Award Data

This project will build on a substantial body of empirical research to develop and validate multiscale models of ultrasonic bonding during tape placement of metal matrix composite (MMC) structures. Experiments to-date have been guided by knowledge of the ultrasonic bonding of metals heuristically applied to the more complex problem of bonding MMCs. While all scales are of interest in a complete ...

We propose a novel robot navigation paradigm based on high-level visual landmarks, including structural landmarks and object-level landmarks. The system will use our novel multilayered-feature graph (MFG) to combine multiple, heterogeneous features (from points to planes to vanishing points) robustly into a single, hierarchical framework for scene structure. It will combine this with salient scene ...

The objective of this project is to develop a portable, passive system for rapid and efficient blood component separation. While a number of macroscale devices (based on centrifugation) are routinely employed in laboratory settings to separate red blood cells (RBCs) and platelets from plasma, they are bulky, expensive, labor-intensive, and can compromise cellular integrity. An emerging class of ...

There continues to be a need for low cost production and shipment of fuel-grade ethanol from agricultural sources. Ethanol from agricultural sources has many advantages including developing fuel independence and significantly reducing greenhouse gases. Also, bio-ethanol has significant value as an oxygenated and octane improver. Although ethanol from agricultural sources has many advantages, th ...

Addressing PTSD and related stress reactions by Service Members and Veterans is one of our country"s most important public health challenges. Art therapy has been recognized as a powerful tool enabling"trauma survivors to symbolically express, process and contain feelings they find difficult or impossible to put in to words"(Buk, 2009). Enabling Service Members and Veterans to tell their stories ...

Dried blood spots (DBS) analysis has many advantages over standard liquid blood sample testing including: small sample size, ease of blood sampling, room temperature storage, minimal storage size requirement, and ease of shipping. Although these advantages are significant, there are still problems associated with the current DBS systems. The drying of blood spots on the DBS cards can be uneven, le ...

In this SBIR effort we will design (Phase I) and demonstrate (Phase II) an integrated silicon electronic-photonic upconversion receiver that when used with our photonic backend will allow for a highly sensitive, real-time, and economical millimeter wave (mmW) imaging system. The development of this chip leverages recent progress in CMOS and SiGe HBT high speed analog circuit design and integrates ...

Agave BioSystems proposed to develop a system of Rapidly Adaptable Nanotherapeutics (RANT) by combining advanced bioformatics, with DNA-based nanoparticles, peptide nucleic acid (PNA) antisense oligonucleotides, and cell permeating peptides (CPPs). Advanced bioinformatics computing will allow for the identification of essential and drug resistance genes within the target pathogens. These genes w ...

This firm does not wish to sumbit public abstract for the proposal High engine overall pressure ratios (OPR) enable more efficient operation for gas turbine engines, but also require higher turbine inlet temperatures. The temperature capabilities of hot section hardware have been improved through alloy development, manufacturing processes, air cooling, and thermal barrier coatings (TBC). However ...

One major cause of the widespread of drug-resistant and virulent bacteria pathogen is the horizontal gene transfer of resistance and virulence genes in the form of plasmids. As proof-of concept for this Phase I effort, Agave BioSystems proposes to develop combinatorial therapeutics by inhibiting conserved genes involved in multiple steps of plasmid transfer and replication using peptide nucleic a ...