Award Data

Boston Engineerings Advanced Systems Group is collaborating with Prof. Holly Yanco at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to develop a design science for robot-operator interfaces under a DARPA Phase I STTR program. Our program, called Robot Linked User Control and Interface Design (R-LUCID), is aimed at distilling and understanding the components of interaction including robot capability, ...

As the importance of social networks skyrockets, so does the need to understand human behavior in these forums. While statistical analyses can help to some extent, many types of patterns are simply not visible by looking at raw numbers. However, many of these patterns do emerge in visualizations, and the innate human ability to see these patterns in graphical depictions represents a valuable oppo ...

In Phase I of UBER-HEB, the Aptima team made significant progress designing a non-von Neumann hierarchical universal learning system based on the Ersatz Brain Architecture (EBA). An experiment using an EBA implementation showed emergence of module assemblies, a critical step in validation. In Phase II, we propose to focus sharply on an important, well-characterized problem ideally suited to the EB ...

Early detection of virulent infectious pathogens is critical to blocking the devastating epidemic spread of the pathogen and the potential harm this could have on our armed forces and general populations. In Phase I, we have utilized the state-of-the-art QuantiGene 2.0 technology to establish an assay for the sensitive quantification of SARS (epidemic spread in 2001) and assessing plasma DNA level ...

The development of compact, ultra-low drive voltage optical phase modulators is a critical key component for passive antenna remoting applications, a strategic area, part of a number of current and upcoming DARPA initiatives. With the development of sufficiently low V-pi modulators, passive front-ends can be constructed with a low figure even for a moderate optical pumping power. The combination o ...

In this STTR project, Science Research Laboratory (SRL) and Boston University Photonics Center (BU Photonics) will develop a revolutionary optical technology for detecting localized increases in temperature on time scales ranging from nanoseconds to microseconds. Localized diode heating is a critical factor limiting the lifetime of LDs; such heating causes optical and electrical instabilities that ...

Cost effective semiconductor processing tools that enable the high-resolution nano-fabrication of low-volume electronics are needed by the DOD. The printing of ultra-fine gratings on silicon wafers using interference immersion lithography is envisaged as a first maskless process step in the fabrication of advanced application specific integrated circuits. Next generation interference immersion lit ...

Recent materials development together with an improving understanding of organic transistors has enabled solution-processed materials that show good performance, with high transparency in the visible range. In this program, leveraging on our extensive experience in organic material development and large scale organic material deposition by solution based processing, Agiltron and Stanford Universit ...

The challenges faced by airborne and ground-based sensors in detecting, classifying, identifying, associating and tracking difficult moving targets, such as insurgent forces, operating in difficult terrain such as mountains and forests will be addressed. Our team will quantify the performance that can be achieved using multi-sensor, multi-spectral, and multi-platform techniques, where the sensors ...

An innovative hydraulic spreader tool that can be powered by liquid fuel or manual means is proposed. The advanced development of the spreader tool will follow a step-wise progression of computer-aided design followed by physical construction, demonstration and government review until the full performance requirements have been met and a hand-held spreader tool prototype has been delivered to DARP ...