KWJ Engineering Inc. as the subject of an NSF SBIR. The patented technology was used to found SPEC-sensor LLC and obtain commercial funds. More than one million sensors have been sold using SPEC’s patented designs, which led to the recent acquisition by Interlink Electronics, Inc. The next challenge is to grow ...

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 ...

Over a decade ago, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) invented a cold cathode electron field emitter with the potential to disrupt the state of the art for imaging and communications systems. NIST showed that these devices, comprising nanoporous silicon carbide structures of various hierarchical shapes, can emit electrons from their surfaces purely by applicati ...

The promise of personalized medicine can be realized in part via point-of-care 3D drug printing, but only if there are reliable quality measures available. Children and seniors may need custom or easy-to-swallow doses, a need now addressed only in a limited way by ad-hoc in-pharmacy compounding. Compliance-targeted enhancements such as flavor and shape choices are particularly important for childr ...

An area significantly lacking in first responder situational awareness is accurate responder location within various types of building structures above ground and underground such as tunnels and basements where GPS coverage is unavailable. GPS alternatives that rely on pre-deployed infrastructure such as indoor WiFi or mobile wireless networks or require the deployment of uncrewed aerial vehicles ...

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 ...

This proposal seeks to extend the Company’s existing ability to manufacture 100 nm polystyrene latex (PSL) size standards to include 200 and 400 nm latexes. We also propose to add accurate particle concentration data to all the size standards. A given, dual-function product will serve as both a size standard and a particle concentration reference material. Both these end uses require the latex p ...

Exum Instruments’ Massbox is a single analytical instrument that offers rapid, high-sensitivity measurements of additive manufacturing (AM) feedstock powders and printed parts. Determining chemical composition for any manufactured material is critical to understanding and predicting a part’s performance. Current methods of chemical characterization are difficult and time-consuming, requiring m ...

The fields of optics and photonics have long sought methods by which to do 3D nanofabrication; however, all methods to date have been lacking in material choices, speed, and possible geometries. Implosion Fabrication (ImpFab) is newly developed method for the 3D nanofabrication that is uniquely suited to address these needs and can therefore act as a platform for the future manufacturing of optica ...

Mechanical metamaterials are a class of advanced materials that use repeated three-dimensional geometric patterns to endow common materials with new, enhanced, and superior material properties. The “meta” in “metamaterials” refers to the geometric pattern, while the “material” can be a metal, polymer, ceramic, etc. Our expertise focuses on the design and production of mechanical metama ...