Award Data

Proliferation of nuclear weapons is a serious threat in the world today. One way to determine the presence of nuclear weapons is to detect neutrons emitted by special nuclear material(SNM) such as highly enriched uranium and weapons grade plutonium. The purpose of this project is to develop improved solid state neutron detectors from CVD diamond for homeland security applications. Phase I work wil ...

Better methodologies for the rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria and viruses are needed. A problem with current antibody-based assays is cross-reactivity with similar, but harmless, species. RMD, Inc., proposes developing nucleic acid-based affinity reagents (aptamers) against the spore coat of the model organism Bacillus thuringiensis. Aptamers displaying fast binding rates (kon) will be selec ...

The use and applications of radiological sources, for power, medical, and defense applications, continuously increases with time. Illicit nuclear materials represent a threat for the safety of the American citizens and the detection and interdiction of a nuclear weapon is a national problem that has not been yet solved. This represents an enormous challenge to current detection methods and monitor ...

This program will evaluate the effectiveness and application of an appropriately-configured X-ray Backscatter imager to the screening of general aviation aircraft. It builds on work already in progress at AS&E to miniaturize and improve the resolution of single-sided Xray Backscatter systems.

BioSwimmer is a system level solution including a biomimetic autonomous swimming vehicle that provides efficiency, maneuverability and payload integration capability that is unavailable in other platforms. Phase I includes development of advanced sensing to perform in-liquid inspections with accuracy and reliability. Additionally, the Phase I work provides design and prototyping in support of a Ph ...

Boston MicroSystems (BMS) proposes to develop a cell-phone sized instrument for detecting hazardous chemical and explosive threats. The instrument is based on BMS' PicoSensor® chemical and explosives detection platform, which has been developed in part under DHS support and is capable of sensing explosives and toxic chemicals at ppb and even ppt (trillion) levels. The Picoensor® consists of a ME ...

While there are DHS programs to compare risks, some of which look specifically at CBRN risk, these tools have had limited practical utility for informing realistic risk mitigation strategies or supporting programmatic decisions at the national or regional level. CENTRA Technology, Inc.(CENTRA) proposes a CBRN Strategic Decision Support Tool that will build upon some of the more mature programs wi ...

Ion mobility spectrometer based explosives trace detectors (ETD) have been widely used in airport check points, ports of entry, government buildings, and other high security facilities. Most of these systems require manual collection of trace particles from vehicles via direct swabbing of surface areas of interest. Sample collection efficiency and inconsistency pose significant challenges to the e ...

Automatic extraction of actionable intelligence from collaborative sensors in a framework that supports seamless exchange of extracted information across sensor layers while leveraging the human in the loop is the focus our proposal. Depending upon the specific end-user, data extracted from the battlefield areas represent two major categories: information requiring and subject to further analyses, ...

Resodyn Corporation has proposed an engineered materials approach for preventing or mitigating the damage caused by blast, projectiles, and fire. The proposed Sprayon Treatments for Engineered Protection (STEP) system allows flexibility in both the design of the coating and the application. Sprayable material systems are proposed that have demonstrated blast, projectile and fire protection potenti ...