Award Data

Sample preparation has been recognized as the single most important challenge to be faced in the development of detect-to-warn (DTW) systems (NRC, 2005). Available commercial sample preparation technologies are expensive, slow (30 min to 2 hours) and require trained laboratory technicians for operation. Addressing this need, we propose to design, fabricate, and demonstrate a novel integrated micro ...

Colloidal suspensions of quantum dots (QD) offer a novel, inexpensive means of biological-warfare-agent (BWA) detection using compact lightweight systems that may be deployed in a variety of ways, including handheld biosensors. We propose here to design, fabricate and test portable, lightweight, user-friendly, low-logistical-load biosensors capable of automated and rapid BWA detection with high se ...

The largest border in the United States is not the boundary between the US and Canada or the US and Mexico, but the coastlines. Maintaining security of our territorial waters is essential in the face of an increasingly hostile world. Current maritime security strategy rests on four pillars; awareness, prevention, protection, and, response. Of these, awareness is arguably the most important; howeve ...

Anti-cancer immunization is limited by the poor immunogenicity of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) normally used for vaccination. This problem may be overcome by direct adenovirus-mediated delivery of TAAs to dendritic cells (DCs), which play a centralrole in the generation of the immune response. The specificity and efficiency of this vaccination strategy may be improved by specifically targeting ...

Anti-cancer immunization is limited by the poor immunogenicity of tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) normally used for vaccination. This problem may be overcome by direct adenovirus-mediated delivery of TAAs to dendritic cells (DCs), which play a centralrole in the generation of the immune response. The specificity and efficiency of this vaccination strategy may be improved by specifically targeting ...

Gun-launched applications currently expose inertial measurement units (IMUs) to harsh acceleration, shock, and vibration environments. Furthermore, as they become smarter, they present tighter constraints on size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), while still requiring high levels of performance. New accelerometer technology must reduce SWaP-C while operating through high-g acceleration environmen ...

Mission times for high velocity projectiles (HVP) are very short and detection and discrimination of targets must happen quickly and decisively. One way to achieve this is through the enhanced contrast resulting from polarized sensing, which tends to highlight manmade objects and suppress natural background clutter. Thermal polarimetric sensing in a small package has been demonstrated already but ...

The capability to reliably and remotely detect and track tactical surface targets in a high-velocity projectile after launch is a critical need. The discrimination of man-made objects can be assisted by the detector technology, with options including two-color detectors and polarimetric filtering in the thermal infrared bands. The level of complexity in the focal plane array affects its survivabil ...

Protecting the effectiveness of US advanced weapon systems and the technology they rely on is a national priority. Unfortunately, individuals tasked with this mission are met with disjointed guidance, no training, and competing processes to consider. It is no wonder adversaries continue to exploit these weaknesses in the Department of Defense (DOD); stealing our Critical Program Information (CPI) ...