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 ...

Laser Technology Inc. (LTI) proposes a Phase II SBIR research project to further develop a Compact Shearography System, Analysis Method and Software for micro-crack detection in concrete. There is an urgent need to detect and characterize fine cracks in concrete that form because of various damage mechanisms including alkali-silicate reaction, delayed ettringite formation or frost damage. Fine s ...

Development of the basic EMAT based transverse rail defect detector has progressed toward finished form, as envisioned in the original solicitation. This modification is intended to produce a demonstratable version of a 2-rail detection system with automated signal interpertation. The objectives of this work are to: a. Further develop the system into a functioning 2-rail detection system, as ori ...

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 number of women farmers in the U.S. has been rising over the past several decades, with the rate of growth accelerating between the 2002 and 2007 Censuses of Agriculture, to nearly 1 million female farm operators in 2007. Between 1980 and 2002, the number of women-operated farms had increased by 86%, a rate far surpassing growth in U.S. farms overall. These data underscore the need for agricul ...

Situation or Problem In order to provide timely and reliable assessments of the global crop market, it is necessary to move from limited, in situ crop assessments to operational crop monitoring on regional and global scales with multi-temporal remotely sensed (RS) data. Due to timeliness requirements and large volumes of imagery needed for operational agricultural monitoring, it is important that ...

The U.S. forest products industry had sales of $262B in 1997, of which two thirds was used for building construction. The use of wood for home construction is an effective, efficient, environmentally friendly, renewable construction material. A key issue in using wood materials in construction is their susceptibility to mold, fungi, and termite infestation resulting in over $10B combined damage pe ...