AFOSR Awards $8.6 Million for DoD Research at ASU

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  • By Erin Crawley
  • AFOSR Public Affairrs (Quantech)
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has awarded two Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program grants to Arizona State University (ASU), totaling about $9 million, potentially over the next 5 years . ASU is one of eight universities to receive more than one MURI award.

The MURI program is a multi-agency DoD program that supports research teams whose efforts intersect 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 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 DoD.

Capt. Clark Allred, Program Manager in the Aerospace and Materials Directorate at AFOSR, believes the MURI program is a wonderful way to pump a lot of money into research areas of key importance to the Air Force. "MURIs are important because they can give a critical mass by way of a large chunk of money that is given all at once. That [$6 million] is a lot of money for a 6.1 program, compared to our core grants that are usually in the $100,000 range," said Allred.

At ASU the MURI grant money will support basic research efforts at the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Fulton school team will use a maximum of $6 million from the MURI funds to conduct a major aerospace research project to support development work in advanced sensor 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 bread of silicon-based semiconductors.

Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Fulton School, Aditi Chattopadhyay is the Principal Investigator 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 AFOSR mission so crucial to the future success of the Air Force. Deputy Director of AFOSR, Col. Jeff Turcotte said the MURI supported aerospace research at ASU compliments the AFOSR mission. " Robust and reliable health monitoring [of aircraft] concepts are key to reducing future fleet maintenance costs and timelines. We have a long way to go before realizing these benefits, but we believe this team [at ASU] can start us off on a long stride," said Turcotte.

The laser project team will use some breakthrough silicon materials discovered by a former ASU chemistry graduate student, to continue years of collaboration, and to put several recent discoveries into practice. Principal Investigator and ASU physics Professor, Jose Menendez believes this funded research will lead to the development of very cost-effective, high-performance infrared lasers with widespread military and commercial applications for sensing and communications.

AFOSR continues to expand the horizon of scientific knowledge through its leadership and management of the Air Force's basic research program. As a vital component of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), AFOSR's mission is to support Air Force goals of control and maximum utilization of air and space. Many of the technological breakthroughs enjoyed by millions today, such as lasers, GPS, and the computer mouse trace their scientific roots to research first funded by AFOSR.

AFOSR accomplishes its mission by investing in basic research efforts for the Air Force in relevant scientific areas. Central to AFOSR's strategy is the transfer of the fruits of basic research to industry, the supplier of Air Force acquisitions; to the academic community which can lead the way to still more accomplishment; and to the other directorates of AFRL that carry the responsibility for applied and development research leading to acquisition.