Award Data

Cyberspace superiority is a prerequisite for effective operations in all other warfighting domains. To maintain cyberspace superiority, there is a need for effective Command and Control (C2) tools to observe, plan, and execute cyber operations. Visualization is a key enabler of C2 but new approaches are required to address cyber security data sets. A principal challenge is the complexity of this d ...

Aerodyne Research, Inc. (ARI) and The University of Massachusetts at Amherst will collaborate to develop a novel technique for efficient mass spectrometric analysis of high molecular weight analytes such as proteins and polymers. Laser desorption and ionization with minimal analyte fragmentaton will be carried out on metal nanoparticle substrates in a particle beam sampled by Aerodyne’s proprie ...

Agiltron and the University of Massachusetts Lowell will develop a transformational terahertz (THz) imager based on Agiltron’s established optical readout photomechanical imaging technology. The photomechanical imager contains a MEMS-based focal plane array that transduces THz radiation into a visible signal for capture by a high-performance CCD imager. By leveraging the advances made in the fie ...

Printed integrated circuits (PIC) allow us to take advantage of substrates that otherwise could not be utilized in traditional fabrication techniques. This enables the production of circuits that are transparent, flexible, and conformal, opening a wide range of new applications for large area sensors, integrated/embedded electronics, medical diagnostics, and health monitoring. Leveraging our exten ...

AGILTRON proposes to realize a new MEMS energy harvester capable of powering in-situ micro sensors and their wireless modules under harsh operational environments. The design overcomes current shortcomings and achieves sufficient power output, reliability, miniature size, and low cost. The approach incorporates several innovations including stable electromagnetic structure, efficient power generat ...

The proposed innovative in-fiber beam expansion technology and the all inorganic micro-optic fiberoptic device designs intrinsically have advantages in power handling, speed, insertion loss, reliability, and potentially cost as compared with other approaches. Our approaches overcome all the major hurdles in high power 2m fiberoptic device fabrications without trading-off of optical performance ...

We propose to develop a combination Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering and Shear-Force Microscopy (TERS-SFM) instrument to study the composition and morphology of nanoparticles, surfaces, and biofilms on any substrate material. The instrument developed during Phase I will rely upon Scanning Tunneling Microscopy combined with TERS (TERS-STM) to test the effects of various excitation wavelengths and tip ...

Multi-modal (including spatial, spectral and polarimetric) photodetectors and focal plane arrays (FPA) can dramatically enhance the target detection, tracking and identification capability of a battle field sensing system. Most existing multi-spectral polarimetric sensing systems employ dispersive optics (gratings or prisms), or external polarizer technologies to obtain spectral and polarimetric c ...

In Phase I of UBER-HEB, the Aptima team made significant progress designing a non-von Neumann hierarchical universal learning system based on the Ersatz Brain Architecture (EBA). An experiment using an EBA implementation showed emergence of module assemblies, a critical step in validation. In Phase II, we propose to focus sharply on an important, well-characterized problem ideally suited to the EB ...

Availability of massive amounts of information afforded by net-centric operations poses a challenge for identifying information relevant for effective decision-making. Complex domains, such as Operational Assessment, require the ability to access and analyze relevant information to support mission objectives. However, access to large amounts of information can cause overload and thereby hinder ide ...