Award Data

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) seeks technical investigations related to the development and application of advanced electronic materials, processes, and devices to meet its need for radiation hardened, high performance electronics for critical space and missile applications. With the advent of smaller transistor dimensions and reductions in price per bit, significant changes in materials and pr ...

EO/IR elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) responsible for detecting and tracking ballistic missile threats encounter extraordinarily challenging threat and scene phenomenology. Specifically, non-stationary clutter characteristic of airborne and satellite-based sensor systems, along with dim target signatures, closely-spaced objects, and dense debris clouds typical of ballistic ...

During the proposed Phase 1 research and development effort, the project team will design an innovative turbopump system for a target vehicle upper stage using “Green" liquid propellants that meet Missile Defense Agency's requirements. The use of a turbopump will result in an upper stage that has a greater than 50% improvement in delta velocity in comparison to a previously designed, pressure fe ...

The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) analysts have a challenging task to extract useful information from huge volumes of data from various sources like Full Motion Video (FMV), Wide Area Motion Imagery (WAMI), satellite imagery, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), and others. Modern Machine Learning (ML) algorithms based on deep learning have greatly advanced computer vision, speech ...

This Phase I STTR program seeks a new fabrication method to produce stronger (>100 kpsi) and tougher (>10 MPa m1/2) ultra high temperature Ta-Hf-C-based composites (UHTC) with an outstanding oxidation resistance for use as thermal protection systems for hypersonic applications, as well as for advanced rocket nozzle throat components. UES will apply a novel "Top Down" approach to control the micro ...

An advanced hit detection technology is needed for missile testing that can report impacts at hyper-velocities and at multiple hit locations.We present a technology with an attractive cost and performance that leverages decades of hit technology experience and utilizes existing technologies developed under previous efforts.Our technology offers a low latency non-interpolated direct indicator of mu ...

Fine powder thermal battery cathode materials can exhibit challenging flow properties which makes processing with automated presses difficult.Granulating these powders substantially improves flow properties and reduces the tendency for powder segregation during handling and pressing operations.The properties of Magnesium Oxide (MgO) that lead to good performance in thermal battery separators are n ...

FreEnt Technologies, Inc., along with A2Z Innovations, Inc. (A2Z) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are teaming together to design and develop a High-Speed Simultaneous Multiple Object Detection (HS-SMOD). The HS-SMOD system uses a simple but innovative technique of a passive fiber-optic grid and opto-electronic detectors to measure the initial and subsequent hit points of extremel ...

In the setting of altitude-induced hypoxia, operator cognitive capacity degrades and can compromise both individual and team performance. This degradation is linked to falling brain energy (ATP) levels and an increased reliance on anaerobic energy production from glucose. Ketone bodies are the evolutionary alternative substrate to glucose for brain metabolic requirements; previous studies have sho ...

On this effort Toyon Research Corp. and The Pennsylvania State University are developing deep learning-based algorithms for object recognition and new class discovery in look-down infrared (IR) imagery. Our approach involves the development of a hybrid classifier that exploits both transfer learning and semi-supervised paradigms in order to maintain good generalization accuracy, especially when li ...