""The Power of Partnerships"" is the theme for this RII proposal with the title ""Enabling Technologies for Scientific Innovation through Sensor Development."" This proposed effort builds on statewide cultural characteristics emphasizing partnerships and cooperation as primary means for overcoming resource scarcity. This cooperative approach to problem-solving aligns perfectly with EPSCoR''s goals for advancing research capacity and economic development statewide.
Intellectual Merit: An active and engaged Statewide Committee, using data and analyses gathered by a professional technology consultant team, identified Sensors as the overarching theme for NH''s first RII effort, and identified three interdisciplinary fields (Space Science, Environmental Science and Nanotechnology) where NH''s universities, colleges and businesses are poised for national prominence through sensor development, testing and application. They further identified access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, and experimental and testing facilities as major barriers to advancing excellence. This proposal requests major infrastructure investments including: * Facilities for developing and testing sensors for a new generation of small satellite systems * Facilities for generating unique turbulence-flow environments for sensor testing and application * Significant upgrades in nano-scale surface measurement and materials deposition facilities
These investments will be augmented by support for faculty development and graduate student assistantships and fellowships. Synergies among the three interdisciplinary science fields are clearly developed. The space science team looks to new developments in nano-scale sensors to reduce costs and enhance reliability in the space environment. The nanotechnology team includes environmental scientists who will take newly developed sensors and test them under challenging field conditions for long-term monitoring applications. The large-scale experimental turbulence system will provide a proving ground for new sensors for atmospheric and aquatic environments, as well as a unique environment for studying turbulence itself.
Broader Impacts: A unique program in Research and Commercialization Partnerships will build on 14 years of experience with the state-funded, NH Industrial Research Center. This Center combines state and industry funds to support faculty and student research on campuses across the state. A modest investment from this EPSCoR award will be leveraged significantly with state and private funds to advance economically relevant research and to develop a core of faculty, student and private-sector participants. Investments in K-12 programming will emphasize direct contact among university researchers, K-12 teachers, faculty at 2- and 4-year colleges, and students at all these levels. Advanced undergrads and graduate students will play a key role in this program as ""Scientists in Residence"" and as mentors and role models. Partnerships with non-profits, such as the Mount Washington Observatory, provide engaging environments for inspiring increased interest in STEM education at all levels.
January 24, 2012 National Science Foundation award # EPS 0701730 EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Program PI: Kevin Gardner, University of New Hampshire A 2007 National Science Foundation EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement award of $7.78 million to the University of New Hampshire funded a four-year project entitled "Enabling Technologies for Scientific Innovation Through Sensor Development." The NSF award provided funds for: (1) The installation of a thermal-vacuum chamber at UNH and a small spacecraft plasma instrumentation facility at Dartmouth, which have enabled the institutions to participate in NASA missions requiring the development of sensor-based instrumentation for small space satellites and have advanced scientific discovery related to the magnetosphere; (2) A wind tunnel at UNH to enable the study of turbulent boundary layer dynamics, which factor across a broad spectrum of disciplines in environmental, atmospheric and marine sciences, plasma physics, energy-related technologies and engineering fluid dynamics; and (3) Significant upgrades in nanoscale science surface measurement and materials deposition facilities at UNH and Dartmouth materials science laboratories, which have led to the discovery of a stable derivative of nonacene, creating a compound that holds promise in the manufacture of flexible organic electronics such as solar cells, solid state lighting and radio frequency identification tags. The improvements in facilities and instrumentation have significantly increased research capacity at both UNH and Dartmouth. During the duration of the project, faculty involved in the EPSCoR program received 31 awards totaling nearly $52 million, of which 75% are NASA missions. A major impact of the EPSCoR grant is the formation of spin-out company Innovacene, Inc., which aims to produce high-quality, low-cost white lighting products using OLED technology that was developed at UNH. A technology developed in a partnership with Foss Manufacturing, of Hampton, NH, received FDA approval. Patent applications were filed in three other research and commercialization partnerships with NH companies. Thirty-nine articles were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. The project also supported the development of the NH EPSCoR program, which has laid the groundwork for a statewide effort to promote STEM education and recognize the importance of science and engineering to the state’s economic development, most notably the development of the state’s first Science and Technology Plan. This award has supported the development of a statewide Inclusive Excellence Plan, an initiative to broaden participation in higher education and specifically in the STEM disciplines. The annual EPSCoR conferences provided an opportunity for faculty from the two systems of higher education – the University System and the Community College System – to meet and discuss shared areas of research interest. In addition, two statewide collaboratives have been formed – one for STEM educators and one for college research administrators. NH EPSCoR has supported training of K-12 teachers in informal summer research opportunities in nanotechnology, as well as scholarships for students from rural, first-generation families to attend summer science camps.
