Award Data

The unique scale, population density, complexity, and connectedness of megacities requires new tools for detecting and assessing risks related to civil unrest, rule of law, terrorism, and other sources of instability, and for understanding the underlying dynamics. In addition, gray zone operations pose a new and strategically important class of threats to the stability of nation states and cities ...

Next Century Corporation will develop novel means to acquire data on patterns of exploration of web-based information. For the proposed effort, we will integrate fine-grained logging of activities across different search paths and develop new methods for extracting web content that provides and analyzes the broader context in which such activities take place. In addition, we will develop a robust ...

The overarching objective of this research and development effort is to advance the current state of human-robot interaction (HRI), developing a theoretically and empirically-based design science that is grounded in best practices and validated principles of human performance and human-systems integration (HSI). The resulting scientific methodology and design process will support improved methods ...

Boston Engineerings Advanced Systems Group is collaborating with Prof. Holly Yanco at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to develop a design science for robot-operator interfaces under a DARPA Phase I STTR program. Our program, called Robot Linked User Control and Interface Design (R-LUCID), is aimed at distilling and understanding the components of interaction including robot capability, ...

The objective of this proposal is to examine the feasibility of defining and measuring key dimensions of an urban system to include its essential functions and networks, and whether they can be modelled in a computational framework for assessing robustness and resilience of DUTs (and their tipping points) under conditions of volatility and stress. This proposal will conduct a comprehensive review ...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air, especially in closed environments pose a major health threat. There is a critical need to remove these pollutant, and biofiltration is a promising solution to this need. This is a Phase II STTR proposal is to develop a novel, modular and scalable approach to biofiltration for effective management of air pollutants in closed environments. We propose a novel ...

There are several current and imminent orthotic and prosthetic (O&P) fitting scenarios that would greatly benefit from the ability to wirelessly collect and transmit physiological information from the user. Both upper- and lower- limb O&P fittings that: 1) use osseointegration, 2) have cable management issues, and 3) could benefit from physiological information from locations proximal to the prost ...

In this topic, we plan to design a vital EMF sensor to work under any conditions. The sensor will be integrated with smart clothing and using e-textile materials.

Rodents serve as models for the human brain and behavior, and their calls give researchers a window into their mood. Unfortunately, rodent calls are ultrasonic, so a researcher must record a test and then play the audio back at a slower speed to manually categorize and count calls. Software does exist to accomplish this task, but it does not have the ease of use or accuracy that researchers want. ...

Providing Army combat medics with meaningful experience in treatment of battlefield injuries is a particular challenge. Moulage has the potential to assist in acquiring what could otherwise be very hard-to-come-by preparatory experience for distressing real-life emergencies medics and soldiers may encounter in the field. However, current approaches to moulage are limited in their ability to reflec ...