Award Data

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project aims to enable novel teleimmersive interfaces for digital gaming via the development of multi-site 3D multimedia integration and synchronization technologies. These interfaces will allow geographically distributed individuals to interact seamlessly with each other and learn in shared 3D virtual gaming environments. The focus of this project i ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of developing a laser-based rapid monitoring gauge for accurate non-contact downhole stress measurement in drilling operations of the geosciences and oil and gas industries. Conventional downhole stress measurement, which commonly uses hydrofracturing, is complex, slow, inaccurate and detrimental to the ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project...will develop lightweight titanium engine components for fuel efficiency. The use of advanced titanium-based metal matrix composite materials can significantly improve automotive fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The titanium metal matrix composites also can reduce engine vibration. Reduction in vehicle weight resul ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of virtual single crystal (VSC) technology for high-efficiency, low-cost and flexible CdTe solar cells. Wakonda has previously showed epitaxial deposition of CdTe on a flexible VSC metal foil, resulting in CdTe films with large (~ 50 microns) and highly-oriented crystalline grains. This project will ...

This project seeks to develop an orthotic knee joint system that includes a non-linear torsion spring coupled with a novel concept called Morphological Switching (MorS) that changes the mechanical properties of the joint in response to user behavior. The research objectives are to prototype and functionally test the medial side of a Morphological Switched Orthotic Joint (MSOJ) assembly. Tasks incl ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a miniature gas chromatography system that can detect pollutants in homes and businesses and interface to an HVAC system for indoor air quality (IAQ) control. The device will use air as a carrier gas, and will be priced so it is affordable in the home environment. The Phase I effort will concentrate on the columns and d ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a mechanical system for facilitating vascular anastomoses (end-to-side, end-to-end) technology that allows for the rapid and reproducible production of a non-penetrating, compliant vascular reconstruction. This one-shot technology represents a technical advance over the serial clip applier because the entire anastomotic ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will enable the manufacture of Sharklet patterns on metallic surfaces. A Sharklet pattern is an engineered micro-surface texture that mimics the texture of shark skin and inhibits bacterial biofilm growth without the use of anti-microbial agents. The Sharklet surface texture technology has been successfully produced in soft materials u ...

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focused on real-time automated data mining of medical videos. These videos are of increasing importance, particularly in applications such as real-time decision making based on video recordings of networks of blood vessels. The proposed research addresses the real-time knowledge discovery from large volumes of complex video signals, for the g ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop a technology to fabricate thin-film spectrally-tunable optical filters with wide bandwidth for operation in the visible and near infrared spectrum. Spectrally-tunable optical filters with electronic controllability are desired in optical imaging systems, such as fluorescence microscopy systems, dual-band cameras, and a ...