Award Data

This proposal will design, develop, and demonstrate a self-contained probe that will provide sensor videos on-demand to aircraft operators. A Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (MUAV) is proposed to meet this requirement. The MUAV will be capable of being launched from existing airborne aircraft platforms, including helicopters, and will be capable of being controlled by the aircraft operator in fl ...

Lettuce is a major vegetable crop grown in the United States with a farm gate value in 2003 of $2 billion. For crops such as lettuce, the vegetative leaves of the plant are the harvested material. Because lettuce must be harvested before it flowers, premature flowering, or bolting, reduces crop quality and yield, and therefore is a leading cause of profit loss to farmers. Lettuce cultivars with en ...

Noxious, invasive weeds cause billions of dollars per year in damage to the environment. Progress in invasive weed control has been retarded by lack of commercially feasible diet to support mass production of specialist insects that control major noxious weeds. Such damage could be reduced by natural enemies of noxious weeds, but a means to mass produce the insects is not available for economical, ...

Varroa jacobsoni (Oudemans) (= V. destructor) is a parasitic mite of honey bees Apis mellifera (L.), that has had a catastrophic effect on populations of managed and feral honey bee colonies, beekeepers and the beekeeping industry worldwide. Honey bee colony losses in the United States range between 40% and 80% annually. These losses are stressing the bee industry's ability to provide adequate pol ...

In an attempt to deal with a growing number of weapon caches, Ventana Research will team-up with the University of Arizona to develop a non-toxic, cost-efficient resins formulation which will immediately incapacitate small arms and light weaponry. In addition this resin will also cause significant corrosion of ordinance steel over a prolonged time period.

The goal of this proposal is to Design, fabricate, and demonstrate a low optical loss polymer directional coupler modulator with a total insertion fiber to fiber optical loss of less than 6 dB, has a high speed of greater than 20 GHz and a drive voltage (Vp) of less than 1 Volt. We will employ polymer-solgel hybrid modulators that result in reduced fiber-to waveguide loss and enhance the r33 of th ...