Air Force Selects 10 University Research Teams to Receive $60 Million in Funding

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ARLINGTON, Va --  The Air Force Office of Scientific Research here recently announced plans to fund 10 awards totaling about $60 million over five years to 29 academic institutions to perform multidisciplinary basic research.

The award is the result of the fiscal year 2007 competition AFOSR conducted under the Department of Defense Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative or MURI program. The Army Research Office and the Office of Naval Research also participate in the program.

The MURI program is highly competitive. ARO, ONR, and AFOSR solicited proposals in 29 topics important to DoD and received a total of 129 proposals. The 36 proposals were selected for funding based on merit review by panels of experts in the pertinent science and engineering fields.

The MURI program supports multi-disciplinary research in areas of DoD relevance that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. A MURI effort typically involves a team of researchers with expertise in a variety of disciplines in order to accelerate both research progress and transition of research results to application.

By funding multi-disciplinary teams, the MURI program complements other DoD basic research programs that support traditional, single-investigator university research. Typically, MURI awards are larger and longer in duration than traditional awards.

The awards are for up to five years - a 3-year base period with a 2-year option contingent upon availability of appropriations and satisfactory research progress.

Consequently, MURI awards can provide greater sustained support than single-investigator awards for the education and training of students pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering fields critical to DoD and for associated infrastructure, such as research instrumentation.

The AFOSR projects and universities selected for fiscal 2007 funding are:

Under the topic area "Science-Based Design of Fuel Flexible Chemical Propulsion/Energy Conversion Systems," F. L. Dryer, principal investigator, Princeton University, N.J., in collaboration with three other university team members, will research the topic "Generation of Comprehensive Surrogate Kinetic Models and Validation Databases for Simulating Large Molecular Weight Hydrocarbon Fuels."

With respect to the topic area "Enterprise Health: Self-Regenerative Incorruptible Enterprise," two research projects will be performed. The first, led by Anup Ghosh, George Mason University, Va., in collaboration with two other university team members will research the topic "Autonomic Recovery of Enterprise-Wide Systems After Attack or Failure with Forward Correction." The second, led by John C. Knight, University of Virginia, in collaboration with three other university team members, will research the topic "Helix: A Self-Regenerative Architecture for the Incorruptible Enterprise."

Under the topic area "Atmospheric Neutral Density Prediction," J. M. Forbes, principal investigator, University of Colorado, in collaboration with four other university team members, including the U.S. Air Force Academy, will research the topic "Neutral Atmosphere Density Interdisciplinary Research."

With respect to the topic area "Building Bridges between Neuroscience, Cognition, and Human Decision Making," James L. McClelland, principal investigator, Stanford University, Calif., in collaboration with two other university team members, will research the topic "Dynamic Decision making in complex task environments: Principles and neural mechanisms."

Under the topic area "Behavior of Systems with Humans and Unmanned Vehicles," John Baillieul, principal investigator, Boston University, Mass., in collaboration with three other university team members will research the topic "Behavioral Dynamics in the Cooperative Control of Mixed Human/Robotic Teams."

With respect to the topic area "Biologically-Inspired Flight for Micro Air Vehicles," two research projects will be performed. The first, let by Kenneth Breuer, principal investigator, Brown University, R.I., in collaboration with three other university team members will research the topic "Biologically-Inspired Flight for Micro Air Vehicles." The second, led by Wei Shyy, principal investigator, the University of Michigan, in collaboration with the three other university team members, will research the topic "Biologically-Inspired, Anisotropic Flexible Wing for Optimal Flapping Flight."

Under the topic area "Quantum Simulations of Condensed Matter Systems using Ultra-Cold Atomic Gases," Markus Greiner, principal investigator, Harvard University, Mass., in collaboration with three other university team members, will research the topic "Quantum Simulations of Condensed Matter Systems Using Ultra-Cold Atomic Gases."

With respect to the topic area "Bioinspired Supramolecular Enzymes," C. Mirkin, principal investigator, Northwestern University, Ill., in collaboration with one other university, will research the topic "Bioinspired Supramolecular Enzymatic Systems."

The entire list of DoD projects selected for fiscal 2007 funding can be viewed at: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/MAR2007/d20070307muri.pdf .