Award Data

Automated milking systems make dairy operations more efficient and less stressful for animals and farmers alike. However when a problem occurs, a suspect animal must be found and diagnosed quickly. This effort aims to evaluate the feasibility of a Q-Track Milk Operations Optimization (Q-MOO) system. The proposed Q-MOO system will employ a novel, low-frequency real-time location system (RTLS) that ...

A technically literate workforce, capable of math and science problem solving, is essential in order to attract and maintain high-tech industry and manufacturing within rural counties. Math and science intervention in problem solving has been shown to facilitate peak performance and to engage students in math, science and technology for the longer term, however, access to the instructional materia ...

Present farm and industrial meat production methods and technologies have a number of associated problems including health risks (infectious animal diseases, nutrition-related diseases), resource intensity (land, water, energy), damage to environment (green house gas emission, erosion, biodiversity loss) and ethical challenges (animal welfare). With increasing worldwide demand for meat, it is expe ...

Consumers are now demanding more information about farm production processes and their resulting harvests. Harvest records, although difficult for farmers to capture, can contain rich product data such as grading information and macro and micronutrient content, allowing farmers to differentiate themselves from competitors and market their produce effectively, as in organic farming. Harvest records ...

Nationwide, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) plays a crucial health care role in the well-being of rural populations. There are substantial challenges within the rural EMS system including: high costs for providing EMS care to sparsely populated regions; fewer tax dollars to fund health programs and trouble with providing public services. In addition, rural regions have difficulties with increasin ...

There continues to be a need for production of biofuels from agricultural sources. Butanol is a more attractive fuel than ethanol because it leads to better gas mileage, it achieves higher blends with gasoline than bioethanol, it has greater compatibility with existing fuel infrastructure, it is less volatile, it is more amenable to transport via pipeline due to low water absorption, there is no n ...

The objective of this project is to investigate the feasibility of several novel wireless methods and related devices for pre-fire powering of munitions capacitors and/or super-capacitors and establishing one-way or two-way data transfer link to load firing information as well as health monitoring and the like. In the novel concepts being proposed the means of transferring power into the munitions ...

The objective of this effort is to develop track-before-detect algorithms to provide greater signal processing gain for pulsed-Doppler radars. We will develop signal processing techniques to be used in next-generation ground-based radars to detect and track objects of interest. We will perform a feasibility analysis of the proposed technique on high-speed, low RCS targets. In addition, we will ...

Advanced hybrid packaging for MWIR FPA devices has considerable challenges in terms of increasing pixel density. These processes are based on Indium bumping; however, the current approach to deposition has scaling and cost issues. EnerGaia has a technology based on acoustic electroless deposition which can meet these requirements. Ultrasonic energy coupled to a plating solution has been proven ...

The detection of buried explosive hazards (BEH) remains a critical problem. Current combined sensing modalities, like electromagnetic induction and ground-penetrating radar, have demonstrated BEH detection capabilities, but are not optimal. TransTech proposes a novel combination of electromagnetic impedance spectroscopy and tomography for BEH detection and identification. Previous attempts to us ...