Award Data

City planners and engineers need detailed assessments of public rights-of-way to evaluate existing conditions, determine compliance with draft accessibility guidelines, and plan reconstruction projects. Current assessment methods are inadequate and inefficient due to the time and resources required. This project will develop an automated public rights-of-way assessment process and the measuremen ...

The membrane drying process for ethanol plants should be of great value in increasing capacity and/or reducing energy consumption for existing ethanol plants. We will manufacture modules of the novel membrane with a commercial partner. A pilot demonstration unit will be constructed and deployed at an actual ethanol plant for demonstrating the membrane process capabilities and advantages.

The citrus leafminer (CLM) is an important pest of citrus originally found in Florida in 1993 and in Texas in 1994; currently, CLM has spread through most citrus growing regions of the US. Larval-stage feeding results in serious damage to leaves and predisposes trees to citrus canker. Female CLM release their pheromone to attract males for mating. Alpha Scents Phase I research has proved the techn ...

To make biodiesel production profitable, the biodiesel producers are forced to turn to lower cost, waste-based yellow grease. However, the problem with yellow grease is that it contains high concentrations of free fatty acids that pose significant processing problems in the alkali-catalyzed processes. The current two-step commercial processes used to convert yellow grease to biodiesel incur added ...

With infrastructure costs escalating it is becoming essential to monitor the health of asphalt and concrete pavement so that timely maintenance can maximize their usefulness. This SBIR will develop a sensor that can be embedded within concrete or asphalt, which can measure moisture, temperature, stress and strain. It will provide critical data for evaluating pavement performance starting with th ...

Forest insect pests cause significant economic and ecological damage every year. Dramatically increased pest activity in recent years suggests that changing climate conditions will inflate the uncertainty associated with pest risk assessments. Advances in forest pest risk analysis methodology are needed to allow managers to better explore the consequences and value of alternative management scenar ...

Recreation trails are a key component of the social, economic and health of rural communities. People with mobility impairments are often excluded from trails, shared-use paths, parks and other public areas where barriers are erected to prevent access by motorized trail vehicles (MTVs), to control livestock or wildlife, as an access point in a fenced area, or for a variety of other reasons. Many p ...

Ethylene is a growth hormone for fruits and vegetables that is generated by the plants themselves; that is, it acts as a self-ripening agent. Hence, the removal of ethylene gas can play a central role in maintaining the freshness of these products. Whereas the temperature and the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide gases are also important system variables that demand a significant economic invest ...

National tests in mathematics achievement of K-12 students indicate a performance gap across geographic regions of the country. This gap is strongly associated with economic poverty levels among students and the communities in which they reside. Researchers have demonstrated that students in extreme rural areas receive among the least exposure to advanced mathematical understanding and have lower ...

The historical land balance model between the acreage needed to grow the feed to support a dairy cow and the area required to safely utilize the nutrients in the manure produced by a cow is no longer valid for many American dairies. Production specializations, advances in crop/animal science and the expansion of dairy herds, has created critical situations in which excess nutrients from surplus ma ...