Award Data

Developing knowledge-driven nanoelectronics for military applications requires understanding the fundamental physics that governs the behavior of the underlying materials. Strongly correlated materials have very desirable properties such as interfacial superconductivity, ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and huge magnetoresistance, which make them an ideal set of candidates to integrate with semic ...

As unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) become more prevalent there is an increasing desire to automate UAS navigation and control. To enable future UASs to perform a wider variety of missions, the they must be able to complete autonomous relative navigation to accomplish missions. Current technologies rely heavily on GPS measurements, which are undesirable since GPS signals may be unavailable in many ...

Stottler Henke proposes PaCT, leveraging our related past work in computer vision and machine learning. Drawing from techniques used in ExPATSS, a Phase II SBIR effort slated for transition to the Naval fleet, PaCT will perform bacterial characterization using features derived from the phenotype of the bacteria. PaCT will predict bacterial characteristics such as pathogenicity, antibiotic resistan ...

CONCUR develops a computational framework for assessing and characterizing urban environments stability or fragility in response to volatility and stress, identifying specific weaknesses as well as key tipping points which could lead to rapid systemic failure. CONCUR explicitly models urban environments as emergent complex systems, focusing attention on the critical triggers that could lead to rap ...

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 ...

The use of continuous glucose monitors can be an invaluable management tool for patients afflicted by glycemic variability due to critical illness or trauma. Maintaining stable glucose levels enhances health and lowers care costs, and individuals equipped with continuous glucose data have significantly improved outcomes. Profusa has developed highly miniaturized, injectable, tissue-like, glucose s ...

This STTR project aims to assess the feasibility of using laryngeal EMG to detect operator workload and strain. Phase I will develop a wearable neckband device positioning an array of laryngeal EMG electrodes plus additional sensors for measuring masseter EMG, heart rate variability, GSR and estimated relative blood pressure. The neckband will be optimized to be both wearable, comfortable and resi ...

Modern defense systems place high cognitive demands on warfighters, often taxing the limit of human capabilities and causing operators to suffer Acute Cognitive Strain (ACS), wherein performance deteriorates markedly, leading to a loss of situational awareness and control, and decrements in team cooperativity. ACS leads to physiological changes driven by sympathetic system activation, including i ...

We propose to investigate, in collaboration with the Massachusetts General Hospital Voice Center and Altec, Inc., the application of surface electromyography (sEMG) to assessing cognitive workload, strain, and overload. Specifically, sEMG sensors placed on the face and neck will detect emotional/motor responses to workload strain. The proposed effort will build on the substantial sEMG experience o ...

The objective of this proposal is to develop instrumentation and algorithms for acquiring facial features for facial recognition in low- and no-light conditions.We will use cross-spectrum matching by exploiting infrared polarimetric imagery which tends to show features that match more closely visible imagery than conventional infrared.In addition to thermal infrared, we will also test subjects in ...