Award Data

Our team proposes to develop, test, and commercialize a Micro Air Vehicle Tether Recovery APparatus (MAVTRAP). This system operates by deploying an instrumented MAV capture device attached via a tether system from a mothership unmanned air vehicle (UAV). The instrumented MAV capture device contains an integrated avionics suite. Our team will determine and control the precise mother ship UAV loi ...

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 ...

Solid State Drives (SSDs) are emerging as attractive alternatives to traditional HDDs due to there reduced power consumption and potential for increased performance. SSDs have the potential to improve the performance of both Checkpoint Restart (CPR) and the Metadata Server (MDS) for high performance File Systems, e.g., Lustre. However, the write performance of SSDs is relatively poor (compared to ...

Energy consumption is quickly becoming one of the primary bottlenecks of compute clusters and supercomputers. The DOE is a primary developer and consumer of these power hungry supercomputers, however smaller cluster machines are also widely used through other government agencies and industries. Yet, there are few power profiling tools that allow application developers transparent insight into the ...

The proposed research program focuses on design, fabrication, and characterization of quantum-dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) which features bias-tunable parameters, including the spectral response, optical gain, and operating time. Wide variations of detector parameters can be realized through the bias-tunable potential barriers surrounding quantum dots. Changes in bias will transform the ba ...

Thermo-mechanical processes of turbine disks have been progressively improved to meet microstructural requirements tailored for advanced, sustainable high temperature performances. However, the chemistry of typical Ni-base turbine disk alloys is very complex, and yields a variety of phases and microstructural anomalies under different thermo-mechanical heat treatments. These microstructural hetero ...

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 ...

Military applications for CBRNE/GWTO and C4ISR require R&D for materials to protect personnel and equipment. However, challenges remain in experimental synthesis and characterization of new materials, such as providing insight into observed properties for further advancement. Thus, it is essential to develop a predictive modeling and simulation approach that will not only provide a fundamental u ...

Currently the commercially available technologies for H2 separation such as pressure swing adsorption and cryogenic distillation are very energy intensive. Membrane technologies can be very energy efficient; but for high selective membranes low flux and high cost are the major challenges that frustrate commercialization. Recently, cermet has shown promise because of less precious metal usage and m ...

Higher operating temperature for the gas turbine engine is needed for enhanced efficiency, lower emission and increased performance goal. The current state-of-the-art thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are not adequate to provide the needed protection for the metallic components of the turbine engine operating at higher TBC surface temperature (>1300