Award Data

Purpose: Students who fail to achieve proficient levels of literacy are at increased risk for grade retention, referral to special education, and dropping out of high school. The kindergarten through 3rd grade years are particularly important for students to gain a strong foundation in reading as those who continue to struggle with reading are significantly less likely to achieve reading proficien ...

Purpose: Students who fail to achieve proficient levels of literacy are at increased risk for grade retention, referral to special education, and dropping out of high school. The kindergarten through 3rd grade years are particularly important for students to gain a strong foundation in reading as those who continue to struggle with reading are significantly less likely to achieve reading proficien ...

The project focuses on making solar energy affordable to meet the basic energy needs for low-income, rural households. By focusing on solar energy as the source, this project addresses the societal challenge area relating to global change & amp; sustainable energy.Our goal is to substantially reduce the system cost to address essential energy needs, providing on the order of 10kWh per day with ene ...

Drought is a major constraint on crop productivity and a significant risk for American farmers. The challenges associated with drought are likely to increase due to climate change, which will increase temperatures and alter precipitation patterns. Adapting the nation & #39;s agricultural system to water-limited conditions is a major priority to ensure food security and sustainable farm economics. ...

Agricultural sorting and grading is most commonly preformed primarily through the use of human resources. Farm workers sort crops by hand through visual inspection. This process is expensive and highly subjective. In addition the labor force is susceptible to human error which can impact the quality of the resulting data. The outcome of this project will be to increase efficiencies in the grading ...

In studies conducted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was estimated that approximately 48 million new cases of food-related illness, resulting in 3,000 deaths and 128,000 hospitalizations, occur in the United States annually. These estimates, although lower than previous estimates, confirm that foodborne illness continues to be a problem. Together with the mortality and quali ...

A leading public health problem affecting individuals world-wide is food poisoning. Pathogen contamination of post-harvest food sources is a major health issue. There is a wealth of information and data that indicate that the occurrence of infectious gastrointestinal diseases is globally on the rise; and that food-borne pathogens can readily adapt to environmental changes, contributing significant ...

We have designed a lightweight, sturdy, user adjustable ergonomically designed backrest support for ultralight weight wheelchairs that will provide necessary postural support and provide a variety of positions to ease dressing, propulsion, and seated comfort. The backrest will improve user comfort, function, and posture during multiple activities of daily living. The innovative design will enable ...

Epoxidized soybean oil has not been evaluated as a composite matrix to create high performance composites A. Natural fibers and nanoclay particulates will be evaluated as matrix additives to the epoxidized soybean oil. B. The purpose of this study is to evaluate an extrusion based freeforming process to align the fibers and obtain improved mechanical properties.

The production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass can utilize large volumes of agricultural residues that are untapped today. Ethanol fuels burn cleanly, thus the use of ethanol for partial replacement of petroleum fuels will have a positive impact on the environment. The production of ethanol fuels from lignocellulosic biomass is ready to be developed into a viable industry. Our results will ...