Award Data

There is a growing need to accurately characterize nuclear materials not only for nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation treaty verification but also for forensics and provenance. At present, nuclear material identification requires samples to be collected and sent to laboratories for analysis using large and expensive equipment, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers (ICP-MS) or s ...

This proposal for Phase II in response to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) topic 212-006 “Algorithm that can locally link radiation detectors (of different resolutions) to enhance identification/ localization capability”. The topic describes the need for an algorithm to support the fusion of multiple and varied detector outputs into actionable information. The specific focus is to id ...

While AI-based techniques have been broadly embraced by transportation researchers and professionals due to their huge potential to significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of analyzing transportation data, they typically require a large dataset to train the models effectively and experience difficulties in supporting real-time transportation operations and management. This project will u ...

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is actively involved in the safe transportation of energy and hazardous material that are vital to daily lives. This also includes underground natural gas storage (UNGS) maintenance and safe operation which are critical to nation's energy infrastructure. Enhancing leak detection and identifying smart ways to prevent potential well blow ...

In CMV operations, impaired alertness from driver fatigue contributes to a significant number of collisions and safety critical events. This project (through Phase II) will achieve a system to deliver an objective quantifiable measure of driver alertness based on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT). This system will alert drivers when assessments indicate alertness deficits and support the timely ...

The ongoing development of new, improved technology for both hardware and software leads to the almost constant upgrade of existing strategic sensor and communications systems and the development and deployment of new systems.  This work addresses warfighter concerns raised in the area of satellite communications and radar, where burst-produced ionospheric disturbances can cause scintillation of ...

To support DTRA’s agent-defeat efforts, we will refine a laser-based Optical Thermocouple (OTC) technology and build and deliver to DTRA a hardened OTC prototype. This OTC system will be capable of quantifying the localized temporal evolution of temperature inside a detonation environment. The OTC technology is based on two-color fluorescence thermometry to determine the temperature. After laser ...

Crushed aggregate is used as railroad ballast, drainage and stabilization material. Fouling of this aggregate reduces its performance: it loses its ability to drain water resulting in reduced strength. Substructure failure is a leading cause of rail accidents and it is a strategic priority to develop new methods for monitoring ballast condition. The challenge is that aggregate fouling does not pre ...

Research conducted in Phase I identified a range of data sources providing vehicle related information to consumers shopping around or interested in knowing more about vehicles. Majority of the commercial data sources focused on vehicle features, new/used/CPO pricing, and vehicles listings. Such data sources lacked safety as their central focus, which is a concern for U.S. Department of Transporta ...

We propose developing new instrumentation based on swept-wavelength external cavity quantum cascade lasers (swept-ECQCLs), to acquire physical/chemical data on chemical weapon agent (CWA) and simulant properties in laboratory-scale explosive testing, and to improve/validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. In Phase I, we demonstrated laboratory measurements of CWA simulant combustion usin ...