Award Data

Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in food packaging, as coatings for cloth (e.g. Scotchgard), firefighting foams, electronics, and industrial and automotive components. Being perfluorinated species, they are engineered to breakdown slowly (half-life >92 years in water), and thus persist for very long times. Their high water-solubility makes them especially dangerous, and much like perchlo ...

Due to increasing concerns over the long-term health effects of PFOS and PFAS on the human body, regulatory agencies have set limits for the concentrations ofPFOS and PFAS in drinking water.Currently, lab-based PFOA and PFOS water tests cost $200-$300 per sample, with a turnaround time of 2-3 weeks.In the program, 2W iTech LLC Proposes to develop a low-cost fieldable sensing technology for detecti ...

Intellisense Systems, Inc. (ISI) proposes to advance the development of a new Remote Air Quality Reporting (RAQR) device to measure and track wildland fire pollutants including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulates, in a small, portable, easy-to-use unit capable of storing and reporting data from remote locations. As wildfires are expected to occur more frequently nea ...

Wild fires produce significant air pollution, posing health risks to first responders, residents in nearby areas, and downwind communities. Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity, and the fire season is growing longer. Technologies for measuring air pollutants, including particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon dioxide, over the wide range of levels expected in areas dow ...

Current petroleum-derived-plastics contain additives such as phthalates or bisphenolA that are harmful to human health and the environment. Thus, it’s critical to replace such toxic non-biodegradable plastics with biodegradable bioplastics. To meet bioplastics production need, Altex, and Texas A&M University (TAMU) have teamed up to utilize renewable biomass, such as forest residue, agricultural ...

Advances in materials and automation are rapidly reshaping the American manufacturing economy, and must be embraced to sustain a strong manufacturing sector in the United States. Additive manufacturing is possibly the fastest growing example of this trend, growing at an astonishing compound annual growth rate of 25.7%. The plastic materials market for additive manufacturing, valued at $700M in 202 ...

As wildfires are increasing in prevalence and intensity there is a need for miniaturized, lower cost, and easily portable air sensor systems that provide accurate information to air quality and public health managers, communities, and researchers, so that the public can be protected and timely decisions can be made. Fixed site measurement stations are large and expensive. More dense networks of sm ...

Patterns of electricity generation and consumption in the United States have rapidly changed over the past decade and are forecasted to continue doing so in coming decades. On the supply side, increasing generation from renewable sources has raised concerns about the ability of the electrical grid to stay stable given renewables’ intermittent and distributed nature, and has increased calls for n ...

The team will develop a prototype of an immersive virtual reality experience for high school students to learn about the scientific processes and the biology of plants. The prototype will be designed to be multi-player where groups of students collaboratively conduct open-ended cross-breeding experiments, record images to export to reports, track and analyze data, and draw conclusions. At the end ...

Through a series of IES-funded projects, the researchers developed the Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) tool, including a Phase 1 SBIR project in 2014. A2i is an online platform to provide students with individualized literacy instruction and assessments. This project will develop a digital library for teachers that generates personalized resources for each student. The prototype will include migra ...