This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This MRI-R2 award provides NSF funding over 24 months to acquire a hyperspectral imaging system (HIS) which will be used for geological, environmental, biological, and geographical sciences. The HIS will enable wavelength scanning from 400 to 2500 nm allowing non-destructive materials imaging in both laboratory and field settings. The HIS will be applied to understanding materials by developing spectral image libraries under laboratory and field settings. It will be instrumental in understanding and modeling seasonal changes in materials using field-based observations. In addition the HIS system will be used to ground truth satellite and airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data. Applications for the HIS include crop residue modeling, water quality measurements and modeling, forest species identification and differentiation, lithography and dopant research, understanding lithography, lake core mapping and understanding urban infrastructure. The HIS is proposed for additional STEM research outside the geosciences to include dye and fabric detection and classification, wetland modeling, plant stress analysis, invasive species and wildlife monitoring and modeling, and art restoration and conservation. This effort will establish a capability serving a broad range of disciplines and departments at an undergraduate university. Impacts will span research, education, training, commercial partnerships and infrastructure. Summer workshops will provide outreach to K-12 students. Eight classes from Geography, Biology, Earth Science and Environmental Studies and the Physics Departments will be directly supported. The PI will have overall responsibility for administering the instrumentation. A 20%-time research associate will be allocated to oversee day-to-day operations and maintenance. Existing newly-renovated space will be used to house and store the instrument. The University has committed to purchase a four year extended warranty for the system.
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NSF MRI Award #0958988 was used to purchase a Hyperspectral Imaging System (HIS) from Headwall Photonics to conduct multidisciplinary research and education in the areas of geological, environmental, biological, and geographical sciences. This system takes hundreds of contiguous spectral channels from within the range of 400 to 2500 nm to conduct material analyses without physical contact or disturbance of the surface. The system was purchased and successfully installed in May 2010 and is currently operational. As the primary non-PhD granting undergraduate institution in Iowa, this new instrument made possible: (1) developed collaborative student-faculty research environment and provided research-oriented learning environment for undergraduate students, (2) enhanced several core curriculum in various courses at UNI, (3) helped to publications including co-presented and co-written by students, (4) development of hyperspectral libraries for a number of key plant groups, and (5) trained faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from multiple disciplines and institutions. Though several field-based projects were originally planned but unable to accomplish due to instrument’s hardware/software communication problem which is started in summer of 2011. This was resolved by bringing the field samples to lab and analyzed. As a follow up and sustain long term basis, competitive three year NSF REU proposal was written and got funded last year. The acquired instrument from the MRI program is currently used for training several undergraduate students from across the country and also used for graduate and undergraduate research.
