Partnering: Labs and Small Businesses NATIONAL SBIR/STTR FALL CONFERENCE Nov 13, 2014 Alex Athey, Ph.D. Applied Research Laboratories The University of Texas at Austin alex.athey@arlut.utexas.edu 512-777-1616 Applied Research Laboratories Organized research unit reporting to the VP Research at UT Austin Navy University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) Organized in 1945 One of five such labs (Univ of Washington, Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Hawaii) Asst Secretary of Defense, Research & Engineering (ASD R&E) charter and management Frequently involved as a trusted technical agent of government program office Technical Program Areas: Acoustics, Electromagnetics, Information Technology Emphasis on engineering, developing, and prototyping Sponsorship: Primarily Navy Also work for other federal agencies including the Army, Air Force, DARPA Industry: Mostly oil and gas and energy companies Secure Facility at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus and staff accustomed to working with classified and proprietary information Current staff: about 650 total 325 research staff (20% PhD, 30% MS/MA, 50% BS/BA) 75 150 students (all U.S. citizens) $100M / year ARL:UT operates as bridge between basic research in academia and prototyping and applied engineering solutions for government and industry 1
ARL:UT Laboratories Advanced Technology Lab High Frequency Acoustics Target physics Environment Signal Processing High Resolution Sonar Obstacle Avoidance Under Ice Swimmer Detection Mine Hunting and Avoidance Bottom Mapping Electromagnetic Systems HF Communications Millimeter Wave Sensors Environmental Sciences Lab Low Frequency Acoustics Environment Signal Processing Sensor Performance Instrumentation ASW Applications Undersea Surveillance Tactical Towed Arrays and Hull Mounted Sensors Acoustic Intelligence Seismic Systems Unattended Ground Sensors Signal Physics Target Physics, Signal Processing, Automatic Detection and Classification Advanced Signal Processing Applications Biomedical Ultrasound Higher Order Spectral Techniques Nonlinear Phenomenon Real-time Processing Chemical/Nuclear/Biological Detection Information Sciences Modeling and Simulation Architectures Data Warehousing and Mining Space and Geophysics Lab Ionospheric Geophysics Characterization of Ionosphere Tomography Electromagnetic Propagation Instrumentation Applications Worldwide GPS Monitoring Precision Geodesy Ionospheric/Tropospheric Corrections RF emitter positioning GPS Sled Track Survey mm accuracy over 10 miles Ionospheric Data Assimilation in Signal and Information 3D Sciences Lab Risk Assessment, Cyber and Physical Protection Ocean Engineering Fabrication, specialized welding, potting, and pressure testing for full ocean depth sensor packages Development and deployment of instrumentation to collect data from bottom mounted sensors in deep ocean environments. Underwater Autonomous Vehicles High resolution forward-look sonar for autonomous mapping and precision bathymetry Integrated Sonar Nose Assembly 12 3/4 Bluefin UUV 2
Sensor Systems High resolution sonar and acoustic imaging Protection systems (swimmer detection, passive millimeter wave) Deep ocean recording systems Acoustic arrays Embedded acoustic & seismic sensors Acoustic Sources & Systems Combustive sound source (alternative to air guns) Abatement of low frequency noise due to drilling and/or pile driving Acoustic Communications and Networks Subsea Communications Non-linear Data Transmissions Theory & Modeling Elastic wave propagation Non-destructive test and evaluation Drill strings and pipelines Wind turbines noise model Source and water/sediment propagation Acoustic and EM properties of nano-particles for reservoir characterization RF Communications and Telemetry Over-water compact HF (10-100Mhz) Ground Wave radio systems for non-line of sight (10-150 miles) communication Software and Algorithms Real-time processing and control systems Kalman and Bayesian tracking Automated signal processing Applied to acoustic and seismic data OMI development (operator displays) 3
LIDAR Processing Bare earth extraction, vegetation classification and topography for environmental assessments Cyber-Security and Information Assurance Network security Advanced malware and insider threat detection Data mining and analytics Risk Analysis and Assessments Human Element Critical safety software (IV&V) Physical and cyber protection systems Partnership Examples Classic model of: IP creation, transfer through to commercialization office Office of Industry Engagement Sponsored Research Principal Investigator Activities and IP generation (years ) Office of Commercialization Technology Incubator Program IP provided by sponsor, acting as outsourced R&D team Independent Validation and Verification (sponsor driven) Expert Opinions (legal & advisory) Caveats: We have a core mission to support the Navy and must remain an unbiased source. This can restrict us from working directly with small companies that might service the Naval market one day. This restriction can be lifted with direct government support or parallel funding to support small business concepts. In general, ARL:UT is interested in long partnerships, not outsourced work. 4
ARL:UT Tech Transfer of Science Use-Inspired Basic Research Pasteur s Quadrant ARL works at all stages of development and can do rapid development. Partnerships possible at any stage. Sample Workflow for Deployment Develop Theory Perform Numerical Calculations Test Concept in Bench Top Lab Validate in Near-Real World with Large Testing Facilities Prototype Full System Prove System in Short Term Testing Long Duration Testing Deployment or Delivery 5