Department of Defense news release (May 25, 2006): grants to accelerate research efforts.ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has awarded two Department of Defense Multidisciplinary mul·ti·dis·ci·pli·nar·y adj. Of, relating to, or making use of several disciplines at once: a multidisciplinary approach to teaching. University Research Initiative program grants to Arizona State University Arizona State University, at Tempe; coeducational; opened 1886 as a normal school, became 1925 Tempe State Teachers College, renamed 1945 Arizona State College at Tempe. Its present name was adopted in 1958. , totaling about $9 million, potentially, over the next five years. The university is one of eight to receive more than one research award. The Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program is a multi-agency Defense Department program that supports research teams whose efforts intersect In a relational database, to match two files and produce a third file with records that are common in both. For example, intersecting an American file and a programmer file would yield American programmers. more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. Multidisciplinary team efforts can accelerate research progress in areas particularly suited to this approach by cross-fertilization of ideas, hasten has·ten v. has·tened, has·ten·ing, has·tens v.intr. To move or act swiftly. v.tr. 1. To cause to hurry. 2. the transition of basic research findings to practical applications, and can help to train students in science and/or engineering in areas of importance to the Defense Department. Air Force Capt. Clark Allred, program manager in the Aerospace and Materials Directorate at Air Force Office of Scientific Research, believes the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program is a wonderful way to pump a lot of money into research areas of key importance to the Air Force. "Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives are important because they can give a program a critical mass by way of a large chunk of money that is given all at once," said Allred. At Arizona State University, the research grant money will support basic research efforts at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering The Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering (often abbreviated to Fulton School) is one of the 24 independent school units of Arizona State University. It provides undergraduate and graduate programs for engineering, computer science, and construction students. and at the College of Liberal Arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. and Sciences. The Fulton school team will use a maximum of $6 million from the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative funds to conduct a major aerospace research project to support development work in advanced sensor A device that measures or detects a real-world condition, such as motion, heat or light and converts the condition into an analog or digital representation. An optical sensor detects the intensity or brightness of light, or the intensity of red, green and blue for color systems. systems for aircraft. Their goal is to establish a sensor system that can better assess the structural health of aircraft. Meanwhile, a team of faculty and graduate students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences could receive as much as $2.6 million to develop cost-saving lasers using a new breed of silicon-based semiconductors. Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Fulton School Aditi Chattopadhyay is the principal investigator Noun 1. principal investigator - the scientist in charge of an experiment or research project PI scientist - a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences on the aerospace project. Her team plans to improve the accuracy of risk assessment and aircraft life-span estimates. By doing so, Chattopadhyay hopes to save the Air Force money in the long run by reducing operation and maintenance costs of the current Air Force fleet. The fusion of science and vision is what makes the Air Force Office of Scientific Research mission so crucial to the future success of the Air Force. Air Force Col. Jeff Turcotte, deputy director of Air Force Office of Scientific Research, said the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative supported aerospace research at Arizona State University complements the Air Force Office of Scientific Research mission. "Robust and reliable health monitoring of aircraft concepts are key to reducing future fleet maintenance costs and timelines," said Turcotte. "We have a long way to go before realizing these benefits, but we believe this team at Arizona State University can start us off on a long stride." The laser project team will use some breakthrough silicon materials discovered by a former Arizona State University chemistry graduate student, to continue years of collaboration and to put several recent discoveries into practice. Principal Investigator and Arizona State University physics professor Jose Menendez believes this funded research will lead to the development of very cost-effective, high-performance infrared An invisible band of radiation at the lower end of the visible light spectrum. With wavelengths from 750 nm to 1 mm, infrared starts at the end of the microwave spectrum and ends at the beginning of visible light. lasers with widespread military and commercial applications for sensing and communications. Crawley is with Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. . |
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