Award Data

An interactive application that employs social interactions to teach key social conventions, including appropriate responses, reacting to body language and facial expressions, and the ability to ask for help to facilitate functioning in society

Agricultural activities produce large quantities of animal wastes in the form of manures. Currently, the accumulation of manures from animal husbandry operations is a serious threat to water supplies and challenges the capacity of existing landfills. However, this potential problem also represents an opportunity for remote biomass power production systems based on heating the manure in the absence ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I research project's objectives are to build and validate an artificial star simulation application for the study of astronomical objects, and to assess its commercial potential for the professional and serious amateur astronomer communities. The prevalence of modern light detectors has ushered in a golden age for astronomy due to their outstanding cha ...

There is a troubling decline in the number of US citizens training to become scientists and engineers. There are insufficient numbers of qualified science teachers in the middle schools, where interest in science must be kindled. Technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs), which could improve science education, are not being widely deployed. This Phase I project will customize a TELE to a) ...

Up until the early twentieth century, several commodity chemicals were produced by the pyrolysis of hardwoods (e.g., methanol, acetic acid, acetone) or the extraction of softwoods (turpentine, terpenes, rosins, pitches, and tars). The expected long term increase in petroleum and natural gas prices will cause a gradual but steady return to biomass feedstocks over the next several decades. Other dri ...

There is a troubling decline in the number of US citizens training to become scientists and engineers. There are insufficient numbers of qualified science teachers in the middle schools, where interest in science must be kindled. Technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs), which could improve science education, are not being widely deployed. This Phase I project will customize a TELE to a) ...

Embryos with predetermined sex will obviously double the female calving efficiency in dairy industry. The ultimate goal of the project is to development an efficient system for the large scale production of sex predetermined cattle embryos using several emerging technologies including sperm sorting by flow cytometry, IVF and rapid-cooling cryopreservation (vitrification) of embryos. Through Phase ...

In natural reproduction, the sex ratio is approximately 50:50. In the dairy industry, only female animals (and very few male stud bulls) are productive and most male calves are slaughtered with little financial return to the farmers. This natural limitation costs the dairy industry billions of dollars around the globe. Selecting sex of offspring has long been a dream in the livestock industry. The ...

Farms are faced with increasing problems managing manure from animal operations. Alternate innovative methods to deal with the handling and distribution of the manure solids materials and nutrients are needed to allow farms to economically comply with increased regulations. The purpose of this project is to further the development of a concept to utilize farm animal waste material in a manner that ...

Conventional watering uses hose or boom irrigation systems to apply excess water to ensure complete coverage of the entire crop to the point of full saturation of the root medium. This method is costly in terms of water and nutrients. Water falls outside the area of the pots and is lost to the environment. Excess water may leach up to 75% of the fertilizer from potted plants. It may be necessary t ...