Award Data

There is a current operational need to support combat medics in austere environments. Special forces often conduct operations that involve prolonged mission times or far-forward deployments. Casualties accrued during a mission are therefore afforded limited vitals monitoring and treatment options until evacuation. In response, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has launched a software platfo ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Density-Functional Theory (DFT) is highly desirable for modeling biomolecules due to its accuracy. While DFT calculations of the energy are now common for large molecules, the use of DFT geometry optimizers is still confined to relatively small molecules containing no more than thirty atoms. The key limitation is that the number of steps required to reach the o ...

ONE OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING FABRICS FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONNEL WITH RESPECT TO EXPOSURE TO DIRECT FLAME AND YET HAS THE FEEL OF A SOFT TEXTILE IS COMPOSED OF OXIDIZED POLYACRYLONITRILE FIBER (OPF). HOWEVER OPF FABRICS HAVE LACKED SUFFICIENT ABRASION RESISTANCE FOR USE IN PROTECTIVE CLOTHING. THE NAVY CLOTHING AND TEXTILE RESEARCH CENTER (Z. KUPFERMAN AND M. ROY) HAS DEMONSTRATED THE OPF FABRI ...

Under this topic we seek to develop methods for micro-air vehicles (MAV) to determine their position in global coordinates when Global Positioning System (GPS) is unavailable in environments such as when operating inside structures. One specific application is to assist in reconnaissance to aid in fire control and damage assessment. Other applications include infrastructure inspection for both the ...

Although global pose is essential for success in certain vehicle missions and tasks, when GPS is denied there is no single technology (source) that can robustly estimate global pose without suffering from one or more failure modes. We propose to design an architecture that provides robustness by integrating automated celestial navigation, registering on-board sensor data to a map (map registration ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Fast-Track application focuses on developing the first artificial intelligence (AI) educational software to teach developmental mathematics to the blind and visually impaired. This project responds to the National Eye Institute's General Research Topics for teaching tools and the Visual Impairment and Blindness Program for other devices that meet the re ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase II proposal focuses on the development of accessible artificial intelligence (AI) software for individualized tutoring and formative assessment in chemistry education. If successful, an immediate outcome will be the very first AI tutoring systems for chemistry that are accessible to blind students, delivered through the Internet. An AI tutoring metho ...

Army defense technologies for high speed threat intercept increasingly rely on vehicle maneuverability through both aerodynamic and thrust augmentation. Similarly, threats have relied on equally maneuvering defenses to avoid intercept. Thus, it is in the interest of any defense system to target the threat at any point in the battlespace where it is most vulnerable, potentially resulting in interce ...

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ion channels function as cell-signaling effectors for a diverse range of physiological activities, including nerve signal propagation, muscle contraction, cardiopulmonary regulation, and cell metabolism. Their impact on human health is underscored by the existence of forty compounds, including about 15% of the top 100 best-selling drugs, that target ion channe ...

The global desalination market for RO based membrane technology exceeds $12 billion per year. Due to tremendous advances in RO membrane materials and module design in the past 20 years, the technology has reached a productivity plateau in which further development will have far more muted impact on system capital and operating costs. As a result, the focus is shifting to the feed water pretreatmen ...