Award Data

Planar heterojunction comprised of topological insulator and magnetic insulator layers provide a unique opportunity to develop highly energy efficient electronics. The key challenge for the heterojunction is to fabricate a clean and abrupt interface between the two layers for efficient magnetic coupling. The growth of the magnetic materials should ideally be a low-temperature process in order to p ...

Dr. Thomas J.R. Hughes, senior advisor at Coreform, first introduced isogeometric analysis (IGA) in 2005. In the years since, it has been shown that smooth splines, the basic building blocks of IGA, allow for the use of relatively coarse meshes for accurate analysis in both finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Research results also show that IGA delivers improved a ...

Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., in collaboration with Bowling Green State University, proposes to develop a field-rugged, eye-readable indicating spray solution that can immediately detect synthetic opioids over a large area of contamination (i.e., military vehicles, individual protective equipment, clandestine labs, etc.). The proposed chemosensor in a spray solution format will detect multipl ...

Opioids, especially synthetic opioids, are a constant threat to the safety of civilian first responders; there are now serious concerns about their use in modern chemical warfare. Fentanyl and its many analogues (carfentanil, remifentanil, lofentanil, mefentanil, sufentanil, etc.) are extremely hazardous—if ingested or inhaled, many synthetic opioids cause lethal intoxication with only a few gra ...

Triton Systems, Inc. will collaborate with The University of Massachusetts Lowell to develop a spray-based technology for the rapid, visual identification of opioids, turning contaminated areas from nondescript white powders to a brightly colored spots for easy recognition with the naked eye. The technology leverages molecular recognition units that bind strongly and specifically to a variety of o ...

Melanin-based biomaterials present novel solutions to radiation shielding/countermeasures, camouflage, and insulation, among others. A scalable and sustainable production process for natural melanins is needed to support the R&D and commercialization of melanin-based technologies. MelaTech proposes to develop a fermentation system that involves a novel, rapid melanin isolation process to yield gra ...

Next-level improvements in thermal extremity protection for the current Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) are needed for soldiers in order to improve mobility and achieve peak performance in bitterly cold Arctic climes. In this STTR program, 2W iTech LLC proposes to develop phase change material (PCM) based thermal regulating films, in collaboration with the Multiscale Thermal Science ...

5G technology is targeting very high throughput, low power, and low latency, which will benefit not only commercial but also tactical communication systems. Operating in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands provides high bandwidths to meet the ever-growing throughput demands in shared spectrum environments. However, 5G waveform, as it is, does not satisfy Army’s requirements on jamming resistance, low ...

n conjunction with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials the topological insulators are elements of future magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and GHz-to-THz frequency sources (spin-torque nano-oscillators, STNO). One of the major challenges in applying topological insulators (TIs) in magnetic devices is the mutual incompatible deposition processes. TIs are usually destroyed by the high t ...

While robotic systems have advanced in recent years, they are still dramatically outperformed by their biological counterparts. Robots are largely limited by the use of decades-old actuation paradigms such as electromagnetic motors which are bulky, rigid, and expensive, thus limiting the complexity and degrees of freedom of such systems and making close interactions with humans unsafe (such as in ...