Award Data

Underground cross-border tunnels of all sizes and shapes are an increasingly important threat to our National security. Finding cross-border tunnels is a challenging task and once found, an additional challenge is secure and map the entire underground tunnel. Manned entry into these dangerous underground environments is a risky endeavor. The use of robotics offers a great improvement over human en ...

Among the factors that inhibit the use of composite materials in both general aviation aircraft and DoD platforms are the high cost of engineering and the cost of certification. Unless manufacturers can control risk when introducing new materials and pro

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires an affordable anomaly detection device for non-destructive inspection to determine if perceived hollow spaces are empty or densely packed with contraband. DHS has identified a need to detect narcotics, weapons, explosives or other contraband smuggled over the border, onto planes, or carried into public venues while concealed in hollow spaces such ...

There is a need to achieve 10^-9 reliability for actuators for critical aerospace applications and this precludes single point failure for all but the simplest and most reliable electrical and mechanical components. LC Drives proposes a method of constructing a high reliability linear actuator for critical aerospace applications that is designed such that jams caused by conventional electrical a ...

Looking Glass is an immersive, story-driven game experience that enables computer science education for students K-12. It presents learning in a game-based series of challenge levels that permit a high degree of player choice in tailoring educational progression and adapting game systems that present both STEM and SEL interactions. Gameplay occurs within a futuristic Wonderland, where proficiency ...

Sensors capable of remotely detecting and measuring human vital signs and other physiological activity at a stand-off range greater than 10 meters within a building or behind an obstruction (i.e. non-line-of-sight) in a cluttered environment is of significant interest to the DOD, law enforcement, search and rescue, and the intelligence communities.The capability to remotely monitor vital signs als ...

The dried blood spot (DBS) method is an alternative to venipuncture. The available data indicates that the DBS method is both precise and accurate for a diverse range of compounds. We discovered that proprietary additives vastly improve extraction of proteins in DBS using electrospray. Our unexpected results appear to dramatically increase analyte recovery concentration while reducing DBS prep, an ...

The demand for higher performance semiconductor devices is pushing the limits of current materials technology. The development of a high dieletric constant capacitor material with 10 - 100 times the charge storage of SiO2 would allow a flat capacitor cell to be used in 256 Mb DRAMs, and simple stacked capacitors to be adopted for 1 and 4 Gb generations. IBM, TI and Micron have entered into an ARPA ...

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of copper for vias and interconnects is critical to manufacture of next generation high speed ULSI devices and has been extensively investigated over the last few years. Although considerable progress has been made commercialization of this technology is currently impossible due to the high cost of the source reagents. In this Phase I program Advanced Technology Mat ...

Sensors and electronics will become increasingly pervassive as weight, fuel efficiency, cost and emissions requirements put increasing demands on vehicle technology. The development of high temperture, integrated sensors and electronics is necessary to cost-effectively address both civilian and military needs. The arrival of single crystal silicon carbide substrates and high quality epitaxial laye ...