Award Data

With the recent development of structures that enable morphing aircraft, there is a need for a skin material capable of high in-plane strains while resisting aerodynamic loads. NextGen Aeronautics has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh to develop a fiber reinforced shape memory (SMP) matrix composite material for morphing wing skins. By pairing a fiber with an SMP matrix a composite is ...

Morphing aircraft structures have been under focused development over the last five years, primarily under DARPA and Air Force sponsorship. NextGen has been a leader in this effort; prior and on-going work by the NextGen team has identified significant technology barriers which need fundamental understanding as well as innovative solutions. Key among these is the development of skins which have in ...

Perceptronics Solutions, Inc. and the USC Computer Science Department present this proposal to develop an adaptive software system that will automatically form 'virtual' human networks. Our objective is to develop an automated system capable of: (1) identifying groups of people who should be in contact with each other by virtue of their parent organization's basic mission, that is, the long term ...

Perceptronics Solutions and the MIT Humans & Automation Laboratory propose to develop a decision support system that creates cognitive bridges among subjective information assessment, naturalistic decision-making, and a collaborative net-centric decision analysis infrastructure. The objective is to provide an improved method by which a distributed group of decision makers can evaluate, share, and ...

New technology is needed for the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of defects in gas turbine engines. While these defects adversely affect hot-section performance and reduce component life, they are difficult to detect and characterize without destructive inspection. The lack of detailed flaw detection and characterization raises safety concerns, hampers fleet readiness and negatively impacts the li ...

Busek Co. Inc. and Stanford University propose to jointly develop and test a high power plasma propulsion concept called the Coaxial High EnerGy (CHENG) thruster. This high efficiency (> 85%) pulsed system will be capable of average thrust levels commensurate to chemical propulsion (10^4 N/m^2), but with an Isp comparable to electrostatic propulsion (4000-50,000 s). Both thrust and Isp will be va ...

High current density carbon nanotube-based field emission arrays with uniform emission will be developed under this program. Working in conjunction with MIT, microfabrication techniques will be used to produce high density arrays of CNT emitters on substrates which incorporate feedback to ensure uniformity of emission between emitters. The feedback techniques employed will minimize thermal effec ...

Makel Engineering Inc. and Universities Space Research Institute propose to develop a reliable, low false alarm system for use with VTUAVs to provide standoff detection capabilities for surface vessels during encounters with potentially explosive-laden vessels. The proposed glow-discharge based detection system would be extremely compact (

The Air Force desires development of a commercial production source for nonlinear optical (NLO) gallium arsenide semiconductor crystals with orientation patterning, i.e., OP-GaAs. The need for these materials is driven primarily by applications for NLO laser frequency converters in Infrared Counter Measures (IRCM). The proposed Phase I project will demonstrate feasibility for a fabrication metho ...

Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is a region of transient electrical and metabolic failure that propagates through peri-lesional brain tissue. Although characteristics of CSD have been shown to be relevant to injury outcome, subdural electrode measurements currently in use restrict monitoring only to patients requiring craniotomy. A portable, noninvasive monitoring device applicable to all pa ...