Slide 1
Transport VI, by Professor Eric Heller, researcher at the Harvard Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for the Science of Nanoscale Systems and their Device Applications. A fusion of research and artistic creation, this image depicts the flow patterns of electrons traveling over a bumpy landscape in a bacterium-sized device. Launched from the upper left, electrons fan out and then form branches, a phenomenon with implications for the development of ultra-small electronic devices.
Credit: Eric J. Heller, Harvard University
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Slide 2
Nanowire, by Professor Eric Heller, researcher at the Harvard Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for the Science of Nanoscale Systems and their Device Applications. An artistic creation inspired by NSF-supported studies of electron flow in a nanowire riddled with tiny, random imperfections. Launched at a single point of contact (the "sun" near the top of the image), electrons flow from there to all regions of the wire. The "unruly" tracks indicate deflection of electron paths by imperfections in the wire, while the spectrum of colors shows the quantum aspect of electrons, with yellow depicting the crest of the wave and blue representing the trough.
Credit: Eric J. Heller, Harvard University
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Slide 3
Researcher Margaret Murnane, Deputy Director of the new NSF-supported Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology (EUV ERC), and the extreme ultraviolet light source she developed with Henry Kapteyn, also a researcher at the EUV ERC. This laser-like beam of light at wavelengths from 10 to 100 times shorter than visible light will enable researchers to "see" tiny features and measure the fastest reactions in the microscopic world, with important applications in the development of ultra-fast computers as well as nanoscale devices.
Credit: Courtesy of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
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Slide 4
A beam of light conducted by a silica nanowire wraps around a strand of human hair. A thousand times thinner than a human hair and smaller than the wavelengths of light they carry, flexible nanowires developed by NSF-supported researchers at Harvard University will enable devices used in medical diagnostics, sensors, and other technologies to transmit more information in less space.
Credit: Limin Tong/Harvard University
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Slide 5
Light scattering from a pair of nanoparticles. The optical properties of these triangular nanoprisms, synthesized at the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies at Northwestern University, could be useful for developing new biomedical diagnostics.
Credit: K. Lance Kelly and George C. Schatz, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC), Northwestern University
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Slide 6
Self-assembly of gold-polymer nanorods into a more complex, curved structure. Developed by researchers at the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies, headquartered at Northwestern University, this new class of nanoscale building blocks mimics the molecular self-assembly techniques found in nature to create ultra-tiny spheres, tubes, and curved sheets with potentially important applications in nanoscale electronic circuits and drug delivery systems.
Credit: Chad Mirkin, Northwestern University
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Slide 7
Emergency response personnel from the Topeka (Kansas) Fire Department test FAST-ACT, a nano-engineered product for neutralizing chemical hazards, for its ability to suppress vapors from a leaking propane tank. Support from the NSF Small Business Innovation Research Program enabled NanoScale Materials, developer of FAST-ACT, to modify its production processes from laboratory to commercial scale.
Credit: NanoScale Materials, Inc.
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Slide 8
Lab-on-a-chip, viewed under a fluorescence microscope. NSF-supported researchers are developing microfluidic systems and micro liquid-handling components (including micro channels, pumps, and mixers) for an integrated laboratory-on-a-chip to be used in biological and medical applications, such as DNA sequencing and molecule separation.
Credit: Melvin Khoo, Sam Lu, and Chang Liu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Slide 9
A researcher at the NSF Microsystems Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech fabricates ultra-thin film wiring. The Center is working to develop revolutionary packaging for faster, ultra-miniaturized microsystems, featuring integration of electronics, photonics, wireless, and microelectromechanical systems in a single-component system. Potential applications include electronic and biomedical systems for health care and safety.
Credit: Courtesy of the Georgia Tech Center for Low Cost Electronics Packaging Research; photo by Stanley F. Leary
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Slide 10
Artificial retina, consisting of two parts: a pair of glasses equipped with a mini-camera and circuits that digitize and transmit images, and an electrode array (inset image) implanted in the eye that stimulates retinal nerve cells to form a 32x32 pixel image. This retinal prosthesis provides artificial vision to people whose blindness is caused by degeneration of retinal rods and cones, associated with diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.
Credit: Intraocular Prosthesis Group at Johns Hopkins University and North Carolina State University; illustration by Jerry Lim
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Slide 11
Professor Melissa Orme of the University of California, Irvine, with the "3-D fax machine" she developed with NSF support. Flexible, high-speed manufacturing techniques based on this technology could be used to fabricate metal prototypes and finished components in industries ranging from aircraft parts to computer processors.
Credit: Photo by support staff of the Droplet Dynamics & Net-Form Manufacturing Laboratory, University of California, Irvine
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Slide 12
"Painting" made of bioluminescent bacteria. The Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University(MSU)-Bozeman, a former Engineering Research Center established with NSF support, organized Bioglyphs, a collaboration of art and science in which engineering students and students from the MSU School of Art worked together to create paintings using laboratory dishes containing a marine bacteria species that glows in the dark.
Credit: © 2002, MSU-Bozeman Bioglyphs Project
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Slide 13
A graduate student examines results from fractionation of a mixture of peptides (protein building blocks) with anti-microbial activity. Researchers at Purdue University are working to isolate and purify naturally occurring antibiotic compounds in tissue engineering scaffolds derived from the small intestines of pigs. Now in clinical trials for use in orthopedic surgical procedures, such scaffolds promote wound healing and result in a much lower incidence of post-surgical infection.
Credit: © Vincent Walter, www.vincentseye.com
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Slide 14
Professor Ray Vito and a graduate student use an organ culture system designed at Georgia Tech, one of the partner institutions of the NSF Center for the Engineering of Living Tissues. Vito is working to develop a device for implantation in patients awaiting surgery that would enable them to grow additional arterial tissue for use during coronary bypass procedures.
Credit: Photo by Gary Meek, courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology
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Slide 15
The motion of a water strider, a common water-walking insect, creates patterns on a water surface sprinkled with a blue dye. Fluid dynamics studies by John Bush, NSF CAREER Award winner and Associate Professor of Mathematics at MIT, unraveled the mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water, using a mechanism that transfers momentum to the underlying fluid in the form of subsurface vortices rather than in waves. Bush's team has also constructed the first water-walking robot, Robostrider, whose means of propulsion is analogous to that of its natural counterpart.
Credit: Courtesy of John Bush, MIT
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Slide 16
Star coral cover a deepwater reef in the Caribbean, mapped and imaged for the first time by SeaBED (inset photo), an autonomous underwater vehicle and imaging platform developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Pioneering research by Woods Hole and other partners in the NSF Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems is creating new technologies for environmental and biomedical detection, with applications ranging from deepwater studies of the structure and health of coral reefs to underground pollution assessments to noninvasive breast cancer detection.
Credit: © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. Courtesy Hanumant Singh and Roy Armstrong (background); © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (inset)
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Slide 17
Professor Robin Murphy of the University of South Florida and a robot she developed for search-and-rescue operations. Her NSF-supported research explores the use of teams of small robots to shore up collapsed buildings by strategically placing and inflating air bags, and then working together to automatically adjust the shoring as rubble shifts or is removed.
Credit: University of South Florida
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Slide 18
X-ray image of a mini-submarine in a cargo container, produced by a mobile imaging system. Developed with NSF support by the Advanced Research and Applications Corporation (ARACOR), the x-ray imaging technology at the heart of the Eagle cargo inspection system can accurately and efficiently scan a 20-foot sea cargo container for the presence of weapons or other contraband in less than 30 seconds.
Credit: ARACOR, Sunnyvale, California
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Slide 19
A researcher at the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Processing and Packaging Studies (CAPPS) uses imaging techniques to investigate and develop novel food processing and packaging technologies for achieving, documenting, and maintaining sterility. CAPPS assists its industry partners with research aimed at commercializing emerging technologies that are expected to revolutionize food industry practices and improve the safety, quality, and nutritional value of packaged foods.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Dr. Howard Zhang, The Ohio State University
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Slide 20
Engineers at Iowa State University use a virtual reality environment to inspect a design. Developed with NSF support, VRSpatial software enables engineers to see and interact with life-sized versions of their designs in a three-dimensional environment. Such interaction allows designers to evaluate multiple design options early in the design process and facilitates collaboration between designers based in different physical locations.
Credit: Judy M. Vance, Virtual Reality Applications Center, Iowa State University
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Slide 21
A student from Hampton University prepares and evaluates catalysts for producing gasoline, other fuels, and feedstocks for the chemical manufacturing industry from alternative, non-petroleum sources. A partnership between Hampton, a historically black university with no graduate program, and the University of Virginia introduces underrepresented minorities to leading-edge engineering research.
Credit: Courtesy of University of Virginia, Office of Minority Affairs
Slide 22
The Dame Point Bridge crosses the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida. NSF-funded engineering research on the response of bridges to earthquakes, wind, and other dynamic forces is at the center of developments leading to new structural concepts and materials for the construction industry.
Credit: HNTB Corporation
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Slide 23
High-resolution radar image of a tornado, captured using short-range radars to depict very fine structures within the tornado. Researchers at NSF's Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere are developing sensing networks and information systems to improve detection, understanding, and prediction of severe storms and other atmospheric hazards.
Credit: University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma
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Slide 24
Large-scale, high-performance earthquake engineering research facility at the University at Buffalo, developed with support from NSF's Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES). In this network, earthquake engineers and students located at different institutions will be able to share experimental and computational resources, collaborate on experiments, and exploit new computational technologies to revolutionize understanding of how very large structures respond to a wide range of seismic activity.
Credit: Courtesy of University at Buffalo and MTS Systems Corporation
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Slide 25
The Robert L. Preger Intelligent WorkplaceTM, a project of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University. This 7,000-square-foot space is a test bed for innovative, integrated systems to create settings that maximize energy efficiency and environmental performance while also enhancing technological adaptability, organizational productivity, and user satisfaction. It has served as a benchmark for high-performance buildings across the United States and in China, France, and Korea.
Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Volker Hartkopf, Director, The Robert L. Preger Intelligent WorkplaceTM, The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD), A National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC), Carnegie Mellon University
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Slide 26
Professor Garrick Louis of the University of Virginia and two of his students receive a briefing on the flow monitoring process at a water treatment plant on the southern Caribbean island of Tobago. Louis applies a systems engineering approach to management of integrated municipal sanitation systems (including drinking water, wastewater and sewage treatment, and solid waste disposal) to build local capacity to sustain safe, reliable, affordable services to underserved communities worldwide. His research features development of methods for capacity assessment, performance evaluation, and strategic resource allocation.
Credit: Courtesy of Garrick E. Louis, Systems Engineering, University of Virginia
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