Award Data

Producing renewable fuels from algae does not use agricultural lands and could make the US energy-independent while drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, biomass processing steps are currently too energy-intensive and cost-prohibitive.We are exploring new chemistry to obtain an energy- and cost-efficient way to dry algae biomass and extract energetic substrates for conversion int ...

Current drug discovery and development programs are severely limited by the expensive animal trials and oversimplified in vitro models. Results obtained from the in vitro models are not predictive of in vivo toxicity owing to significant difference in testing from the in vivo physiological conditions. In this context, we propose to develop and demonstrate a novel microfluidic device for quantitati ...

Molecular biology techniques allow generating combinatorial libraries of large number of enzyme variants. However, there is currently no technology available for screening the enzyme libraries for identifying variants with improved activity for the substrate. We propose to develop a novel, microfluidic, high-throughput platform for determining kinetic constants of enzyme variants and identifying v ...

Our objective is to develop a novel micropower source to be integrated with a microsensor, and communication chip on an insect, delivering a state-of-the-art unmanned chemical detection device. The biological fuel cell (Bio-FC) power source will leverage ongoing research at CFDRC and provide a compact/lightweight power supply for mounting on numerous types of insects and producing necessary power ...

For applications in DoD satellite systems, devices based on novel nanomaterials offer significant advantages over traditional technologies in terms of light-weight and efficiency. Examples of such novel devices include quantum dot (QD) based solar cells, photodetectors, radars and sensors. However, the response of these devices to radiation effects is not well understood, and radiation effects mod ...

Future high-performance integrated circuits in DoD satellite systems will require non-planar nano-technology devices, such as MultiGate Field Effect Transistors (MuGFET) or FinFET, which can decrease pattern area of logic circuits below 50% of the conventional planar technologies. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors predicts that such devices will be the cornerstone of sub-32nm ...

The use of WMDs and IEDs by covert insurgents and terrorists poses a significant risk to U.S. military forces and civilians. The capability to execute rapid forensic DNA analysis to identify individuals who manufactured and transported these threatening devices is of paramount importance to military mission, homeland security and civilian safety. Current DNA forensic analyses are time-consuming, b ...

Sample preparation has been recognized as the single most important challenge to be faced in the development of detect-to-warn (DTW) systems. Available commercial sample preparation technologies are expensive, slow, and require trained laboratory technicians and sophisticated laboratory equipment for operation. Addressing this need, we propose to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a general purpos ...

This Phase I SBIR project will develop Quantum Mechanics (QM)-based reactive interatomic potentials for computer-aided development of novel materials for advanced fossil energy systems such as slagging gasifier and ultrasupercritical steam plant. Currently, the development of novel materials remains slow because it is driven by trial-and-error experimental approach. Atomistic Molecular Dynamic ( ...

The current design for the rf couplers for the ILC cavity introduces unacceptable emittance growth in the beam. We have developed two new couplers designed to mitigate the emittance growth problem by preserving the axial symmetry of the cavity fields. Optimization of the design of the coaxial coupler units. Complete analysis of the ILC structure with the new coupler units was performed to confi ...