Award Data

Behavior change is a common objective across the Defense community. Recent studies suggest that neuroimaging can improve our ability to predict what messages are effective in changing behavior in individuals and at scale (Falk & Scholz, 2018). However, current neuroscience results have not established definitive causal relationships between specific types of messages and behavior change. In BB-PRI ...

In Dense Urban Environments (DUEs), a new and evolving battlefield, the ability to detect and respond quickly to multiple threats in complex environments (e.g., snipers on rooftops or in windows) is critical and is extremely important to both civilian and military tactical needs. Response latency in the critical moments after the beginning of an attack can significantly increase casualties. SWIFT ...

During altitude-induced hypoxia, operator cognitive and physical capacity degrades, compromising individual and team performance. Cognitive degradation is linked to falling brain energy levels, increased reliance on anaerobic energy production and lactate accumulation. Ketones are the evolutionary alternative substrate to glucose for brain metabolic requirements; previous studies demonstrated that ...

Special OperationsForces (SOF)are an integral aspect of the US military. SOF operators are among the most elite and highly qualified individuals in the U.S.military. As such, extraordinary physical and mental demands are placed upon them to excel in extreme environments for extended periods of time. This unrelenting cycle of combat deployments and intense pre-deployment training shortens the funct ...

Current prosthetic feet produce much less peak mechanical power than the able-bodied foot/ankle and release only about half of the mechanical energy generated during gait. This leads to higher energy expenditure among amputees as compared to able-bodied i

Methods for interconversion between cell types (cellular reprogramming) are currently discovered through resource intensive trial and error. Experiments may test a multitude of transcription factors to identify correct combinations that influence cell fate. In addition, reprogramming approaches commonly use stem cell intermediates such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are generated ...

As systems become more heterogeneous and distributed, determining optimal actions for each “teammate” within the system becomes increasingly complex. A particular difficulty in guiding the actions of these teammates is the fact that they are not guaranteed to follow suggestions provided by a supervisor, especially when those suggestions are inconsistent with the teammate’s tendencies, prefer ...

As systems become more heterogeneous and distributed, determining optimal actions for each “teammate” within the system becomes increasingly complex. A particular difficulty in guiding the actions of these teammates is the fact that they are not guaranteed to follow suggestions provided by a supervisor, especially when those suggestions are inconsistent with the teammate’s tendencies, prefer ...

As the carry and protective gear of the modern war fighter increases, the burden on the human body will necessarily increase. In our present TALOS MkIII project, we are developing lower body augmentation to preserve speed and agility while bearing this weight. Yet we cannot ignore the impact of this weight on the upper body: in this project we propose to develop an upper body exoskeleton with p ...

We are proposing a new software framework for analyzing very large graphs using massively parallel processors (GPUs). This framework will be commercialized on a cloud platform that gives users immediate access to highly advanced big-data analytics through a user-friendly web interface, as well as an HTTP API for easy integration. The platform can be deployed on a private cloud if desired. The sy ...