Award Data

Nanoscale, material sensitive, imaging techniques are critical for progress in many disciplines as we learn to master science and technology at the smallest dimensions — on the nanometer to atomic-scale. However, progress in both science and technology is becoming increasingly limited by the constraints of current imaging techniques and metrologies. Fortunately, by combining coherent extreme UV ...

This Phase II project aims to assemble the key set of sensor modalities that are needed to reliably view the key process anomalies and properties of laser powder bed fusion. The research team will down-select from the Phase I sensors investigated and integrate the sensors into a sensor fusion software package that facilitates data collection and synchronization, and eventually feedback control of ...

Terrorist use of radioactive nuclear materials via nuclear and/or radiological dispersion devices (dirty bombs) is a serious threat. Therefore, it is crucial to detect proliferation of nuclear material. Critical challenges include: (a) high sensitivity detection of signature emissions from radioactive isotopes, and (b) cost-effectiveness for deployment of sensor networks across large storage facil ...

Based on the results of our Phase I work, one significant barrier to optimizing battery performance lies in understanding the relationship between bulk solids and particle flow properties and the flow into the die. Our hypothesis: an increase in quality batteries production can be achieved if powder preparation process can be optimized and the die filling process controlled. We feel that control o ...

West Coast Solutions (WCS) proposes the development of the SSC-X Stirling cryocooler to enable the deployment of infrared (IR) payloads on small satellite platforms. We achieve extreme miniaturization (

Metallic additive manufacturing (AM) is an attractive technology for the production of lethality test articles due to the potential for significantly reduced lead time and manufacturing cost. However, in order to be effective in providing accurate lethality data, the properties of the AM material have to match closely the properties of conventionally manufactured alloys found in real threat target ...

Crew resource management training systems are often constrained by the high cost and lack of flexibility in coordinating a large group of human role players for part-task training. Motivated by the recent maturation of the speech synthesis and recognition technologies, speech-enabled crew role-player agents are being introduced to address these limitations. However, difficulties remain in customiz ...

Optically pumped magnetometers provide very high performance but they cost tens of thousands of dollars, and they are large and power hungry. Recently we successfully developed and commercialized laser pumped magnetometers with size, weight and power consumption that is an order of magnitude below current state-of-the-art without sacrificing performance. In this project, the focus will be on produ ...

The goal of this program is to develop and construct a thin, light weight, low power, large aperture, electro-optic (EO) transmissive scanner that utilizes electro-optically active nanomaterial structures, suitable for UAV’s platform. The nano-material beam-steering technology aperture system offers an ultra-thin Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) to fit on UAV’s airframe and achieve ultrafast and ...

One important challenge for the reliable prediction of liquid fuel effects on the combustion in aviation combustors and augmentors is the accurate modeling of underlying physical processes, involving the evaporation of fuels, preferential vaporization, scalar mixing and ignition. LES methodologies are required to accurately capture these transient and inherently unsteady combustion processes. In t ...