Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of the proposed SBIR program is to implement and evaluate a low cost retinal camera, the Laser Scanning Digital Camera (LSDC), in a system for diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening. Untreated DR has reached epidemic levels in underserved populations worldwide. As the LSDC has already demonstrated its readiness for DR screening in preliminary stud ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will initiate the development of a low cost scanning micro- Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) for commercial and humanitarian applications. A major aim is to introduce revolutionary technology that will drive down the cost of the overall micro-lidar system to the required price range for the intended applications. In order to achieve ...

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the need for high-speed real-time high-resolution cross-sectional images of the internal microstructure of living tissue. This is a fundamental need of modern medical diagnostics that only optical coherence tomography (OCT) can meet. This is particularly important for imaging of the eye, blood vessels, and cancerous non-trans ...

Carbon dioxide is monitored with high precision at hundreds of monitoring stations, world-wide. Those measurements rely upon frequent calibration using high pressure gas cylinders, which must be certified and then shipped to remote locations. Current calibration procedures are both labor intensive and expensive. Continuous monitoring of CO2 at remote locations presents particularly difficult cali ...

Small particulate emissions, such as those that fall within the PM2.5 classification, have a substantial negative effect on air quality and human health. Significant sources of PM2.5 emissions are small two-stroke engines that are used in outdoor power equipment such as leaf blowers, chain saws, and string trimmers, as well as larger two-stroke engines used in recreational vehicles such as all-ter ...

Electrical power generation consumes a large fraction of the nations fossil fuel, notably coal, and produces significant CO2 emissions. Gas turbine based cycles such as IGCC are constrained by turbine component temperature limits, and consequently have potential for lower fuel consumption and emissions. A novel, highly effective technology for cooling rotating turbine components has been under exp ...

Aerosol particles have important impacts on visibility, acid deposition, climate, and human health, although large uncertainties remain in quantifying their chemical composition and atmospheric transformations. A large fraction of the anthropogenic aerosol is generated from energy-related activities, and organic compounds are known to constitute a significant fraction of ambient aerosol mass. Re ...

SO2 is an important ubiquitous aerosol precursor with anthropogenic, biogenic and geogenic sources. The sulfate aerosol produced from atmospheric oxidation of SO2 has a negative radiative forcing component that is highly uncertain due to its direct and indirect effects. Due to its potency as a remote clean atmosphere aerosol precursor and its capability to modify cloud properties, SO2 is a `short ...

Assessment of CO2 exchange between the atmosphere and the biosphere remains one of the largest uncertainties in predicting carbon sequestration by vegetative uptake on a global basis. Distinguishing between photosynthetic uptake and respiratory emission of CO2 is difficult, due to the small differences between two large parameters, but crucial for determining net ecosystem exchange for CO2 betwee ...

Methane is the second most important atmospheric greenhouse gas after CO2 yet its global sources and sinks are still inadequately characterized. Monitoring the isotopic composition of atmospheric methane is one of the most promising approaches to closing the methane budget. Detailed process studies of isotopic fractionation associated with methane sinks and sources are also crucial. For both p ...