Award Data

Optimization of generator performance and maximization of output power are difficult to attain in the generation of hydro-power. This is due to the changing water conditions and corresponding changes in the form of available energy. ESL proposes to use self-tuning controls in combination with a suitably chosen and optimized generator driven by hydro-energy and condition it for distribution to then ...

The proposed effort is aimed at the development of a new low-cost technique for extracting the fuel precursor components from marine alga cells. The effort is aimed at reducing the total production costs of alga-derived fuels, up to one-half of which may be attributed to the recovery/extraction process alone. Development of advanced processing technologies such as that proposed here is necessary i ...

A need exists for advances in non toxic treatments for cover and barrier fabrics. Since polybrominated materials have been banned in many European countries and the production of a number of brominated additives terminated in the U.S. as well, future technologies must focus on non-halogenated treatments. In general, non-halogenated treatments (phosphates and borates) are not durable to aqueous sol ...

Over 10 million coral species a year are traded in the +$100 million/year ornamental-recreational aquaria industry. Over ninety percent of commercial coral specimens come from some form of mass harvesting of wild corals from coral reefs. This can have a detrimental impact to coral reefs. We invented a method of perpetual propagation of corals through tissue engineering. Hundreds to thousands of mi ...

Historical methods of reliability assessment are less and less effective as device sizes shrink. Already researchers are unable to package the many advanced devices because the act of cutting the wafer and the packaging operation pre-stresses or destroys the devices resulting in unreliable test results. Additionally the increasing cost of fabricating a wafer with advanced integrated circuit techno ...

We propose to build a compact, rugged airborne laser photoacoustic spectrometric (LPAS) sensor based on a tunable mid-IR diode laser for continuous, real-time measurements of water vapor, and perform field tests to qualify it for dynamic airborne in situ monitoring of upper troposphere water vapor. An innovative diode laser frequency locking technique developed by us will be utilized for tunable d ...

There is an increasing demand for systems with more autonomous operations interacting with other autonomous and human-based systems. What is needed is an architecture bundled with developer tools for the creation of intelligent real-time control systems that marry the talents of modern control theory, software technology, sensory processing, and semantic knowledge representations. It would be a st ...

If aquaculture is to become an increasing contributor to the food supply, it is critical that aquaculture feeds become less reliant on marine-derived fishmeal and fish oil as the preferred source of essential proteins and lipids. Not only is the wild fishery from which these products are extracted at maximum sustainable levels of harvest, but also there is increasing concern that these feedstocks ...

If aquaculture is to become an increasing contributor to the food supply, it is critical that aquaculture feeds become less reliant on marine-derived fishmeal and fish oil as the preferred source of essential proteins and lipids. Not only is the wild fishery from which these products are extracted at maximum sustainable levels of harvest, but also there is increasing concern that these feedstocks ...

The aquaculture industry currently consumes 70 percent of the global production of fish oil and 35 percent of total fishmeal. The salmon and trout fish farming sectors alone consume over one half of the world¿s fish oil. And if fish farming continues to grow at the current rate, then by 2010 the aquaculture industry could well be using all of the world¿s fish oil and half of its fishmeal. The ...