Award Data

Opportunity: Guayule, a US native plant, is the only alternate rubber crop with an established, mechanized, agronomic system. Problem: Low rubber yields and lack of effective resin and bagasse coproduct valorization, have prevented widespread adoption by American farmers and processors. Rubber is only made when the cytoplasmic monomer pool (isopentenyl-pyrophosphate; IPP) is larger than that requi ...

In this program, Morton Photonics (MP) and its STTR partner Professor John Bowers and his research group at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) will develop two truly disruptive integrated laser devices: (1) A broadly tunable integrated laser with ultra-low linewidth, ultra-low relative intensity noise (RIN), and high output power; the Integrated Coherent Tunable Laser (ICTL), whi ...

Methods for interconversion between cell types (cellular reprogramming) are currently discovered through resource intensive trial and error. Experiments may test a multitude of transcription factors to identify correct combinations that influence cell fate. In addition, reprogramming approaches commonly use stem cell intermediates such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are generated ...

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 ...

The US Navy, industry and the scientific community is using and developing a variety of AUVs, underwater sensors, and other systems that can be easily deployed and operated with minimal maintenance or recurring costs. A primary hindrance to the long-term implementation of these systems is the availability of in situ energy. The concepts presented herein focus on the harvesting of methane from seep ...

New pathogens, both naturally occurring and adversary-engineered, are increasingly likely to emerge and represent a significant and growing risk to global health and security. These new threats often have limited genetic similarity to prior known pathogens and cannot be identified through standard genetic tests. The application of machine learning algorithms to phenotypic tests to predict pathogen ...

Genome-scale predictable cellular design and engineering of biomanufacturing systems is the overarching a goal of DARPA's Living Foundry thrust and, if realized, will enable rapid engineering of living biosystems for a broad range of applications in biotechnology and pharmacology. However, constructing living cells with designed genome is not fully automated and is severely limited by inhere ...

The 3-D SAR imaging of objects in a scene provides improved military target identification and weapons targeting accuracy. This capability can also potentially be combined with simultaneous SAR/GMTI surveillance modes to provide 3-D context information for moving targets in a scene. In Phase I, TSC demonstrated a promising approach for noncoherently combining 3-D tomographic SAR images generated f ...

VINI Phase II will develop an end-to-end big network data visualization system. The VINI Phase II system will include visual decluttering features that simplify the display of graph data as the number of nodes and links increases. In addition, it will have visual interaction tools that allow users to find and filter data and metadata for the network in an intuitive manner. We will also develop an ...