100 Cities Project: Sensing for Solutions – Bridging Cities and Science

This project uses remote-sensing technology to detect patterns of urbanization and their environmental consequences in 100 cities across the globe.

30%-Efficient III-V/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells

The goal of this project is develop a silicon-based solar cell which contains Group III and V elements from the Periodic Table, arranged in layers which have the potential to increase the solar energy conversion efficiency to 30%.

A Community-Driven Scientific Observations Network to achieve Interoperability of Environmental and Ecological Data

The Scientific Observations Network (SONet) will initiate a multi-disciplinary, community-driven effort to define and develop the necessary specifications and technologies to facilitate semantic interpretation and integration of observational data.

A Fire History of America, 1960-2012

The past 50 years have witnessed remarkable changes in American fire policy, institutions, sciences, and practices. Yet the standard history, Fire in America, ends in the 1970s. It misses the momentous events that make America’s great cultural revolution on fire. But more is at stake than missing years. The revolution changed the storyline. It deserves its own narrative.

A Logic-Based Dynamic Policy Model for Adaptive Workflow Management

This proposal presents a research program for developing and evaluating dynamic policy models, adaptive composition approaches, and risk management strategies.

A Longitudinal Analysis of the Social Dynamics of Environmental Equity in Baltimore

Through an interdisciplinary case study of Baltimore, the research will identify the spatiotemporal dynamics of environmental-equity patterns and processes in a large, postindustrial city that has undergone profound socioeconomic change.

A Machine Learning Approach to Computational Understanding of Skill Criteria in Surgical Training

This award will explore a machine-learning-based approach to computational understanding of surgical skills based on temporal inference of visual and motion-capture data from surgical simulation.

A Multi-Factor Analysis of the Emergence of a Specialist-Based Economy Among the Phoenix Basin Hohokam

This study will analyze pottery provenance data gathered in the study of Hohokam ceramics in the Phoenix Basin, Arizona. The data will be used to examine the social and economic factors that contributed to widespread demand for specialized pottery production in this region during prehistory. The research provides insight into the mechanisms which facilitate effective societal functioning at a traditional level of development. It also provides insight into an important achievement in prehistoric America.

A New Sustainable Binder for Concretes Based on Carbonation of Waste Metallic Iron Powder

This research advances a method to design and develop a carbon-negative binding material for concrete, based on the carbonation of waste metallic iron powder. This approach will result in beneficial utilization of tens of thousands of tons of waste iron powder that are being landfilled, along with permanent sequestration of carbon dioxide as stable carbonates.

A New Theory and Data Product Quantifying Ecosystem Sensitivity to Climate Change

This project will develop a complex-systems theoretical approach based on information flow in observed ecological process networks, using data from NEON and existing observational networks, which will be applied to, (1) predict nonlinear transition thresholds in the multiscalar couplings between local and regional ecosystem processes by observing feedback couplings in observed ecosystem process networks, and (2) directly measure the current sensitivity of regional ecosystems in the USA to incremental changes in specific climate variables.

A Research Network for Computational Modeling in the Socioecological Sciences

This project establishes a scientific research collaboration network to support and expand the development and use of computational modeling in the social and life sciences.

A Research Network for Computational Modeling in the Socioecological Sciences

This project establishes a scientific research collaboration network to support and expand the development and use of computational modeling in the social and life sciences.

A Surface Stress Paradigm for Studying and Developing Catalyst and Storage Materials Relevant to the Hydrogen Economy

The overarching scientific objective of this program is to enhance the understanding of hydrogen economy critical phenomena through a surface stress paradigm.

A Wearable Wireless System for Real-Time Monitoring of Chemical Toxicants

The ability to quickly and reliably detect chemical toxicants in air is critically important for health risk assessment, for better understanding the role of gene-environment interactions in human diseases, and for health disparities research.

A Wireless Multi-functional Sensor Badge for Epidemiological Studies

A multifunctional wireless badge-sized sensor will be developed and validated to assess personal exposure levels to multiple analytes. Such a sensor will address the need of low cost, wearable and multifunctional device for large population environmental health studies.

Accelerating Innovation in Agent-Based Simulations: Application to Complex Socio-Behavioral Phenomena

This project will expand the capabilities of agent-based modeling in supporting the design, engineering, and testing of complex systems.

Acquisition of an Imaging Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer

This award will acquire an imaging secondary ion mass spectrometer instrument to support an extended group of researchers working on diverse topics involving both soft (biological) and hard materials (minerals), and at the interface between the two (biosensors, antibiotic clays, nanoparticle toxicity).

Adaptation and Self-Regulation in Multichromophoric Molecules

This research project involves the synthesis and study of complex molecules consisting of covalently linked chromophores, electron donors and acceptors, and photochromic molecules that change their structure upon exposure to light.

Adapting Law to Rapid Technological Change

The goal of this project is to identify and evaluate new legal regulatory approaches that will be more adaptive and flexible to better keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies.

Adaptive Pathways to Climate Change (APaCC): Livestock and Livelihood Systems in Gandaki River Basin

This project is designed to elucidate spatial and temporal dimensions of the adaptive capacities of farmers and livestock keepers vulnerable to exposure of climate and other livelihood stressors, and link this understanding to locally relevant climate adaptation portfolio in the Gandaki River Basin of the Western region of Nepal.

Adolescent and Adult Outcomes of Early Life Lactroncrine Programming of Temperament: Neuroenergetics and Social Behavior

This project will investigate how mother's milk ingested in infancy influences neurobiology and social behavior in adolescence and adulthood by programming behavior during early life.

Advancement of Unsaturated Soils Theory into the Undergraduate Civil Engineering Curriculum

This project involves developing student-centered lecture and laboratory modules on the basic principles of unsaturated soils theory and the application of these principles to problems of movement of structural foundation systems. The modules emphasize solving geo-hazard problems of collapsible and expansive soils.

Advancing Conservation in a Social Context: Working in a World of Trade-Offs

This project investigates the tradeoffs between human well-being and biodiversity-conservation goals, and between conservation and other economic, political, and social agendas at local, national, and international scales.

Advancing Infrastructure and Institutional Resilience to Climate Change for Coupled Water-Energy Systems

Western US regions are particularly vulnerable to future climate-induced environmental changes, given their scarce water resources and heavy reliance on thermoelectric power generation. As climate-related environmental events become more common, water and electricity managers will face challenges when handling vulnerabilities in the interdependent water-electricity systems. This project will develop a framework for assessing coupled water and electricity infrastructure-institution vulnerability to future climate events.

Affective Learning Companions: Modeling and Supporting Emotion During Learning

Emotion and motivation are fundamental to learning; students with high intrinsic motivation often outperform students with low motivation. Yet affect and emotion are often ignored or marginalized with respect to classroom practice. This project will help redress the emotion versus cognition imbalance.

Agrarian Landscapes in Transition: A Cross-Scale Approach

This interdisciplinary project traced the effects of the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture at six U.S. long-term ecological research (LTER) sites, with cross comparisons in Mexico and France, using a variety of monitoring strategies, quantitative modeling, and comparative data. Agrarian transformations represent the most pervasive alteration of the Earth's terrestrial environment during the past 10,000 years.

Agriculture, Water, and Institutions: Investigation of Water Management, Policy and Its Effect on Sustainable Water Use by Agriculture in Arizona

This project seeks to interview farmers and water policy professionals, as well as review available literature and public records to fill a gap that exists pertaining to how the Groundwater Management Act of 1980 has affected farmers' use of groundwater in irrigated agriculture in the Phoenix Active Management Area.

Alliance for Innovation in Local Government

The Alliance for Innovation is a unique partnership between the Innovation Group, the International City/County Management Association (2006-2018), and ASU to build the capacity to be innovative in local government. Through face-to-face networking opportunities and technology services, the Alliance for Innovation is transforming local governance through discovery and application of leading ideas and practices to better serve citizens and their communities.

Alteration of Mantel Peridotite: Geochemical Fluxes and Dynamics of Far from Equilibrium Transport

This project involves an interdisciplinary study of hydration, carbonation and oxidation of mantle peridotite interacting with aqueous fluids at temperatures below ~ 300C

Alternative Futures for the American Residential Macrosystem

This project investigates urbanization's impact on the ecological homogenization of the American Residential Macrosystem (ARM) in terms of plant biodiversity, soil carbon and nitrogen cycle pools and processes, microclimate, hydrography, and land cover.

An Assessment of the Effects of Crab Rationalization on Fleet Behavior, Input Usage, and Costs

The rationalization of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries has created a substantial need for economic analysis of the impacts of the program along many dimensions of the fishery.

An Experiential Pedagogy for Sustainability Ethics

This Ethics Education in Science and Engineering project will integrate multi-institutional, cross-disciplinary education and research efforts to create a novel pedagogy of sustainability ethics for science and engineering graduate students

An Integrated Framework for Creation and Assessment of Sustainable Construction Processes

This project seeks to develop sustainability metrics related to construction operations which can be used by construction companies throughout the nation and beyond.

An Integrated Hybrid System for Environmental Health Applications

The objective of this research is to develop a miniaturized detection system for real-time monitoring of vehicle emissions.

Analysis and Modeling of Traffic Instabilities in Congested Traffic

The primary objectives of this collaborative research study are to 1) better understand the interactive roles played by lane-changing and car-following, 2) quantify their effects on oscillations, and 3) develop a mathematical simulation model that accurately predicts the evolution of oscillations. Traffic oscillations are stop-and-go driving motions that arise in congested traffic.

AORA Solar Tulip

AORA Solar NA has agreed to install the first ever Solar Tulip hybrid generating facility in the United States on university land, and ASU faculty, research staff and students will work hand in hand with AORA to enhance the system.

Aquatic Fate and Toxicity of III-V Materials in the Presence of Nanoparticles Used in Industrial Polishing Processes

The growing application of III-V materials (e.g., gallium indium arsenide) in semiconductor and electronics manufacturing is expected to lead to generation of large volumes of wastewaters containing III-V metals (arsenic (As), gallium (Ga) and indium (In)) and metal oxide nanoparticles (SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and CeO₂). The potential that these engineered nanoparticles (NPs) may act as carriers of toxic III-V species and modify the reactivity of the NPs themselves is a concern. This project aims to quantify the adsorption of III-V materials by NPs and explore how these interactions impact the environmental fate, biological uptake, and aquatic toxicity of III-V species and NPs.

Archaeological Data Integration for the Study of Long-Term Human and Social Dynamics

This integrative project will address the challenge of enabling scientifically meaningful integration and use of the expanding body of archaeological data.

Architecture and Distributed Management for Reliable Mega-Scale Smart Grids

The objective of this research is to establish a foundational framework for smart grids that enables significant penetration of renewable DERs and facilitates flexible deployments of plug-and-play applications, similar to the way users connect to the Internet.

Arizona Hydrological Information System

This project is developing the information infrastructure needed to access data on water-related research, technology, planning, education, and outreach from multiple sources in the Southwest.

Arizona Initiative of Nano-Electronics

The Arizona Initiative for Nano-Electronics (AINE) is a coordinated network of research centers focused on ASU research in nanoelectronics, including nanophotonics, molecular electronics, nanoionics and computational nanoscience. AINE's goal is to strongly impact future technology areas related to ultra-low power/ultra-high speed electronics, and hybrid biomolecular electronics at the interface between the biological and electronics worlds.

Arizona Rooftop Solar Challenge

The Arizona Governor's Office of Energy Policy will identify best practices in finance, permitting, and zoning to move toward voluntary statewide uniformity. The project will drive adoption of an online system in five jurisdictions that allows for over-the-counter/same-day permit review.

Arizona Water Institute

The Arizona Water Institute built economic opportunities in Arizona by improving access to water information, assisting communities and local governments with technology transfer, and helping water-related industries.

Assessing and Managing the Sustainability of Global Reverse Supply Chains: The Case of Personal Computers

The main goal for this work is to develop the intellectual framework necessary for engineering and managing an international reverse supply chain from a sustainability perspective.

Assessing Decadal Climate Change Impacts on Urban Populations in the Southwestern USA

In the cities of the southwestern United States, regional warming combined with increasing urban populations and the resulting urban heat effect are straining limited supplies of electricity and water. Cities can be designed that are more resilient, minimizing human impacts and energy and water stresses, under scenarios of decadal warming trends. The project is to modify existing models to transform the design of urban neighborhoods to be be quantifiably more adaptive and resilient to all types of decadal climate change.

Assessing Long-Term Technological Progress for Alternative Transport Energy Sources

The objective of this research is to advance modeling of technological progress of alternative energies by developing and applying new methods to (1) estimate long-term bounds on economic and environmental performance, (2) assess life cycle economic and environmental costs, and (3) assess uncertainty in technological forecasting

Assessing Prohibited Species Bycatch Avoidance Behaviors and Outcomes in the Amendment 80 Fisheries of the North Pacific

The is an econometric (application of statistics to economic data) study on the behaviors and decision making of Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands fishermen before and after Amendment 80 to the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands fishery management plan.

Atmospheric Processing of Iron — Does Particle Size Influence Iron Stability?

This project will examine the influence of particle size on atmospheric reactions of iron and, in turn, the influence of particle size on iron solubility.

Belmont Forum GB Initiative Collaborative Research: Multi-scale Adaptations to Global Change and Their Impacts on Vulnerability in Coastal Areas

This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 13-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum and the G8 countries Heads of Research Councils.

Beyond Feature Selection and Extraction – an Integrated Framework for High-Dimensional Data of Small Labeled Samples

This research is addressing two key pressing issues with massive data: high dimensionality and a shortage of labeled data.

Biocomplexity Research: Life Cycle Management Programs of Consumer Products

The National Center of Excellence for SMART Innovations for Urban Climate and Energy in partnership with the Industrial Design program of the College of Design at Arizona State University undertook a Life Cycle Management research project supporting the Dial Corporation's Laundry Care Division.

Biodesign Center for BioEnergetics

The Center for BioEnergetics focuses on improved diagnoses and treatments for diseases caused by impaired energy metabolism. The majority of these diseases are degenerative and affect children and young adults. Mitochondrial diseases have historically been classified into discreet groupings of diseases that are relatively rare. Yet, together, the more than 40 mitochondrial diseases comprise a significant human and health care burden.

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Training Network

The Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Training Network (BESTNet) brings the benefits of research stimulated by Diversitas, a global-change research initiative, to students in US universities.

Biological Stoichiometry of Microbes under Severe P-Limitation

This project will investigate the biological rules that determine the elemental recipe ("stoichiometry") of microorganisms that grow under severely P-deficient conditions in a set of unique desert springs in Mexico.

Blue Tool: Infrastructure for Innovative Cyberphysical Data Center Management Research

BlueTool will promote the use of holistic cyber-physical concepts to foster the development of energy-efficient and sustainable data centers.

Broadening the Reach of Engineering through Community Engagement (BRECE)

The Broadening the Reach of Engineering through Community Engagement (BRECE) Scholars Program provides 4 years of mentoring, academic and financial support to a cohort of 13 financially-challenged and academically-talented students to pursue engineering baccalaureate degrees in the College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University.

Building an Effective Service-Oriented Cyberinfrastructure Portal to Support Sustained Polar Sciences

This project will develop components of a polar cyberinfrastructure (CI) to support researchers and users for data discovery and access.

Building Evidence for Legal Decision-Making in Real Time: Legal Triage during Declared Emergencies

With input from legal and public health practitioners, this project will explore how legal decisions are made in real-time during declared emergencies.

Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) – State of Arizona

Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) project is a program of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative. It is in 16 states and 2 cities of which Arizona is one. Arizona State University is collaborating with Arizona Department of Health Services in this project.

Carbon Nanotubes: A New Synthetic Nanopore for Sequencing

This new technology could enable ultra-low cost, single molecule sequencing with long reads, making whole-genome studies available to the general population. Making a search of whole genomes for rare variants economically feasible has many implications for medicine.

CAREER: Integrated Research and Education to Improve Pavement Sustainability Using Bio-Binder

This project is to engineer sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based adhesives for use in construction and pavement. The research objective of the project is to test the hypothesis that introducing bio-binder to asphalt binder can change the phase structure within asphalt binder to produce bio-modified binder (BMB) with desired rheological and surface characteristics.

CareerWise II: Enhanced Resilience Training for STEM Women in an Interactive, Multimodal Web-Based Environment

reerWise-II is a continuation of CareerWise-I. This is a research project testing the efficacy of resiliency training over the Internet for the benefit of female doctoral students in engineering and the physical sciences, in order to reduce their attrition from their doctoral programs.

CEGS: Microscale Life Sciences Center

Increasingly, it is becoming apparent that understanding, predicting, and diagnosing disease states is confounded by the inherent heterogeneity of in situ cell populations. This variation in cell fate can be dramatic, for instance, one cell living while an adjacent cell dies. Thus, in order to understand fundamental pathways involved in disease states, it is necessary to link preexisting cell state to cell fate in the disease process at the individual cell level.

Center for Environmental Science Applications

The Center for Environmental Science Applications (CESA) promotes research that reconciles the needs of society and nature through projects involving urban systems, climate change, and sustainable technologies.

Center for Nanotechnology in Society at ASU

The Center for Nanotechnology and Society (CNS) is working to increase capacity for social learning within the nanotechnology enterprise and to increase society's capacity to engage in anticipatory governance of nanotechnology and other emerging technologies. Thorough these avenues, CNS strives to increase the ability for society to make informed decisions about evolving nanotechnology and to guide nanotechnology knowledge and innovation towards a more socially desireable outome.

Center for Population Dynamics

CePoD is a transdisciplinary research center drawing scholars who are interested in broad aspects of population research. The center is located in the Phoenix metropolitan area, a vibrant, rapidly growing urban center of the American Southwest. We pursue novel avenues of population research in local, regional, national and international settings.

Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics and Technology,

CRESMET is a collaborative center that leverages intellectual and fiscal resources from key colleges in the University to study and improve education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The Center brings together individuals, programs and organizations interested in improving K-20 STEM education to research, develop, and assess educational theories, curricula and administrative policies that impact science, mathematics, engineering and technology education; and to encourage and support wide-scale sharing and implementation of effective approaches to producing a more scientifically and technologically literate populace and more capable science, mathematics, engineering, and technology majors.

Center for Sustainable Health

The Center for Sustainable Health is working to build a sustainable world where every human can live a healthy and fulfilling life.

Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research

Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, the Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa.

Charge Transport through Single Redox Molecules and Water Bridges

In this study, Professor Nongjian Tao and his research group at Arizona State University will develop single molecule break-junction techniques to study electronic conductance through polyaromatic hydrocarbon molecules and molecular bridge structures formed from water.

Chemical Characterization of Ambient Coarse Particulate Matter in Rural Areas of Arizona Impacted by Significant Population Growth

This project characterizes the chemical composition of coarse and fine particulate matter (PM) to support source attribution and to quantify local sources and regional transport contributing to elevated PM levels in Pinal County, AZ.

CI-TEAM Demonstration Project: WaterHUB for Cyber Enabled Training, Education and Research in Water Resources

Considering the growing importance of water resources issues around the globe, this project addresses the need to train the current and future generations of teachers, students and general public to use cyberinfrastructure (CI) to address water related issues.

CISE RI: An Interdisciplinary Research Environment for Motion Analysis

During this five-year project, the PIs hope to achieve major advances in motion analysis and core computer science areas: computer vision, human-computer interaction, information and data management, geometric computation, knowledge systems and robotics.

City of Avondale: City County Visioning Workshop and Decision Alignment

The goal of the visioning workshop is to establish alignment of the Avondale City Council and staff decisions for managed growth planning for several identified areas of study that are of considerable interest to Avondale, Arizona with the use of Decision Theater visualization tools.

City of Phoenix Waste Diversion Development Plan

The City of Phoenix has set a goal of achieving a city?wide diversion rate of 40 percent by 2020. To accomplish this, the Public Works Department (PWD) has created a "Waste Diversion Action Plan" consisting of a number of programs, strategies, measurable outcomes, and responsibilities. These are organized into short?term (0?1 years), mid?term (2?4 years) and long?term (5?8 years) strategies focused on achieving a city?wide waste diversion rate of 40 percent by 2020.

Climate and Population Change and Thresholds of Peak Ecological Water: Integrated Synthesis for Dryland Rivers

This project seeks to understand how ecosystem services change in response to extraction or addition of water to ecosystems due to population change and climate change.

Cloud and Fog Processing of Organic Matter

This project investigates the fate of organic matter in a cloud/fog system.

CNH-L: The Dynamics of Adaptation to Climate-Driven Variability in California Current Fisheries And Fishing Communities

In this project, ecologists, economists and social scientists will collaborate and integrate primary survey research, modeling, and outreach to: 1) understand how environmental variability affects, and is affected by, linked social and ecological processes; 2) investigate how more integrated fisheries management can enhance social and ecological resilience; and 3) engage state and federal fisheries managers and fishing communities in the development and application of modeling approaches to better achieve ecological and social goals.

Collaborative Research: Climatic and Environmental Constraints on Aboveground-Belowground Linkages and Diversity Across a Latitudinal Gradient in Antarctica

This project will identify the soil community at many sites along the Antarctic Peninsula to discover how the community changes with environmental conditions from north to south, and will also identify how the soil community at each site differs under different types of plants.

Collaborative Research: EAGER: Pathways and Patterns of Litter Chemistry During Decomposition

This project will determine whether diverse plant litter types maintain their initial chemical differences throughout decay, remaining chemically unique as often assumed, or if decomposing litter follows different chemical trajectories to either converge or diverge over the course of decomposition.

Combining Methods from Geochemistry and Molecular Biology to Predict the Functions of Microbial Communities

Combining geochemical data with microbial ecological data makes it possible to predict the distribution of microbial populations and the processes that they catalyze in nature. In this research we will focus on the contrasting microbial processes of methane production (e.g., methanogenesis) and methane consumption (e.g., methanotrophy) as a framework for evaluating the linkages between geochemical predictions and the distribution, diversity, and activity of organisms that catalyze these processes.

Comparative Cross-National Analysis of Implementation of Natural Resource Rights

This project explores the effectiveness of legal, institutional, and political mechanisms for realizing human rights in natural resources that invoke sustainability concerns.

Comparative Cross-National Analysis of Implementation of Natural Resources Rights

This project explores the effectiveness of legal, institutional, and political mechanisms for realizing human rights in natural resources that invoke sustainability concerns.

Comparative Urban Genetics: Towards a Common Methodology for Pragmatic Analysis of Cities

Cities are where most people live and work; most innovation takes place; most pollution and wealth are generated; and most vulnerability to climate change occurs. Finding an equitable way to bring urban consumption into better balance with available resources would greatly help society meet global sustainability goals. The workshop (May 21-23, 2010) looked at new ways to collect complex city data streams, feed that information into models that help envision the future, and translate those visions into improved urban policies.

Composition of the Plankton Community and its Contribution to Particle Flux in the Sargasso Sea

The overall objective of this proposal is to investigate linkages between the presence of different key groups of phytoplankton in the euphotic zone and their contribution to particle flux at the subtropical North Atlantic time-series station BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study) by applying a range of traditional and novel molecular techniques

COMPUGIRLS: A Culturally Relevant Technology Program for Girls

Arizona State University (ASU) in collaboration with Phoenix Union High School District, Scottsdale Union High School District, Roosevelt District, Boys and Girls Club of the East Valley-Sacaton, Intel, Applied Learning Technologies Institute, Dynamic Educational Leadership for Teachers and Administrators (D.E.L.T.A.), ASU's School of Computing & Informatics, ASU's Video Game Design Camp, and Arizona Council of Black Engineers and Scientists Computer Camp (ACBES), are conducting a culturally relevant multimedia program strategy, COMPUGIRLS.

Connection One

Connection One is a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center working closely with private industry and the federal government on various projects in RF and wireless communication systems, networks, remote sensing, and homeland security. The Center's mission is to develop the technology to enable end-to-end communication systems for a variety of applications, ranging from cellular to environmental and defense applications. One aspect of the research is the development of integrated RF and wireless circuits-on-a-chip to simplify and enable a small, portable, all-in-one communication device. An additional research focus is the development of efficient architectures and routing techniques for networked applications.

Consortium for Emerging Technologies, Military Operations and National Security

CETMONS unique role is crucial in today's era of unprecedented and complex technological evolution. It is necessary to understand and support military operations and national security in a complicated, violent, and rapidly changing world.

Copper Triangle Pilot Project: Enhancing Opportunities for Geoscience Studies and Careers in a Culturally Diverse, Underserved Rural Mining Area

The Copper Triangle Pilot Project (CTPP) is a partnership among Arizona State University, Central Arizona College, a rural high-need school district (Superior Unified School District) and local industry (Resolution Copper Mining Company) to develop a research-based, sustainable pathway to baccalaureate degrees and careers in the Earth and environmental sciences for underrepresented minority students (mostly Hispanic and Native American) who reside in an underserved rural mining area (the "Copper Triangle") of central Arizona.

Cross-disciplinary education in social & ethical aspects of nanotechnology

This project will develop a unique four-weeks-long workshop experience for undergraduate students that will explore the social and ethical issues raised by nanotechnology, build cross-disciplinary communicative competence, and enhance engineering leadership and teamwork skills.

Culturally Specific Substance Abuse Prevention for Urban American Indian Youth

The proposed study draws upon the project team's research on the etiology of substance use among American Indian youth of the urban Southwest to conduct translational research that recognizes salient risk and resiliency factors identified by these youth, social and relational contexts that expose them to substances, and their culturally appropriate drug resistance strategies.

Cyber Enabled Data and Modeling Driven Curriculum Modules for Hydrology Education

This project is creating a new instructional strategy and new learning materials using data- and modeling-based modules that are enabling undergraduate students to better understand cause-effect relationships, form and test hypotheses, and learn how to integrate the latest tools for better understanding of hydrologic theory and processes.

Cyber-Knowledge Infrastructure for Geospatial Data

This CAREER award will support a promising early-career investigator's efforts to build key theories and techniques of a cyber-knowledge infrastructure that enhances access, search, and reasoning capabilities for using geospatial data across the ever-expanding Web.

CyberGIS Software Integration for Sustained Geospatial Innovation

This project will establish CyberGIS as a fundamentally new software framework comprising a seamless integration of cyberinfrastructure, GIS, and spatial analysis/modeling capabilities.

Decision Center for a Desert City

The Decision Center for a Desert City conducts climate, water, and decision research and develops innovative tools to bridge the boundary between scientists and decision makers and put their work into the hands of those whose concern is for the sustainable future of Greater Phoenix.

Decoupling Structure and Surface Chemistry Impacts of Carbon Nanomaterials on Environmentally Relevant Electrochemical and Biological Activity

Nanomaterials are engineered at the molecular level to modify their structure and functional properties, which in turn, enables the development of innovative nano-enabled technologies. However, these same property manipulations have the potential to influence the adverse impacts of these engineered nanomaterials. It is therefore, critically important to drive the development of safe and functional nano-enabled products.

Deeper Modeling via Affective Meta-tutoring

This study addresses, through investigation of students in Arizona High School summer programs, how students learn, understand and manipulate scientific models of the carbon cycle and the water cycle.

Defining a Dynamical Behavioral Model to Support a Just in Time Adaptive Intervention

This EAGER project supports exploratory work to develop a novel approach to the creation of a dynamical computational model of human health behavior. The goal of this high risk project is to apply an experimental design that merges methods from multiple disciplines to generate the necessary data to develop a dynamical systems model of human health behavior.

Defining Stream Biomes to Better Understand and Forecast Stream Ecosystem Change

This research will develop a biome classification system for streams to better understand how streams function and provide an ability to predict how streams will change from human and environmental factors.

Design of Dense RFID Systems for Indexing in the Physical World Across Space, Time, and Human Experience

This research pursues a multidisciplinary, integrative approach to investigate fundamental technical challenges in radio frequency identificatin (RFID), both at the physical and data management layers, to realize innovative data-centric applications such as attribute-based object search.

Designing SKOPE: Synthesized Knowledge of Past Environments

An important focus of scientific research is understanding the complex interactions between human societies and the climatic, physical, and biological environments on which they depend, and which they, in turn, influence. Past environments were often quite different from those we experience today. This project will develop plans for an online tool, SKOPE (Synthesized Knowledge of Past Environments), that will provide state-of-the-art information about the environment experienced by humans at a given a place and time, past or present.

Detection of Engineering Nanomaterials in Drinking Water, Food, Commercial Product

This project will provide to the emerging nano environmental and health-effects community well-documented analytical techniques and methodologies for quantifying the size, number concentration and mass concentration of engineered nanomaterials within matrices (water, food, biological fluids). This information is critical to assessing nanomaterial dosage and exposure during in vivo or in vitro health effects studies.

Determinants of Grassland Dynamics in Tibetan Highlands: Livestock, Wildlife, and the Culture and Political Economy of Pastoralism

This project will deepen basic understanding of the complex interactions involving geophysical, biological, social, and policy factors and feedback systems that affect grassland status

Determinants of Indoor and Outdoor Exposure to Ozone and Extreme Heat in a Warming Climate and the Health Risks for an Aging Population (HOME AIR PROJECT)

The overall goals of this proposed project are to 1) develop an integrated modeling framework to characterize current and future health risks of an older population to urban ozone and extreme heat, indoors and outdoors; 2) improve understanding of how emerging trends in building design and management practices affect indoor air quality; and 3) build local capacity in reducing negative health outcomes during episodes of high ozone and extreme heat.

Determining the Optical Properties of Carbonaceous Nanoparticles in Atmospheric Aerosols by Electron Imaging and Monochromated Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

This proposal involves the development of techniques to measure the physical properties of poorly characterized environmental nanomaterials that have important consequences for both climate change and human health.

Developing a Framework to Better Engage Students in STEM via Game Design

This project is focused on active learning through game design approaches for civil engineering and construction courses.

Developing a Life Cycle Assessment Model for Evaluating Policy Implications of Biofuels

This project seeks to evaluate and develop policy options for achieving sustainable regional biofuels/bioenergy production and commercialization.

Developing and Assessing Macroethics Modules for the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative Responsible Conduct of Research Courses

This combination education and research project will develop, assess, and disseminate innovative introductory macroethical course modules.

Developing and Testing an Integrated Paleoscape Model for the Early Middle and Late Pleistocene of the South Coast of South Africa

This research examines the coupled response of people and the environment in the Cape Floral Region on the south coast of Africa to major fluctuations in global climate during the time of the origins of the modern human lineage.

Developing Best Management Practices Plan for Prevention and Treatment of Zooplankton Contamination in Algal Crop Production

The project addresses the Program Area Priority: Crop Protection for Sustainable Feedstock Production Systems. Contamination of cultures and grazing of algae by zooplankton (e.g., rotifers, amoebas and protozoa) represents the most challenging issue for sustainable algal mass culture, preventing algae from being a practical source of oil crops for production of bioenergy and bioproducts.

Developing Natural Climate Solutions for Multiple Benefits

Development of a Multi-scale Model to Determine Optimal Urban Heat Mitigation Strategies for Vulnerable Populations in a Changing Climate

Extreme heat in urban areas can have deleterious consequences on human health and can lead to increases in building cooling energy use. These impacts are projected to become more significant in the future due to ongoing urbanization, population densification, and global climate change. The aim of this research is to answer the question, what are the most effective urban heat mitigation strategies for the populations that are most vulnerable to extreme heat?

Development of Geochemical Proxies to Evaluate Larval pH-Exposure History

This project will develop a new interdisciplinary partnership between connectivity ecology, metal isotope geochemistry,, and paleoclimatology to identify new proxies for ocean acidification that can be used to assess pH exposures in living organisms and, potentially to interpret the geologic record.

Development of Long-Range Statistical Forecast Guidance for Arizona Monsoon Precipitation

Development of New Prototype Tools, and Adaptation and Implementation of Current Resources for a Course in Numerical Methods

The project, a collaboration among University of South Florida, Old Dominion University and Arizona State University, is developing state-of-the-art prototype web-based learning tools for open courseware in undergraduate numerical methods courses.

Diatom Nanopore Membrane Devices for Molecular Transport and Biomembrane Studies

The research will have a tremendous impact in the field of nanofluidic devices, eventually replacing the track-etched nanopore membranes that are currently used for filtration. Since the pore sizes are small and the pore length is short without compromising the mechanical stability, faster diffusion of molecules is expected.

Dimensions US-China: Collaborative Research: Phylogenetic, Functional, and Genetic Diversity and Ecosystem Functions in a Fragmented Landscape

This project - jointly funded with the Chinese National Science Foundation (NSFC) - will study the relationships among ecological/evolutionary measures of biodiversity, and ecosystem functions. In particular, the investigators will investigate the hypothesis that succession drives changes in biodiversity, which in turn causes altered ecosystem function.

Disaster Preparation and Response via Big Data Analysis and Robust Networking

In this project, researchers from the US and Japan study novel approaches to disaster preparation, response and recovery using survivable communication networks and big data analysis of social media data.

Do Microenvironments Govern Macroecology?

This project couples field studies of local climate, tree establishment and tree growth with regional climate modeling and models that depict spatial processes of plant population and fire dynamics.

Do Microenvironments Govern Macroecology?

This project combines field studies of local climate, tree establishment and tree growth with regional climate modeling and models that depict spatial processes of plant population and fire dynamics, and also bridges environmental and plant processes from the local scale of individual trees to whole tree populations at the regional level.

Drought-Net: A Global Network to Assess Terrestrial Ecosystem Sensitivity to Drought

The Drought-Net Research Coordination Network was established to advance understanding of the determinants of terrestrial ecosystem responses to drought by bringing together an international group of scientists to conduct three complementary research coordination activities: 1) planning and coordinating new research using standardized measurements to leverage the value of existing drought experiments across the globe, 2) finalizing the design and facilitating the establishment of a new international network of coordinated drought experiments, and 3) training highly motivated graduate students to conduct synthetic and network-level research through Distributed Graduate Seminars focused on drought.

DSP Algorithms for Silicon Ion-Channel Sensors

The objective of this research is to develop signal processing algorithms for processing data from silicon ion-channel sensors to identify the presence of particular chemicals.

Dynamic Response of the Soil Production Function to Erosion Rates

This project will examine the rate at which soil is produced and eroded in order to better assess the controls on the distribution of this very important natural resource.

Dynamic State Transitions in Vehicular Traffic and the Effects of Driver Behavior

The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program award is to investigate the effects of driver behaviors, such as car-following and lane-changing, on traffic state transitions (i.e., changes in traffic conditions such as speed). This research focuses on transitions near freeway choke points (i.e., bottlenecks), merges, and ends of queues (where vehicles encounter congestion).

EAGER-NEON: How to Microscale Biophysical Processes Mediate

Results form this research will support adaptive management of forests by land managers and policy makers and help bridge local efforts to maintain forest biodiversity and ecosystem services to regional and global mitigation plans. The investigators will test the hypothesis that microenvironments exert a strong influence on macroecological patterns of forest dynamics.

EAGER: Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Methane

Preliminary experiments in the laboratories of Professor Andino have shown promise for a composite catalyst of RGO-TiO₂, reduced graphite oxide and titania. The RGO can potentially assist in minimizing charge recombination when TiO₂ is activated by light, thereby making more electrons available for a surface CO₂ reduction reaction.

EASM-3: Collaborative Research: Physics-based Predictive Modeling for Integrated Agricultural and Urban Applications

A collaborative and interdisciplinary team from Arizona State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research jointly develops integrated agricultural and urban models necessary to examine hydroclimatic impacts and economic and social benefits/tradeoffs associated with agricultural and urban land use/cover changes accompanying localization of food production within cities.

Ecological Homogenization of Urban America

This research will transform scientific understanding of an important and increasingly common ecosystem type ("suburbia") and the consequences to carbon storage and nitrogen pollution at multiple scales. In addition, it will advance understanding of how humans perceive, value and manage their surroundings.

Educating for Sustainability through Teacher Workshops that Support K-12 Projects

The Wells Fargo Regional Sustainability Teachers’ Academies brings together a high caliber group of passionate K‐12 teachers in order to develop sustainability projects in their local classrooms, schools, and communities. Through these workshops, the teachers learn about global sustainability issues and their role as sustainability change agents in their own community.

Effects of Biocontrol and Restoration on Wildlife in Southwestern Riparian Habitats

This project will determine if the introduction of the biocontrol agent (tamarisk leaf beetle, Diorhabda spp.) as an insect consumer and defoliator of saltcedar influences wildlife populations and communities via alterations to food resources and/or habitat.

Effects of Flow Regime Shifts, Antecedent Hydrology, Nitrogen Pulses and Resource Quantity and Quality on Food Chain Length in Rivers

The study will provide fundamental information on how the timing of floods and droughts across years influences water quality (nitrate inputs to rivers), primary production, and the production of animals higher in the food web, such as fish. The researchers will produce a synthesis of research in hydrology and ecology to improve the management of arid land rivers.

Electrochemical Control of Electron Transport in Single Redox Molecules

Professor Tao and his students will develop new methods to measure and control electron transport properties at the single molecule level.

Emergent Computation in Collective Decision Making by the Crevice-Dwelling Rock Ant Temnothorax rugalulus

In this project the PIs will utilize recently developed information-theoretic tools from complex systems research, typically applied to artificial life systems, to assess how a real biological system manages distributed information to perform a collective computational task. This research will provide new applications of mathematical and computational tools for use by scientists and will provide important insights in issues of broader concern such as colony collapse disorder observed in honeybees.

Enabling the Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge

The Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK) is an initiative designed to create cyberinfrastructure for ecological, environmental, and biodiversity research and to educate the ecological community about ecoinformatics.

Enabling the Study of Long-Term Human and Social Dynamics: A Cyberinfrastructure for Archaeology

A team of archaeologists, computer scientists, ecologists, and modelers designed and prototyped a knowledge-based archaeological data-integration system (KADIS) encompassing both new and legacy datasets.

Energize Phoenix

Energize Phoenix transformed the neighborhoods and commercial districts along a 10-mile stretch of the Phoenix METRO Light Rail line into a Green Rail Corridor into a model of energy efficiency and sustainability.

Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education

This project examines energy ethics issues for the responsible conduct of science and engineering and in the intersections of science, engineering, technology, and society, emphasizing potential scenarios for the U.S., while acknowledging the critical roles other nations and international institutions play in the future of energy. It develops new research and educational activities involving graduate students in interdisciplinary research programs.

Energy Sustainability of Green Commercial Buildings: An Empirical Assessment

This project will conduct holistic energy sustainability analysis using a comprehensive building energy data set in a city (Phoenix) that is typical of energy use patterns in many of the world's rapidly growing hot and dry urban areas.

Engineering the Hollow-Fiber Membrane Biofilm Reactor to Convert Syngas to Valuable Products

This collaborative project aims to adapt the hollow-fiber membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR), now used for water treatment, to deliver the low-solubility gases directly to a biofilm that grows on the outer surface of a hollow-fiber membrane and utilizes the gas as a substrate. The membrane-based biofilm avoids direct gas-liquid mass transfer, which normally slows the rate of H₂ and CO delivery. The over-arching goal is to adapt the MBfR for the production of valuable chemicals from syngas.

Enhancing Tolerance and Performance of a Renewable Aromatic Biorefinery

Although microorganisms can be engineered to convert renewable biomass into an array of useful chemicals, the same products often inhibit the productivity of the producing microbes. This project seeks to explore strategies for engineering more tolerant microbes in support of enhanced chemical production.

Environmental Justice in Baltimore

This interdisciplinary case study is investigating the spatial and temporal dynamics of environmental-equity patterns and processes in Baltimore, a large, postindustrial city that has undergone profound socioeconomic change.

Enzymology of Multi-enzyme Systems on Self-Assembled Surfaces

Enzymes are widely used in a large number of diverse applications, from laundry detergents to biosensors. As apparent in nature, enzymes associated with surfaces have additional abilities that soluble enzymes lack. The outcome of this proposal will be of particular interest for understanding and designing multi-enzyme reaction pathways in which the ability of one enzyme to directly pass a product to the next is critically dependent on the relative positions of the enzymes involved.

Epitaxial Ag Island - Ge/Si(100) Quantum Dot Nanocomposites for Enhanced Si-Based Light Emissions

This project seeks to endow Si-compatible materials with increased optical functionality.

Ethnic and Religious Influences on Forgiveness for Mass Atrocities

This project represents an initial effort to study the cultural, emotional and social factors that contribute to forgiveness for mass atrocities.

Evaluation of a Suite of Interactive Modeling, Controls, Rapid Prototyping, and Embedded System E-Book Modules

An evaluation of the materials that have been prepared for an e-book for use in teaching control system engineering is being conducted.

Evaluation of Drought Risks and Its Impact on Agricultural Land and Water Use to Support Adaptive Decision-Making

The overall goals of this study are to better understand how water use by crop type responds to drought conditions and to use this knowledge to support adaptive management in the agricultural sector and foster sustainable water use in an era of climate uncertainty and change.

Evaulating the Impact of Interactive Tutoring and Game-Based Environments on Learning and Engagement

The central focus of the Learning Science Research Lab at Arizona State University is to explore and innovate technologies designed to enhance interactive learning environments and ultimately improve student learning.

Examining the Evolution of Biospheric Oxygenation in Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic Oceans Through High-Resolution Trace Metal Chemostratigraphy

The project proposes to obtain high-resolution trace metal geochemical profiles from organic-rich sedimentary rocks to examine the evolution of climate and biospheric oxygenation in the Late Archean to Middle Proterozoic.

Experimental and Computational Studies on CO2 Photoreduction to Fuels by Nanostructured Catalysts

The overall objective of the proposed research is to use solar radiation to photocatalytically reduce CO₂ to fuels (CO, methane, methanol, and other hydrocarbons) at high conversion efficiency through manipulation of catalyst composition and nanostructure.

Exploration-Driven Online Science Education: Habitable Worlds 2.0

In this project, the investigators are deploying and assessing a large-enrollment undergraduate general education science course that places scientific reasoning and multidisciplinary perspectives at the heart of the experience.

Exploration-Driven Online Science Education: Habitable Worlds 2.0

Society's response to climate change and many other challenges hinges on public understanding that science is not a body of facts and certainties in tidy disciplines, but rather a process of reasoning which often crosses disciplines and which narrows the uncertainties of knowledge. In this project, the investigators are deploying and assessing a large-enrollment undergraduate general education science course that places scientific reasoning and multidisciplinary perspectives at the heart of the experience.

Exploring the Dynamics of Individual Pedestrian and Crowd Behavior in Dense Urban Settings: A Computational Approach

The goal of this Faculty Early-Career Development (CAREER) award is to support research, education, and related activities that will develop a reusable and behaviorally founded computer model of pedestrian movement and crowd behavior amid dense urban environments.

Feedbacks between Human Community Dynamics and Sociological Vulnerability in a Biodiversity Hotspot

This interdisciplinary research project focuses on people, community organizations, and the long-term health of natural ecosystems that support people's livelihoods.

Flexible Display Center

The mission of the Flexible Display Center is to advance full-color, video rate, flexible display technology and catalyze development of a vibrant flexible display and flexible electronics industry to produce integrated electronic systems with advanced functionality. The FDC collaborates with government, academia and industry to provide comprehensive flexible electronics capabilities that bridge the high risk, resource intensive gap between innovation and product development in an information-secure environment for process, tool, and materials co-development and evaluation. Integral to the Center's mission is integrating the concept of sustainable microelectronics processing into all FDC activities.

Flexible Geospatial Visual Analytics and Simulation Technologies to Enhance Criminal Justice Decision Support Systems

This project builds upon the extensive expertise and proven track record of the research team at ASU's GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation to develop a flexible methodological framework, integrating new techniques for geospatial visual analytics and spatial econometrics with state of the art geocomputation technologies to yield the basis for an enhanced decision support system for criminal justice interventions.

Flexible Model Compositions and Visual Representations for Planning and Policy Decisions at the Sub-regional Level of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus

In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the processes and interactions among food, energy, and water systems, or the so-called food-energy-water (FEW) nexus, and the resulting implications for sustainability, resilience, and security. Food represents agricultural trade and consumption and is a critical component of a region's economy. Energy is required to supply and treat water for agriculture, municipal, and industrial uses, as well as to mechanize agricultural activities. Water is used for human and industrial consumption, crop irrigation, and energy production. While the multifaceted interactions between food, energy and water are often framed as threats or stresses of one system upon the others, basic understanding of the feedback dynamics is necessary for identifying synergies and potential efficiencies. The overarching goal of this research is to develop basic interdisciplinary scientific understanding of food, energy, and water system dynamics to inform an integrated modeling, visualization, and decision support infrastructure for comprehensive FEW systems.

Follow the Elements

The Astrobiology Team at Arizona State University "follows the elements" to help guide the exploration for life beyond Earth, in our Solar System and on planets orbiting other stars.

Food System Sustainability in the Southwest: Developing a Regional Action Plan to Enhance Resilience, Livelihoods, and Food Security across New Mexico and Arizona

Throughout the southwestern US, multiple efforts are underway to improve food systems in relation to sustainability and food security. These efforts are meant to contribute to resilience of food production amidst change, sustainable livelihoods for those working in the food sector, and healthy food availability for underserved populations.

Food Systems Transformation Initiative

The Food Systems Transformation Initiative supports the development of more equitable, diverse and resilient food systems at all scales – from local to global – that can adapt to evolving uncertainties and opportunities, and enable sustainable societies.

Food-Energy-Water Infrastructure Systems, Engineering Solutions and Institutions

Arizona State University will convene a workshop to advance an operational, national-scale definition of food-energy-water (FEW) systems complexity and outline a portfolio of basic research questions and programs needed to improve efficiency and resilience across the components of the FEW systems on the local and national scale. The workshop will create new synthetic knowledge that will contribute to the definition of necessary research programs.

Food-Security and Agribusiness Support

This project will complete a Life-Cycle Analysis (a technique used to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life) on the products coming from Upper Egyptian farmers. The analysis will help researchers to identify inefficiencies, inequities and opportunities for improvements throughout the life of the product.

Foresight Initiative

The Foresight Initiative will examine how climate change affects resources and contributes to political unrest, as well as articulate sustainability and resilience strategies.

Fort Mohave Indian Tribe Mass Vaccination Simulation

This project is to develop training materials for the Fort Mohave Indian Tribe to train public health volunteers to setup and operate a Point of Dispensing site to distribute vaccinations.

Fostering Engineering Identity and Support Structures to Promote Entry and Persistence in Engineering for First-Generation Students

Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering with the Maricopa County Community Colleges District and K-12 school districts along with industry partners, Honeywell, Intel, and Texas Instruments, and the Helios Education Foundation will implement an NSF Design and Development Launch Pilot to address the broadening participation objectives of enhancing entry and persistence of underrepresented groups in engineering.

Foundations of Social and Ethical Responsibility among Undergraduate Engineering Students: Comparing across Time, Institutions, and Interventions

This study responds to gaps in existing knowledge of social and ethical responsibility by asking the following research questions: 1) What do engineering students perceive as responsible (and irresponsible) professional conduct, and what do they perceive as socially just (and unjust) technical practices?, and 2) how do foundational measures and understandings of social and ethical responsibility change during a four-year engineering degree program, both in general and in relation to specific kinds of learning experiences?

Fraud Detection via Visual Analytics: An Infrastructure to Support Complex Financial Patterns (CFP)-based Real-Time Services Delivery

This Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) project from Arizona State University focuses on building a platform that will integrate data from multiple sources and explore data analysis techniques that can more accurately detect indications of financial fraud.

FRP:Sensor Fusion Research for Net-Centric Applications

The research targets fundamental work in sensor networks. Specifically the work addresses the central problem that distributed inference systems need to be robust to a wide variety of sensing, and channel impairments.

Fundamental Goals and Decision Making

This multi-site research project examines how fundamental motives such as mating, self-protection, status-seeking, and affiliation influence basic cognitive processes such as perception and memory.

Fundamental Studies of the Properties of B-III-N Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Alloys

This collaborative research project studies an underexplored semiconductor materials system that involves boron incorporation in the four-element alloys of BAlGaN.

Fundamental Study of Defects and Their Reduction in Type-II Superlattice Materials

This program has proposed a systematic and comprehensive approach to address defect issues ranging from fundamental theory up to advanced device structures to mitigate the adverse impacts of defects.

GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation

GeoDa develops state-of-the-art methods for geospatial analysis, geovisualization, geosimulation, and spatial process modeling, implements them through software tools, applies them to policy-relevant research in the social and environmental sciences, and disseminates them through training and support to a growing worldwide community.

Global Long-term Human Ecodynamics Research Coordinaton Network: Assessing Sustainabiilty on the Millennial Scale

This Research Coordination Network grant brings together an international, multi-disciplinary team of scientists and educators to better mobilize cases of long term human ecodynamics on the century to millennial scale to aid national and global efforts to develop effective future sustainable development and to create resources for Education for Sustainable Development.

GOALI: ZnO Nanowires as Building Blocks for High Performance Transparent Electronics

The objective of this GOALI proposal is the fabrication of high mobility, ZnO nanowire field-effect transistor, with both n-type and p-type doing, on polymer or glass substrate for transparent and flexible electronics applications.

GoingEasy with Crowdsourcing - Building Cyber-Physical Systems for People with Visual Impairment

This project addresses the following two most prominent challenges: (1) disparity in information-sharing among people with visual impairment and its limited understanding by the research community; and (2) lack of methods and tools for effectively addressing the disparity.

Grasshopper Migration in the Asian Steppe: Investigating Diet as a Cue for Polyphenism

This Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement award will support field research on grasshopper migration in China by Ph.D. student Arianne Cease of Arizona State University.

Greater Phoenix 2100

Greater Phoenix 2100 (GP2100) is a network of Arizona State University and community researchers dedicated to using knowledge to create better lives for future generations.

Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Certification Program

The Hazardous Waste Management Certification Program taught classes required by federal regulation for the health and safety of hazardous waste workers. Classes continue today at the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus.

HBCU DCL: EAGER: Engineering A Sustainable Bio-based Nano Composite from Biomass Using A Bottom-up Synthesis and Characterization Approach

This is a green engineering project that targets the enablement of the production of a bio-nanocomposite. The bio-nanocomposite is to be composed of montmorillonite clay and a bio-modifier made from swine manure. Use of such bio-based modifier can help reduce worldwide reliance on shrinking petroleum reserves while reducing CO₂ emissions associated with the manufacture of petroleum-based products and the uncontrolled bio-waste decay in landfills and open lagoons.

HCC: Small: Modeling and Supporting Creativity During Collaborative STEM Activities

This research will advance a novel technological approach that relies on machine learning techniques in general and Natural Language Processing (NLP) in particular to develop models and support for creativity during collaborative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational activities.

Health Impacts of Energy Retrofits

This project - officially titled Health Performance, Benefit-Cost, and Cost Effectiveness of Green Retrofit Housing for Low-Income Seniors in Phoenix, Arizona - examined how incorporating an array of building changes of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Green Retrofit Program resulted in improved indoor environmental quality and health of elderly residents. Rather than reviewing individual building features, the study assessed a green retrofit package in its entirety, and incorporated formal benefit-cost and cost effectiveness calculations on individual health and healthcare costs.

Healthy Urban Environments Initiative

This research will work on reducing heat and improving air quality in urban environments.

Heat Island Effect of Pavements

This study by the National Center for Excellence on Sustainable Materials and Renewable Technologies quantifies several values and the effect of color and texture over time and its impact on the urban heat island of different pavements including Arizona Department of Transportation's Asphalt Rubber – Asphaltic Concrete Friction Course.

Herberger Institute Research Center

The Center supports collaborative and creative research in design and the arts. Some of the Center's work includes creating consumer-driven product concepts that improve society and the environment, understanding the interconnections between urban design and energy demand and on emerging models for the post-petroleum city, and supporting organizations, neighborhoods, and professionals in their efforts to improve the growth of quality affordable homes and sustainable communities.

History and Philosophy of Ecology

This proposal is for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Biology and Society in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. The purpose of the fellowship is to expand the Co-PI's dissertation research, which is on the ecologist, environmentalist, and public figure L. C. Birch.

How geochemistry provides habitability: A case study of the microbial iron cycle

The objective of this project is to identify the reasons why microorganisms can live where they live. The focus is on identifying livable conditions in the environment, with the goal of explaining how temperatures and geochemical compositions combine to allow and support microbial life.

How Minerals Control Hydrothermal Organic Reactivity

This research carries out a series of high temperature and pressure experiments (200 to 350 C and 70 to 100 MPa, respectively) in which well-characterized, dissolved, isotopically labelled, aqueous organic and chiral compounds are reacted with a variety of common seafloor hydrothermal oxide and sulfide minerals to examine the resulting changes in organic compounds and their rates of transformation.

I-Corp Sites: Arizona State University Startup Mill

NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Sites are NSF-funded entities established at universities whose purpose is to nurture and support multiple, local teams to transition their technology concepts into the marketplace. Sites provide infrastructure, advice, resources, networking opportunities, training and modest funding to enable groups to transition their work into the marketplace or into becoming I-Corps Team applicants. I-Corps Sites also strengthen innovation locally and regionally and contribute to the National Innovation Network of mentors, researchers, entrepreneurs and investors.

I/UCRC: Phase III Communication Circuits and Systems Research Center

This is a third, five-year term (Phase III) of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Connection One (C1) at the Arizona State University.

IGERT: Person-Centered Technologies and Practices for Individuals with Disabilities

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award will train a new generation of doctoral graduates to become future leaders in the field of disabilities through an integrated and interdisciplinary education-research-practice model.

IGERT: Solar Utilization Network (SUN)

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award focuses on the energy transition from the current fossil-fuel-based economy to one where solar energy harvested by means of photovoltaics, solar-thermal, and photosynthesis-driven bioenergy approaches will become a keystone in global human energy use.

Impact of Adaptive Interventions on Student Affect, Performance, and Learning

This research is unique and ground breaking, as few researchers have targeted students' emotion in classrooms, gathered fine grained data on emotions during learning, or assessed the impact of specific affective treatments on a moment-to-moment basis. Students using the tutoring systems have already shown statistically significant gains and learning outcomes, as well as increased positive affect and attitudes. The new affective interventions will greatly increase the broad impact of these systems.

Impacts of Urbanization on Nitrogen Biogeochemistry in Xeric Ecosystems

This research will help identify sources of surface water and groundwater nitrate contamination in arid and semi-arid deserts.

In Search of Early Oxygen: Investigation of Redox Sensitive Metal Abundances and Isotopes in Neoarchean Drill Cores

This proposal will characterize element abundances and isotopes in two Neoarchean drill cores to investigate the oxidation state of the environment ~ 2.5 billion years ago.

In Situ Sampling Tool for Assessing Bioavailability and Toxicity of Sediments

This project introduces a novel strategy for bioavailability determination of sediment-borne contaminants featuring a wide range of chemical structures, properties and physical-chemical behaviors. The project addresses the pressing need of Superfund stakeholders to determine in a convenient and reliable fashion both human health risks from contaminated sediments and the effectiveness of implemented remediation strategies.

Increasing Learning and Efficacy about Emerging Technologies through Transmedia Engagement by the Public in Science-in-Society Activities

The primary goal of this project is to create, distribute, and study a set of three integrated activities that involve current and enduring science-in-society themes, building on these themes as first presented in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, which will be celebrating in 2018 the 200th anniversary of its publication in 1818.

Influence of Urbanization on Weather in the Arid Phoenix Metropolitan Area

This work will improve the understanding of the development of summer monsoonal thunderstorms in central Arizona and how they are affected by their interaction with urban and terrain induced thermal circulations.

Informal Learning And Scholarship In Science And Society: A Multi-Disciplinary Workshop On Scientific Creativity And Societal Responsibility

This conference at Arizona State University is an early-stage activity inspired by the upcoming 2016-2018 bicentennial of the conception, writing and publication of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein - or The Modern Prometheus."

Informing Emergency and Risk Management Climate Knowledge in Arid Regions (NOAA Award Number: NA14OAR431054)

The two goals of the project are to 1) understand how local and regional emergency management communities function so that climate science knowledge can be effectively infused into their decision processes, and 2) develop a framework for identifying products and services that can deliver needed knowledge about climate extremes, threats, impacts, and resulting risk in order to prioritize mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Innovation of Institutional Rules in the Governance of Common Resources

This project aims to develop a next-generation understanding: what makes groups successful in changing the institutional rules that govern behavior related to common resources.

Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3): The Modeling Institute

Arizona State University's Innovation through Institutional Integration (I-3): The Modeling Institute integrates the efforts of its most successful NSF-sponsored initiatives in STEM teacher education and more: Modeling Physics (numerous NSF programs); Project Pathways (MSP); Professional Learning Community Resources (TPC); Project Learning through Engineering Design and Prime the Pipeline Project (ITEST); Ask-a-Biologist (NSDL); SMALLab (CISE & IGERT); Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER); and MARS (NASA).

INSPIRE: A Digital HPS Infrastructure for Understanding Biodiversity

The project will establish a repository and a research system based on computational tools and digital sources, and it will develop education and training modules. The goal is to move beyond separate small collections that reside on individual computers in dispersed places, and bring together the objects of study as well as scholarly interpretations of those objects.

Instrument to Optimize DNA Sequencing by Recognition Tunneling

Recognition Tunneling is a new analytical tool that generates a distinct electronic signal for each of the four bases in DNA, as well as identifying a modification that underlies the epigenetic code. Here, we propose to use Recognition Tunneling to develop an instrument to read the sequence of DNA as it emerges from a nanopore.

Integrated Analysis of Robustness in Dynamic Social Ecological Systems

This project asks: Why are some socioecological systems more successful in navigating environmental disturbances and change than others?

Integrated Paleoceanographic Analysis of the Late Paleozoic Midcontinent Sea

The purpose of this research is to use an interdisciplinary approach to investigate paleoceanographic conditions during the deposition of Pennsylvanian cyclothems of Midcontinent North America and to test the "superestuarine circulation hypothesis."

Integrating Energy Sustainability into Engineering Curricula using Cyberinfrastructure

This engineering education research award to Arizona State University will employ researchers to develop cyber infrastructure to infuse sustainability concepts into electrical engineering courses.

Integrating Sustainability Grand Challenges and Experiential Learning into Engineering Curricula

The goal of this TUES Type 2 project is to incorporate sustainability grand challenges and experiential learning into classrooms and throughout engineering programs, with the aim of attracting and retaining a talented and diverse set of students who are prepared to tackle the engineering challenges of a global economy.

Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training in Urban Ecology

The IGERT training program in urban ecology prepares young scientists to be flexible, adept at linking science with social issues, and work collaboratively, so that they might apply interdisciplinary knowledge in the world of tomorrow.

Integrative Health and Human Well-Being

Philosophers have long argued over the relationship between health and human well-being. While some claim that health - understood as the proper functioning of one's body - is inessential to well-being, our project considers the relationship between well-being and "integrative health," which compasses a spectrum of social factors, including values and meaningfulness. With an empirical case study on obesity in America, we will show that there is a much closer conceptual relation between philosophical theories of well-being and health than is ordinarily recognized, and that an integrative-health approach offers vital insights for re-envisioning interventions that improve health and human well-being, simultaneously.

Intellectual Migration Dynamics Between China and the U.S.

This project seeks to understand the migration dynamics of highly educated migrants. Using the "intellectual migration" framework and empirically connecting China and the United States, the research aims to understand the who, why, and where, of intellectual migration and examine how country-specific policies impact intellectual migration. This project will contribute to ideas about the movement of people between countries and what motivates them, and adds a geographical dimension to the understanding of the migration of the highly educated.

Interaction of Engineering Nanomaterials with Artificial Cell Membranes

Engineered nanoparticles are largely unregulated because the transport, fate, and toxicity of nanoparticles have not been adequately assessed. The proposed research focuses on the interactions of engineered nanomaterials with lipid bilayers, arguably the most important interface between life and the environment. This proposal addresses NP toxicity and has strong implications on the regulation of NP production, distribution, and application in medicine, clothing, cosmetics, etc.

Interactions in Transnational Business Regulation: Competing, Coordinating, Co-opting…?

Three leading universities (York University, Arizona State University and the London School of Economics), a prominent research centre (The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy), and the world's leading association of social and environmental standards initiatives (the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance) are partnering by supporting an international research network on interactions in transnational business regulation, conducting collaborative interdisciplinary research, creating policy-relevant knowledge across academic and non-academic sectors, and mobilizing that knowledge in support of innovative and effective policy solutions.

Interdisciplinary Student Research on Urban Resilience in Latin America

People living in cities in all regions of the world are experiencing increases in extreme events like floods and heat waves. Urban decision makers need help to develop ways to meet this challenge that are based in scientific understanding. This International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant is linked to the Urban Resilience to Extremes (UREx) Sustainability Research Network (SRN). The grant will support three graduate students and one undergraduate student each year for ten weeks work in Valdivia, Chile (2017); Hermosillo, Mexico (2018); and in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2019).

Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences at ASU

An interdisciplinary team of investigators carry out an undergraduate training initiative at Arizona State University.

International Collaboration to Advance Sustainability Science in the US and Mexico

Building on complementary skills and perspectives on problems that transcend political borders, we propose to form a new research collaboration between Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology, National Autonomous University of Mexico (Director, Dr. Dominguez Perez-Tejada) based in the principles and aims of sustainability science.

International Organizations as Orchestrators

The project (Schwerpunkt) aims at analyzing International Organizations (IO) such as the UN in their role as orchestrators. Orchestration is a specific mode of governance which is increasingly used by international organizations to reach their governance goals.

International Project Office for Urbanization: A Partnership with the International Human Dimension Programme

The Scientific Steering Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change has selected Arizona State University and its Global Institute of Sustainability as the International Project Office (IPO) for their Urbanization Core Project. The Urbanization IPO will assist the Committee in developing and administering the project with the aim, not of conducting research, but building an expanded international network of scholars and policymakers that better understand the urbanization process.

Intersectionality and Stereotyping

The research investigates the nuanced manner in which social perceivers think about and behave towards others using information about age, sex, race, and features of the local circumstances in which people live (e.g., the availability and predictability of economic resources in their communities).

IRES: Population Dynamics and Complex Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

The project provides international research experiences for 11 young Americans to carry out research at the interface of mathematics and the ecology of infectious and vector borne diseases at the Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES) in Colombia South America.

Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology

The Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology adds to the body of basic research on algae and cyanobacteria, while also conducting applied research into renewable energy production, environmental remediation, and human nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals.

Land and Water Use Decision-Making and Ecosystem Services along a Southwestern Socio-Ecological Gradient

The principal question of this proposal is to understand how decision makers respond to and make land and water use decisions based on measured and preferred ecosystem services on the wildland-rural-urban fringe in the arid Southwest.

Landscape Sensitivity to Changing Climate: Plio-Pleistocene Erosion and Sedimentation in SE Arizona

This project will establish an absolute timeline for the final stages of when basins in southeastern Arizona were filled with sediments, as well as when the basins were subsequently incised and dissected by regional erosional events.

Learning through Engineering Design and Practice: Using our Human Capital for an Equitable Future

Arizona State University (ASU) in collaboration with Arizona Science Center, Boeing, Intel, Microchip, Motorola, Salt River Project, AZ Foundation for Resource Education, AZ Game & Fish Department, US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, Mesa Public Schools, and Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley, offer a three-year extracurricular project resulting in IT/STEM-related learning outcomes for 96 participants in grades 7, 8, and 9.

Legacies on the Landscape: Prehistoric Human Land Use and Long-Term Ecological Change

This collaborative project involving ecologists and archaeologists explores how prehistoric agricultural communities have affected plant communities, soil properties, and biogeochemical cycling for thousands of years. The goal of the project is to build theory about what types of human disturbances leave legacies over different time scales, and gain insights into the ways that today's actions can affect future ecological systems.

Linking Livestock Markets and Grazing Practices with the Nutritional Ecology of Grasses and Locusts Under Alternative Property Rights Regimes

Research has recently shown that overgrazing of livestock in a grassland in China lowered the nitrogen content of the grasses and that this caused a rise in the abundance of a locust likely to lead to locust swarms. This research will test whether this is also true for related species of locust in Australia and western Africa, and link both grazing practices and locust swarms to economics and social policy in the three contrasting regions.

Live-Cell Microarray for High-Throughput Observation of Metabolic Signatures

High throughput live-cell microarray screening technology for dynamic, multiparameter sensing of single-cell metabolic phenotypes is proposed. The proposal addresses Common Fund priorities by extending the range of signatures available to the LINCS centers.

LiveData - Research Data Infrastructure Initiative

The LiveData initiative is an Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) funded series of activities intended to improve research data management within the three public universities in Arizona. This initiative is a collaborative effort with a vision of producing shared infrastructure and functionality that benefits all three institutions and provides a competitive advantage for researchers and faculty within the Arizona university system.

Living with Locusts: Training an Ecophysiologist to Incorporate Bioeconomic Modeling and Collaborative with Applied Food Security and Agricultural Agencies

This award from the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows Program) investigates the interesting dynamic coupling between land use for agriculture (grazing of livestock) and the outbreak of swarms of locusts.

Local Context and the Dynamics of Social-Ecological Systems: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Solutions to Environmental Problems

Globalization is changing the way humans interact with natural resources and many people no longer rely on locally derived resources but on distant resources linked through the global economic network. By analyzing mathematical models, based on local social-ecological systems case studies, this project contributes to a better understanding of critical variables needed to enhance the performance of local institutions, preserve institutional diversity, and enhance the integrity of the global resource system.

Long-Term Coupled Socioecological Change in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico

In this project, archaeologists, mathematical modelers, ecologists, and environmental scientists are applying archaeological and ecological analyses, resilience theory, and formal dynamical modeling to identify variables that foster stability and promote transformation in coupled socioecological systems.

Long-Term Dynamics and Resilience of Terrestrial Plant and Animal Communities in the Bahamas

This project will provide a basis for predicting the responses of Bahamian and other island ecosystems to climatic and human-related perturbations. In particular, the assessment and management of worldwide biodiversity loss depend on an improved understanding of the dynamics of ecosystems at local and regional geographical scales as well as short and long time frames.

LTREB: Long-term Climate Variability and Ecosystem Response in a Desert Stream

The primary objective of this project is to understand how long-term climate variability influences the structure and function of desert streams.

Managing Biodiversity under Climate Change: Enhancing Capacities in Mexico for Conservation Planning, Decision-making and Sustainability Assessment

The School of Sustainability at the Arizona State University and the Institute of Ecology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México are developing a sustainable academic program to create competency and expertise for policy and planning in the area of biodiversity conservation and climate change.

Market Integration and Climate as Drivers of Change in the Mexican Maize System: Multi-Scale Interactions in Livelihood

This project will document spatial and temporal patterns of economic and climatic risk at diverse scales through an analysis of the drivers and evolving social outcomes one of the world's most important food systems: the Mexican maize system.

Materials World Network: Nano-Structured InGaN Solar Cells Program

There is a worldwide effort to increase power generation through solar cells, to meet targets in reducing greenhouse gases. One requirement is for high efficiency multijunction solar cells (MJSCs) to extract power from concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, which are expected to become central to the delivery of solar power to national and super-grid systems. This effort aims to circumvent these problems by investigating solar cells based on InxGa1-xN, which has a direct band gap of 0.7-3.4 eV, spanning most of the visible spectrum, thus promising MJSCs from a single materials system.

Materials World Network: Pan-American Network for Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy of Nanomaterials

This project establishes the framework for a Pan-American Network for Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy of Nanomaterials. The activity initially involves several US universities, collaborating with counterparts at leading Brazilian and Mexican universities, and an Argentinian research institute. Arizona State University serves as the primary hub for the Network, with responsibility for hosting the network website.

Materials World Network: Study at the Nanoscale of Photovoltaic Materials

This Materials World Network project is a collaboration of groups from Argentina, Canada, Mexico and the US with the common goal of synthesizing and characterizing, at the single molecule/particle level, semiconductor-photosensitizer materials that can be used for photovoltaic and solar-to-fuel applications.

Mathematics and Climate Change Network

The investigators form a "Mathematics and Climate Research Network." This is a framework for an intensive effort aimed at bringing to bear the full power of modern applied mathematics and statistics on the prediction and understanding of the Earth's climate.

MCTP Mentorship through Research: A Model for an Emerging Urban American University

The objectives of the Mathematical & Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) Undergraduate Research Program are to encourage and facilitate the access to and the successful completion of graduate studies by mostly under-represented minority students in mathematics and science.

MCTP: Mathematics Mentoring Partnership Between Arizona State University and the Maricopa County Community College District

This project will develop a recruitment network for mathematically talented students in community colleges in Maricopa County, Arizona, to help facilitate their successful transitions to baccalaureate programs in the mathematical sciences at Arizona State University (ASU).

Mechanisms for Transnational Coordination and Harmonization of Nanotechnology Governance

This project will analyze and explore the potential for transnational coordination and harmonization of regulatory and other oversight mechanisms for nanotechnology, focusing specifically on nanotechnology applications relating to bioenergy

Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics Project

This project examines long-term socioecological processes that shaped Mediterranean landscapes from the beginning of farming to the beginning of complex civilization.

Metallomics in Medicine Workshop: The Role of Natural Isotopes in the Development of a New Generation of Biomarkers for Biomedicine

The aim of the workshop is to identify medical questions where sophisticated technologies, methodologies, and concepts that have been used in the geological and environmental sciences can be applied to combat disease.

Micro-Power Multi-Phase MEMS Hearing Aid

he proposal addresses integration and application of multi-phase/multi-microphone directional hearing aids with on-chip MEMS microphones.

Microbally Induced Cementation of Sands by Denitrification

The research team investigates the use of oxidation of organic compounds by denitrifying bacteria ("denitrification") to induce carbonate cementation in sand.

Microbial Ecology to Optimize Beneficial Syntrophies to Improve Microbial Electrochemical and Dechlorinating Systems

This research provides a novel approach to study biodegrading and bioenergy relevant mixed microbial communities. The results will provide fundamental understanding of the role of homoacetogens in electron and carbon flow in dechlorinating and ARB mixed communities. This will allow exploiting the use of complex renewable waste sources for bioenergy and bioremediation.

Modeling Anthropogenic Effects in the Spread of Infectious Diseases

The research will incorporate the economic drivers of 'contact' into dynamic models of emerging human and animal infectious disease systems, and analyze the system dynamics with and without adaptive responses. The models will be calibrated for a set of diseases where people's trade and travel decisions are potentially important.

Modeling Heating Effects in Low-Power Multi-Gate SOI Devices and High-Power GaN HEMTs

The purpose of this project is to develop sophisticated particle-based device simulation tools that simultaneously take into account self-heating effects by solving the Boltzmann transport equations (BTEs) for both electrons and phonons, and considering quantum confine-ment effects for both the electrons and the phonons. Such a tool would be the most sophisticated simulator to date since electron and phonon transport is treated at the same physical level within the BTE.

Modeling Wastewater Sludge Hydrolysis Aided by High Temporal Resolution Measurements through Microbial Electrochemistry

This project addresses our need to better understand solids hydrolysis by anaerobic microorganisms, focusing on municipal wastewater sludge.

Molecular Sieve Inclusion Nanocomposite (MoSIN) Membranes for Liquid Separations

This project is to develop and characterize a new class of chemically resistant Molecular Sieve Inclusion Nanocomposite (MoSIN) membranes for liquid separations.

Monolithic Integrated Ultrahigh Efficiency Multijunction Solar Cells for Space Applications

The majority of satellites in space are powered by solar panels and improving their efficiencies means more power for the spacecraft.This project investigates a novel multi-junction solar cell design that uses lattice-matched II/VI (ZnCdMg)(SeTe) and III/V AlGaAsSb direct bandgap materials grown on GaSb substrates.

Motivational and Social Factors in the Pursuit and Maintenance of Dietary Goals

Prior academic research has indicated adherence to a vegetarian/vegan diet depends on social and motivational factors including health and ethical beliefs. The proposed approach builds upon this work but is more comprehensive, tapping a broader range of factors, including: synergy or conflict between the dietary goal and other significant goals, resources for goal pursuit, goal self-efficacy, emotion regulation in relation to goal pursuit, and the nature of the social context (facilitative or hindering) of the dietary goals.

Multi-scale Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Hydrologic Regimes, Ecosystem Function, and Community Structure in a Desert Stream and Its Catchment

The primary objective of this project is to understand how long-term climate variability and change influence the structure and function of desert streams via effects on short-term responses to hydrologic disturbance.

Multi-Scale Particle-Based Simulation of Disordered/Ordered Interfaces for High Efficiency Solar Cells

The goal of this project is to develop a novel modeling approach to simulating and understanding materials and interfaces.

Multidisciplinary STEM Solutions LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate

With this support from the BD Fellowships, Arizona State University (ASU) will build and demonstrate a national model on how to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups (URGs) in STEM pursuing PhDs in quantitatively-driven Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines by emphasizing the use of high-level mathematics to analyze questions of global importance.

Multiscale Effects of Climate Variability and Change on Hydrologic Regimes, Ecosystem Function, and Community Structure in a Desert Stream and Its Catchment

This project focuses on using new statistical techniques that describe hydrological regimes, coupled with long-term measurements of stream structure and processes, to understand how shifts in climate and river discharge regimes on many time scales will influence the ecosystem.

Multiscale Modeling and High Resolution Coupled Three-Dimensional Simulations of Ionospheric Irregularities for EM Propagation

This project will develop models to simulate the impact of solar storms on Earth?s atmosphere.

Multiscale Modeling of Urban Atmospheres in a Changing Climate

This project will develop models to simulate the urban atmosphere and its interaction with ambient climate and atmospheric circulation occurring on spatial scales which are much larger than cities.

Nanoprospecting: An Approach Towards Environmental Monitoring of Engineered Nanomaterials

By focusing on field-scale monitoring we hope to lead the environmental nanotechnology field toward establishing protocols suitable for monitoring nanomaterials at environmentally relevant concentrations.

Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure Southwest (NCI-SW)

The goals of the Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure Southwest are to build a Southwest regional infrastructure for nanotechnology discovery and innovation, to address societal needs through education and entrepreneurship, and to serve as a model site of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI)..

Nanowire Specialty Diodes for Integrated Applications

The objective of this research is to explore individually addressable high density arrays of specialty diodes (p/n junction, Schottky, Zener, metal-semiconductor-metal and tunnel structures) made from vertical silicon and germanium nanowires grown with the vapor-liquid-solid method.

Neighborhood Ecosystems: Human-Climate Interactions in a Desert Metropolis

This research explored human-ecosystem-climate interactions at the neighborhood scale in metropolitan Phoenix, and drew upon social and ecological theories of spatial heterogeneity in cities to understand how urban development leads to economic, social, and physical inequalities among neighborhoods, which in turn produce neighborhood differences in microclimate conditions.

NEPTUNE

This project brings together the US Navy, the ASU Pat Tillman Veterans Center to promote energy related research. The US Navy is focused on continuously improving energy effectiveness in its operations and wishes to explore additional research related opportunities with universities in a partnership. The research projects will contribute to the new knowledge including training veterans to design and manage resilient energy systems.

Neuroendocrine Bases and Environmental Regulation of Reproduction in a Flexibly Breeding Songbird

This project will combine field studies on free-ranging organisms with experiments in a controlled laboratory setting to investigate the neuroendocrine bases of vertebrate reproductive flexibility.

Next Generation Energy Technologies and Systems for Civilian and Military Applications

This project brings together the US Navy, the ASU Pat Tillman Veterans Center to promote energy-related research. The US Navy is focused on continuously improving energy effectiveness in its operations and wishes to explore additional research related opportunities with universities in a partnership.

Next-Generation Thermal-Aware, Energy-Efficient Resource Management for Data Centers

This project addresses the challenges in developing predictive and autonomic thermal-aware and energy-efficient task scheduling algorithms for heterogeneous High-Performance Computing datacenters.

Non-oxidizing Agent to Control Algae, Quagga Mussels & Microbes of Public Health Concerns

The objective of this project is to evaluate non-oxidizing biocides effectiveness in controlling harmful biological agents and pathogens in drinking water.

North American Center for Transborder Studies

NACTS focuses its research and policy efforts in the areas of borders, competitiveness, and the environment and works to diffuse the results of these efforts through events and initiatives that build public awareness about North America. NACTS accomplishes its mission by building key partnerships among northern and southern border specialists and identifying and educating key constituencies in government, the private sector, and civil society. This project continues as North American Research Partnership https://naresearchpartnership.org/..

Novel Approaches to Studying the Situ Bioremediation of Complex Mixtures

The long-term goal is to improve the success rate of bioremediation at sites containing complex chemical mixtures by using in situ microcosm array (ISMA) technology.

Novel Circuit Architecture and Design Methodologies for Low Power Digital Systems

This Partnership for Innovation project from Arizona State University is aimed at developing a new approach to digital system design to significantly reduce the power consumption and size of digital systems without reducing their speed of operation.

Novel Functionality-Enabling Devices Based on 1D and 2D ZnO Nanostructures on Flexible Substrates

The goal of this project is to demonstrate proof-of-concept of the transformative idea of self-powered photo-electrochromic system based on 1D and 2D ZnO nanostructures on flexible substrates for significant potential payoffs.

Novel Multijunction Solar Cells for Space and Terrestrial Applications

The objective of this collaborative research project between Arizona State University and Notre Dame University is to explore novel multijunction solar cell designs that offer ultra-high efficiencies for both space and terrestrial applications.

NSDL Middleware for Network- amd Context-Aware Recommendations

Services are being developed to aid teachers, librarians, and learners in sharing resources and promoting further access to NSDL resources. The Middleware for Network- and Context-aware Recommendations (MiNC) being developed provides online integrated services.

NUE: Cross-disciplinary Education in Social and Ethical Aspects of Nanotechnology

This Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education (NUE) in Engineering program entitled, "NUE: Cross-disciplinary Education in Social & Ethical Aspects of Nanotechnology", at Arizona State University, will develop a unique four weeks long workshop experience for undergraduate students that will explore the social and ethical issues raised by nanotechnology, build cross-disciplinary communicative competence,

Ocean Crust Alteration and the Deep Biosphere

This research provides the theoretical framework and tools needed to model and interpret the increasing evidence for the presence and actions of microbes in the deep biosphere in oceanic crust.

Ocean Redox Evolution at the Dawn of Animal Life: An Integrated Geological and Geochemical Study of the Ediacaran Yangtze Platform in South China

The ultimate goal of the research is to integrate paleontological and geochemical data to test the coupling between redox conditions and spatial/temporal patterns of Ediacaran organisms. Anticipated data would provide important information for our understanding of the environmental forces related to a significant biological innovation in Earth history.

One Size Does not Fit All: Empowering the User with User-Driven Integration

The proposed work tackles the computational challenges underlying a user driven integration (UDI) system, keeping in mind the human constraints and challenges that underlie the technical considerations.

Organic Geochemical Transformations and the Deep Biosphere — Identifying the Food Sources for Microbes in Sedimentary Systems

This research explores how geochemical processes support microbes living deep in the Earth.

Outdoor Thermal Comfort under Photovoltaic Canopies

Shade plays an important role in designing pedestrian-friendly outdoor spaces in desert cities. To improve thermal comfort through shading at a pedestrian mall, Arizona State University set up three, 10-m high photovoltaic canopy structures on its Tempe campus next to the Memorial Union (MU). The goal of this research is to quantify the impact of the installed photovoltaic canopies on microclimate and thermal comfort at the mall, using field observations and surveys.

Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling

PRISM is the focal point at Arizona State University for interdisciplinary research in modeling and visualization to permit intelligent analysis and create spatial and dynamic knowledge. Some of PRISM's work includes geospatial modeling, modeling of urban environments, cloud development modeling, and 3D modeling such as that exhibited in ASU's Decision Theater.

Partnership, Pathway, and Pipeline for Engineering Education: Engaging Middle School Students when Curricular Integration and Social Relevance

This exploratory project will provide effective mechanisms to motivate and engage middle school students in the practice of engineering through hands-on community-based service learning projects by establishing sustainable linkages between higher education, K-12, and community partners, developing professional learning communities (PLCs) comprised of engineering faculty and K-12 educators, and creating appropriately aligned educational pathways that integrates STEM with social studies and language arts.

Past, Present and Future of Conservation in Zoological Institutions

This is a multi-faceted study by an interdisciplinary research team to explore the conservation mission of zoos and aquariums focusing on the evolution of the shifting responsibilities of these institutions to animals and to conservation.

Persistent, Enthusiastic, Relentless: Study of Induction Science Teachers (PERSIST)

This project examines the effect of four different types of induction programs on 100 fifth-year teachers of secondary science.

Personalized Learning: Strategies to Respond to Distress and Promote Success

The purpose of this proposal is to explore the extent to which timely emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive interventions in tutoring software will have positive effects on students' emotions, attitudes, and achievements in mathematics.

Pervious and Thin Whitetopping PCC Pavements: Urban Heat Island Study

The project included implementing a new concrete mix design that utilizes recycled plastic fibers for added strength and durability and studying the mechanical, thermal and storm water performance of pervious concrete located in a hot arid climate.

PFI:AIR - TT: Low Temperature High Performance Metallization using Reactive Ink Chemistries

This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating reactive ink science and technology to fill the need for low temperature, high performance and low-cost photovoltaic metallization. The development of reactive inks for solar cells is important because of the savings incurred by reducing the total amount of precious silver and also because the outstanding electrical properties these inks have shown can significantly enhance photovoltaic performance while reducing the overall cost of solar energy.

Photocatalytic Reduction of Nitrate in Water

The goal of this project is to explore and optimize the use of photocatalysts as a reductive technology for treating nitrate in drinking water applications. The underlying hypothesis is nitrate can be converted to innocuous aqueous species in drinking water applications using metal-loaded photocatalysts.

Photodegradation in Deserts: Litter Optical and Structural Considerations

This project will test whether the optical properties of litter produced by desert plants contribute to the different pattern of litter decay. Laboratory and field experiments will be used to test the importance of sunlight as an agent of litter decay relative to other mechanisms such as microbial activity.

Photosynthetic Bacteria Biofuels

This project is developing genetically optimized versions of photosynthetic bacteria, called cyanobacteria, that will use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to over-produce and secrete fatty acids as a raw material for the production of biofuel.

Photothermal Energy Conversion in Nanofluids

The interaction of thermal radiation with nanofluids, which are nanoscale colloidal suspensions, has not been extensively examined. This research deals with fundamental thermal transport phenomena that occur when sufficiently intense thermal radiation is incident upon a nanofluid. Specifically, the irradiation will cause localized heating of the suspended nanoparticles, and, in turn, induce heating or boiling of the liquid. This proposal addresses the relevant phenomena through a series of experiments and analyses.

Photovoltaic Canopy Research Project

The Photovoltaic Canopy Research Project was conducted in the premises the Tempe campus of Arizona State University to scientifically measure the micro-climate effects of selected ASU solar canopy projects.

Physics-Based Predictive Modeling for Integrated Agricultural and Urban Applications

Challenges associated with a rapidly rising global population, that is increasingly food-insecure and lacks fundamental awareness of how to build tomorrow's sustainable cities, necessitate urgent study in light of a rapidly urbanizing planet. Unrelenting urban population growth -- an increase of more than 2.5 billion new urban inhabitants is projected by 2050, relative to 2011 -- requires considerable conversion of natural to agricultural (to meet increased food demand) and to urban (to meet increased commercial, housing, and transportation demand) landscapes. The overarching goal of this team, consisting of computational and climate scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, geoscientists, and social scientists, is to develop high-resolution physics-based, coupled, dynamic, and predictive capabilities that not only characterize current multi-scale environmental and socio-economic impacts associated with agricultural productivity within cities but also enable the prediction of future impacts.

Physiological Value-based Security for Body Area Networks

This project addresses the challenge of providing usable (plug-and-play, self-configuring, and autonomic) security solutions for Body Area Networks (BANs): networks of economically powered, wireless, wearable and/or implanted health monitoring nodes (sensors and actuators), for collecting and communicating health information and, appropriately administering medicine or prosthetic actions.

Plankton Community Composition and Trophic Interactions as Modifiers of Carbon Export in the Sargasso Sea

The research objectives of this study are: 1) to characterize (qualitatively and quantitatively) trophic interactions between major plankton groups in the euphotic zone and rates of, and contributors to, carbon export and 2) to develop a constrained food web model, based on these data, that will allow us to better understand current and predict near-future patterns in export production in the Sargasso Sea.

Planning Archaeological Infrastructure for Integrative Science

The goal of this project is to develop a plan that would detail how major investments by NSF in the information infrastructure of archaeology could best improve the scientific community's ability to use archaeological data in synthetic research on social and environmental dynamics and thereby serve the needs of contemporary society more broadly.

Plasmonic Mapping of Ion Channel Activities in Single Cells

Patch clamp technique is a powerful tool for studying ion channels of cells, but it is difficult to operate, low throughput and often invasive. The present project develops an optical method to measure electrical conductance, making it possible to map ion channel opening and closing activities noninvasively with high spatial and temporal resolution. This unprecedented capability is anticipated to provide new insights into ion channel activities and a new tool for high throughput screening of ion-channel targeted drugs.

Point of Dispensing Exercises for Pandemic Influenza

This project's goal is to develop a model and exercise that will allow administrators from Pinal County, Arizona, to analyze their throughput capability in a realistic, virtual environment that simulates multiple Point of Dispensing (POD) areas, multiple POD types, and the challenges associated with efficient POD design.

Point of Dispensing Simulation for Large-Scale Mass Dispensing Operations During a Public Health Emergency

The purpose of this study is to develop for the Arizona Department of Health Services a computer-based, interactive multiple Point of Dispening area throughput model.

PolarGlobe: Powering up Polar Cyberinfrastructure Using M-Cube Visualization for Polar Climate Data

The project aims at developing and implementing techniques for multivariate, multi-dimensional, and multi-faceted visualizations to support polar climate studies.

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Processing by a Fog Cloud - Field and Laboratory Studies

This project addresses questions regarding the chemical processing in fog of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), some of which are known to be toxic.

Positioning Engineers for Urban Sustainability Transition Strategy Development

Civil and construction engineering students must learn to deploy sustainable systems that balance economic, social, political, and community considerations, in addition to technical considerations in order to address America's declining infrastructure. The project is evaluating whether integrating sustainability concepts through project-based learning into existing undergraduate civil and construction engineering courses results in improvements in team-based problem-solving skills and whether collaborations between upper and lower division undergraduates in multiple courses improve students' ability to apply concepts taught in introductory courses to future courses.

Post-6 Ma Tectonic Evolution of the Bhutan Himalaya

Atypical high-elevation, but low-relief landscapes are perched above and surrounded by deeply incised canyons in the middle latitudes of Bhutan. This study explores the proposition that these landforms represent a pulse of erosion that is sweeping through Bhutan and progressively changing the relief.

Postdoctoral Fellowship—Knowledge Systems Analysis for Environmental Decision Making: Energy Development in the Four Corners Region of the American Southwest, 1960-2010

This research project addresses that gap by developing a conceptual framework and set of policy tools, called Knowledge Systems Analysis, that can be used by researchers and policymakers to guide the systematic review of environmental decisions and their outcomes.

Precipitation Controls of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles in Arid-Semiarid Ecosystems

This project puts forward four hypotheses to explain observed lags in ecosystem response to changing precipitation, and tests them by altering patterns of total precipitation and precipitation variability, with and without nitrogen manipulation. These manipulations, together with the model analysis, will help determine the cause and magnitude of lags in the ecosystem response to precipitation.

Predicting Changes in Commercial Fishing Behavior to Management Changes in the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Fishery

The primary objective of the project is to develop a random utility model (RUM) to predict changes in commercial fishing behavior in response to recently implemented regulations affecting the grouper component of the Gulf of Mexico reef fish fishery and serve as a simulation platform for future management evaluation for this fishery.

Predicting, Measuring, and Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrate Biodiversity on Dryland Military Bases

This project integrates mathematical modeling, invertebrate sampling, and statistical estimation to develop robust methodologies for tracking biodiversity of aquatic invertebrates on dryland military bases.

Prehistoric Agricultural Productivity in the Perry Mesa Region, Central Arizona

This project integrates archaeological investigations of the prehistoric settlements and farming systems with ecological methods of soil nutrient analysis and soil moisture measurements.

Prime the Pipeline Project (P3): Putting Knowledge to Work

Prime the Pipeline Project (P3): Putting Knowledge to Work is designed to engage high school students as active members of a scientific village comprised of students, math and science teachers, university faculty, undergraduate student mentors, industry professionals, and scientists.

Prioritizing Cooling Infrastructure Investments for Vulnerable Southwest Populations

The objective of this collaborative research project is to develop methods for joining social and built environment vulnerability into a single framework, and will create a prioritization framework for selecting investments in cooling infrastructure that maximize the reduction in vulnerability. The vulnerability of the United States Southwest populations to heat is a result of both a city's socio-demographic profile and the built environment, yet little is known about the latter.

Producing Native American PhDs and Professors in Engineering

This project is to increase the participation of Native Americans within the engineering professoriate through better understanding of how and why Native American engineering students choose to pursue (or not) an academic career path.

Promoting Empathy and Collaborative Decision Making for Natural Resources Management Using a Computer Mediated Scenario

The research team uses a multi-method, multi-disciplinary approach that includes a cross-sectional public survey to test a model of the relationships between perspective taking and prosocial behavior and identify the key individual and contextual predictors and barriers to perspective taking and prosocial action in resource management contexts.

Protein Control of Electron Transfer Pathways in Photosynthesis

The initial solar energy conserving event in photosynthesis is the transfer of an electron between an excited donor and a neighboring acceptor molecule in the reaction center, an intrinsic membrane protein-pigment complex. In this project Woodbury will continue his studies of the purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, investigating the driving force and temperature dependence of the initial electron transfer reactions.

PSERC Collaborative Proposal for a Phase III Industry University Cooperative Research Center Program

The proposed work addresses important improvements and advancements in the transmission and delivery of electricity.

Public Value Mapping: Developing a Non-Economic Model of the Social Value of Science and Innovation Policy

The purpose of this study is to further develop a public-values-based model for science and innovation policies (SIPs). At the core of this work are two fundamental questions: What are the public values that justify particular SIPs, and what is the capacity of a given SIP to yield outcomes that support and advance those values?

Pyrite (FeS2) Thin-Films for Photovoltaics

The overall goal of the proposed research is to develop a fundamental understanding of the electronic and defect properties of doped and undoped pyrite thin films for solar photovoltaics.

QESST: NSF Engineering Research Center for Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies

A major societal challenge is to generate terawatts (TWs) of electricity with minimal environmental impact. The Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) Engineering Research Center will transform the existing electricity generation system towards a sustainable and ubiquitous one by developing photovoltaic (PV) technologies with higher efficiency and novel functionality.

Quantifying the Effects of Groundwater and Hydrology on the Trophic Structure in Desert Riparian Ecosystems

Water and energy are essential ingredients of life and key commodities for humans and other living organisms that make up food webs. Curiously, although the role of energy in determining the inner workings of food webs has been thoroughly explored, water has been mostly ignored in food web ecology. The goal of this project is to fill this critical research gap by working to understand how the balance between supply and demand of energy and water affects patterns of abundance and biodiversity in terrestrial food webs.

RAPID: Responses of Herbaceous Annual Plants to Material Deposition from the Urban Atmosphere under Contrasting Conditions of Antecedent Drought and Winter Rainfall

This research studies the combined effects of high rainfall and urban pollution on the abundance, kinds, and chemical makeup of annual herbaceous plants which will help advance theory and understanding of how multiple factors affect plant growth singly and in combination.

RAPID: The Role of Emergent Organizations in Hurricane Harvey Response

The goal of this project is to understand the role of emergent response organizations in mitigating disaster risks during the Hurricane Harvey relief effort. To achieve this goal, the research team explores the development and subsequent role of emergent, volunteer response organizations like #RedNeckNavy in the disaster relief effort. Such organizations were constituted by communication on social media platforms such as Twitter and Zello.

Rationale Design of Enhanced Catalytic Nanometers

Synthetic nanoscale motors represent a major step towards the development of practical nanomachines. Despite impressive progress, manmade nanomachines lack the efficiency and versatility of their biological counterparts. Extending the scope of synthetic nanomotors to diverse and realistic conditions requires deep understanding of their fundamental physical mechanisms. This proposed collaborative research aims at gaining such understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms of catalytic nanowire motors.

RCN-SEES for Urban Sustainability: Research Coordination and Synthesis for a Transformative Future

The Urban Sustainability RCN will begin with a broadly interdisciplinary core group of academics, students, postdocs, policy-makers, city planners, managers, and other action-focused urban players representing 14 cities in various stages of transition.

RCN-SEES: Coordinating Phosphorus Research to Create a Sustainable Food System

The goal of the P Sustainability Research Coordination Network (RCN) is to spark an interdisciplinary synthesis of data, perspectives, and understanding about phosphorus to identify and implement solutions for P sustainability.

Reassessing the Biological Functions of the Plant Type I H+-PPase

Specifying how sugar moves to various tissues within the plant will allow scientists to develop strategies to optimize sugar translocation in crops that increase yield while reducing the environmental impacts of production agriculture.

Reinvent Phoenix: Cultivating Equity, Engagement, Economic Development and Design Excellence with TOD

The City of Phoenix will create a new model for urban development – one that increases quality of life while maintaining desirability and attainability for the entire spectrum of incomes, ages, family sizes, and physical and developmental abilities along the light rail corridor.

Religious Infusion and Asymmetric Group Conflict

This interdisciplinary research project will examine how differences in religious ritual, doctrine, and context shape the motivations and capacities of groups in which religion permeates many aspects of private and public life, sometimes leading those groups to initiate conflict against stronger groups.

Remaking Toxicity: Computational Toxicology and Urban Exposure Experiences

This is an ethnographic study that focuses on toxicologists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who are developing new toxicity testing methods and on people living with chronic exposures in a low-income minority community in Phoenix, Arizona. The project will use data collected from participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and scientific and community documents to identify the ways in which current chemical knowledge practices differ from prior practices and to analyze the socio-political implications of these changes.

Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change: A Collaboration between NABO and LTVTP

This research will address the impacts of social responses to climate change, an issue central to contemporary policy and relevant to public and private organizations, policy makers, and resource managers interested in promoting resilience to climate change.

Resilience Simulation for Water, Power, & Road Networks

The project will construct a new computer-based Resilient Infrastructure Simulation Environment (RISE) to allow individuals, groups (including students), and experts to test infrastructure network design configurations and crisis response approaches in three socio-technical infrastructure systems: electric power, water, and roadway networks.

Retrofitting Suburbs: Re-visioning the Cul-de-Sac

The countless environmental and social problems endogenous to the suburban model, as well as exogenous forces resulting from pending demographic changes, renders uncertain the future of the now conventional suburban development type. Besides developing new design paradigms, there is a pressing need to rethink the use of existing suburban areas. Here, we explore the possibilities for re-use of a typical suburban cul-de-sac

REU Site: Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI)

The Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI) summer program trains undergraduates through cutting-edge research and intensive mentoring experiences in the applied mathematical sciences. This eight-week summer research program is open to college juniors and seniors who are interested in learning quantitative methods and carrying out research on intriguing applications of math to their day-to-day lives.

RIDGE: Tipping Points in the Evolution of Submarine Hydrothermal Systems: Habitat Generation, Organic Transformation, and Rock Alteration

Goals of the project are to use thermodynamic constraints and calculations to predict the supply of chemical energy to microbial communities that inhabit seafloor hydrothermal vents. It will also focus on adding estimates of hundreds of additional organic compounds to thermodynamic databases to allow more complete and realistic calculations of organic transformations and the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds.

Risk Communication Analysis for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness

An exercise series that will facilitate sharing information with community stakeholders (e.g., parents, schools, business leaders, government officials, emergency management) on some of the potential impacts of a serious influenza pandemic and increase awareness of the need to develop plans to support community mitigation strategies.

Risk Perception, Institutions, and Water Conservation: Enhancing Agricultural Adaption to Future Water Scarcity in Central Arizona

The objective of this project is to help farmers maximize opportunities to enhance their flexibility in face of climatic stress while also investing in the resilience of the broader social-ecological system on which farmers depend.

Robust Theoretical Frameworks for Ecological Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints

The investigators will extend and generalize existing well-received stoichiometry-based mathematical models to encompass a broader range of ecological situations, including cell quota dynamics, consumer age- or size-structures, variable consumer stoichiometry, and delayed nutrient cycling. Once such a generalized theoretical framework is established, the investigators will construct and evaluate models inspired by recent empirical discoveries in ES, including one considering the effects on consumer dynamics of not only insufficient food nutrient content but also of excess food nutrient content, and another considering the effects of stoichiometric dietary mixing.

Role of Human Intestinal Microbiota on Success of Surgical Weight Loss Procedures

This project will investigate microorganisms that live in the human intestines and how they affect success or failure of weight loss after two methods of bariatric surgery. The ultimate goal is to find microorganisms that help weight loss following bariatric surgery.

Science Advanced through Virtual Institutes (SAVI): Virtual Institute for Responsible Innovation

The goal of this project is to build research infrastructure, a virtual institute for responsible innovation. The meaning of "responsible innovation" is evolving, but roughly the term refers to a process of engagement in which stakeholders and innovators engage in mutually responsive dialogues that serve to bring about socially acceptable innovation processes and products. The proposed institute will focus specifically on nanotechnology and other emerging technologies such as synthetic biology and geo-engineering.

Science Master's Program: Solar Energy Engineering & Commercialization

More rapid development of solar energy is stymied by the high (but declining) costs of solar energy systems, the relatively low efficiencies of such systems, regulatory hurdles that impede development, and uncoordinated governmental policies. Overcoming such obstacles demands a new kind of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) workforce – one skilled in technical subjects at the heart of solar energy technologies, but also well versed in the socio-economic (e.g., social, economic, behavioral, policy) and commercial aspects of solar energy. Arizona State University (ASU) is addressing these needs through a new professional Science Master's Degree in Solar Energy Engineering & Commercialization.

Science Teachers in Arizona – Recruitment and Retention (STARR)

This project attempts to identify and support up to 60 qualified secondary science teachers who will persist in high-need environments.

Science-Driven, Community-Based Approach to Reducing Glacier Lake Outburst Flood Risks

Over the past several decades, hundreds of glaciers in mountainous regions have been melting, leaving behind new glacier lakes holding millions of cubic meters of water. Usually contained by dams of loose boulders and soil, these lakes present a risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). As the number and extent of these lakes grows, so does the flood risk for communities downstream of them, potentially leading to extensive loss of lives and severe damage to transport infrastructure, hydroelectric power facilities and agriculture. This project will look at the factors that lead to GLOFs, and the measures that local populations can take to adapt to this increasing threat.

Self Assembly at Photonic and Electronic Scales

This grant addresses ywo issues critical to manufacturing at the nano- and meso-scales.

SenSIP - A Research Site of the Net-Centric Software and Systems Center

The Sensor Signal and Information Processing (SenSIP) consortium at the Arizona State University (ASU) is planning to join the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) entitled "Net-Centric Software and Systems" which currently is a multi- university Center comprised of the University of North Texas (lead institution), and the University of Texas at Dallas. The mission of SenSIP at ASU is to develop signal and information processing foundations for next-generation integrated multidisciplinary sensing applications in biomedicine, defense, energy, and other systems.

Service Access in Premodern Cities

A team of urban experts at Arizona State University will compare the ways city dwellers gained access to urban services in a sample of thirty ancient and historic cities. Planners and city officials today wrestle with difficult decisions about where to locate schools, clinics, parks, and other facilities.

Simulation-Based Policy Analysis for Reducing Ebola Transmission Risk in Air Travel

The researchers on this project will build fine-scale simulation models for infection spread during air travel in order to identify the causes of infection spread, as well as procedures and policies that will limit its spread without major disruption to air travel. The researchers propose to create a super-computing based application that will provide useful insight to decision makers - such as medical responders, policy makers etc. dealing with Ebola.

Single Molecule Light Emitting Device

The present project aims at studying how the optoelectronic properties of these systems change when the device is decreased to nano- and molecular-scales, and exploring single molecule light emitting device and optical sensing applications.

Sinking Rates and Nutritional Quality of Organic Matter Exported from Sea Ice; the Importance of Exopolymeric Substances

The knowledge resulting from this study will contribute to our understanding of the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle and how it may be modified in response to climate variability.

Sino-US Center of Conservation, Energy and Sustainability Science

SUCCESS provides a platform for international collaborations, particularly on use-inspired, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research relevant to sustainability issues that occur during the socioeconomic development in Inner Mongolia and its neighboring regions.

Sn-Containing Group-IV Semiconductors for Energy Applications in Photovoltaics and Thermoelectricity

The project addresses fundamental research issues in a topical area of electronic/photonic materials science having energy related technological relevance.

Social Dynamics in Response to Shifting Immigration Policy and Practice: Latino Social Networks, Resource Flow, and Household Reorganization

As a large scale agent of change, shifts in policy and perceptions concerning immigrants ripple through social networks, affecting household arrangements and resources that impact not only individuals, but families and whole communities. The study examined the social networks that link household members to each other and larger networks, and model the implications of this for the resource flows to household members and ultimately for household resiliency and the well-being of family members.

SoCS: Tipping Collective Action in Social Networks

To promote cooperative behavior at large scales, this project will develop computational tools to facilitate the context for cooperation - homogeneity, effective communication - observed in smaller scale case studies and field experiments. The investigators will test new ways to increase collective action using mobile applications and social media.

SoCS: Tipping Collective Actions in Social Networks

Many of the challenges facing contemporary society, such as emission reductions or vaccination for infectious diseases, are collective action problems. To address these challenges, new approaches are needed to understand, stimulate and sustain collective action in large heterogeneous populations. To promote cooperative behavior at large scales, this project will develop computational tools to facilitate the context for cooperation – homogeneity, effective communication – observed in smaller scale case studies and field experiments.

Solving Stochastic Planning Problems Through Principled Determination

This project provides a systematic framework for exploiting this progress in deterministic planning technology - be it classical, temporal or partial satisfaction planning problems - in stochastic planning as well, by novel adaptation of theory and/or methods of determinization, hindsight optimization, and machine learning.

Source Apportionment of Iron in the Marine Atmosphere -- Application of Stable Iron Isotopic Measurements

his project, a collaboration between investigators at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, will explore the use of Fe isotopes as a tracer of natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols to assess their importance as a source of Fe to the open ocean.

Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region

The SYPR project seeks to explain the dynamics of land-use/land-cover change in the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region over the past 25 years and explores ways to wed remote sensing- and social science-based models of this change.

Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy

The Consortium addresses issues pertaining to the ecologically and socioeconomically fragile environment along the US-Mexico border.

Southwest Environmental Information Network

SEINet is a center of biodiversity information, organizing Southwestern natural-history collections into one portal.

Spatial Analytical Framework for Examining Community Risk Issues over Space and Time

This project will develop a spatial analytical framework and toolbox for addressing convicted offender residency issues. This will facilitate access to a combination of new and existing exploratory and confirmatory statistical methods and to new and existing spatial optimization models that can be used for analyzing impacts as well as developing and evaluating public policy associated with the management of convicted offenders.

Spatial Refueling Patterns of Drivers of Alternative-Fuel and Conventional Vehicles

This research project will survey drivers about their refueling patterns and behaviors to better understand the assumptions underlying the deployment of new stations for alternative-fuel vehicles.

STIR: Socio-Technical Integration Research

This project co-funded by Science, Technology & Society; Biology and Society; Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Society; Science of Science and Innovation Policy; and Office of International Science and Engineering involves a coordinated set of twenty laboratory engagement studies to assess and compare the varying pressures on and capacities for laboratories to integrate broader societal considerations into their work.

Strain in Cartilaginous Fish Skeletons

Strategic Investment in ARENA — the Arizona Environmental Array

The goal of this project was to use development of informatics infrastructure to strategically position one or more of Arizona's candidate sites to become official nodes in NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network).

Stress and Structure Evolution in Ultra-Thin Heteroepitaxial Metallic Films

The objective of this research is to significantly expand the understanding of stress-structure relationships in ultra-thin heteroepitaxial metallic films.

Subsistence, Economic Diversity and Resilience in Response to State Level Change

This project undertakes archaeological and paleoecological research in the Basin of Mexico to find out how political and environmental shifts shaped people's lives, as well as how people's responses to these circumstances contributed to regional change.

Supply Network Design and Product Environmental Performance

The goal of this study is to address the research question: Do different configurations of a product's supply network yield different environmental performance?

Surface Flux for Cracked and Intact Clays for Ponded and Sloped Conditions

This study addresses key remaining questions rarely, or only superficially, discussed in the geotechnical literature, and is geared toward transformation of surface flux modeling capabilities for cracked and intact clays.

SusCHEM: Anchoring Single Noble Metal Atoms for Better Catalysis

This project addresses fundamental scientific concepts encountered in synthesizing single-atom catalysts, testing their efficacy, establishing their structure-function relationships, and developing new strategies to stabilize isolated, single atoms of active noble metals.

SusChEM: Molecular Routes to New Classes of Polar and Non-Polar Alloy Semiconductors

Modern research in materials science is strongly focused on the design and synthesis of materials not available in nature. The molecular approach to crystal growth exemplified by this project represents a new tool for this quest that may lead to materials with unique properties.

Sustainability of Marine Renewable Resources in Subarctic Systems Under Incumbent Environmental Variability and Human Exploitation

These network activities focus on basic socio-ecological principles applied to the study of the sustainability of renewable resources in large marine ecosystems under incumbent climate variability and human exploitation. Through this network a gap is bridged among ecologists, mathematicians, social scientists and resource managers to provide a sound science support system for conservation.

Sustainability Science Applications, Center for

The Center for Sustainability Science Applications (CSSA) promotes research that reconciles the needs of society and nature through projects involving urban systems, climate change, and sustainable technologies.

Sustainable Algal Biofuels Consortium

The primary objective is to evaluate biochemical (enzymatic) conversion as a potentially viable strategy for converting algal biomass into lipid-based and carbohydrate-based biofuels. Secondary objective is to test the acceptability of algal biofuels as replacements for petroleum-based fuels.

Sustainable Diet and Happiness

We seek to provide the groundwork for analysis of how dietary choice provides the key to a happier and more sustainable life. Utilizing a survey based approach and semi-structured interviews, we compare the happiness of respondents following a variety of diets, and analyze to determine if perceived sustainability benefits play a role in self-described measures of happiness and how actual reported dietary habits compare to perceptions.

Sustainable Energy Systems

Based on concepts of strong and weak ties, the network will build ties among stakeholders for sustainable energy systems with subgroups focused on 1) innovations in energy technologies, 2) sustainability implications of manufacture, use and end-of-life at scale, and 3) energy and human development. Ties between and within groups will be developed through industrial, government and developing country residencies through which graduate students acquire tacit knowledge necessary to bridge various stages of the innovation system.

Sustainable High-Energy Density, Low-Cost Electrochemical Energy Storage

The strategic vision of the Metal-Air Ionic Liquid (MAIL) battery program is to create a measurably safe, earth-abundant and geo-politically sustainable, ultra-high energy density, and low cost battery technology.

Sustainable Infrastructures for Energy and Water Supply (SINEWS)

The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the sustainability and resilience of the water and energy systems, and to offer solutions that span infrastructure design, management of the physical environment, and socio-economic policy.

Sustainable Large-Scale Deployment of Perennial Biomass Energy Crops

By exploring bioenergy expansion through an integrated lens that incorporates physical, agricultural, and economic elements, this project will guide local to national level agencies making decisions regarding the feasibility of biomass-derived energy.

Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance

The Sustainable Phosphorus Alliance is North America’s central forum for convening industry, government, civil society, and academia to advocate for the sustainable use, recovery, and recycling of phosphorus in the food system.

Sustainable Water Resources for Communities under Climate Change: Can State-of-the-Art Forecasting Inform Decision-Making in Data Sparse Regions?

This project will study decision-making for water resources management in anticipation of climate change in northern Mexico as a case study for the broader arid and semiarid southwestern North America. The goal of the project is to determine whether water resources systems modeling, developed within a participatory framework, can contribute to the building of management strategies in a context of water scarcity, conflicting water uses and highly variable and changing climate conditions.

Sustainablity Science for Sustainable Schools

The goal is to equip graduate fellows with the skills to bring their sustainability-science research into K-12 settings to benefit K-12 teachers, students, and families, as well as enhance their own professional development.

Sustaining Digital Antiquity: Providing Preservation and Access for Archaeological Information

Digital Antiquity's mission is to ensure preservation of and access to digital archaeological information.

SWCC Based Models for Realistic Simulation of Swell Behavior of Expansive Soils

Current engineering practice for determining the volume change behavior of unsaturated expansive soils are mostly based on simplified tests, and correlations with index properties. Such practices can lead to uneconomical and distress prone foundation designs. Hence, there is a fundamental research need to review the current characterization practices in expansive soils and to revise them to reflect the current state of knowledge of unsaturated soil mechanics. The final outcome of this research is the development of methods for better predictions of expansive soil properties using unsaturated soil mechanics principles.

Symbiota, A Virtual Flora Model for the Southwestern United States

This project will develop a computer-based identification system for plants and animals.

Targeted Saturated Fatty Acids Synthesis by Microbial Biohydration and its Superior Extraction from Microalgae Biomass through Selective Fermentation

This research will explore a new process called selective fermentation to address two major roadblocks facing the continued commercial development algal biofuel production processes: safe and efficient extraction of the lipids, and beneficial use of the non-lipid biomass.

Teaching Time Capsule

The purpose of this proposal is to empower, inspire, and inform K-8th grade educators on the interconnected topics of sustainability science through the development of Teaching Time Capsule -- a virtual space that will connect educators to cutting-edge materials and valuable continuing education coursework. Through the Capsule, we will prepare educators to animate sustainability science across the curriculum by building on knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to solve complex sustainability challenges.

Testing Biodiversity-Ecosystem Functioning Relationships in an Ecological Stoichiometry Framework in the World's Largest Natural Grassland

This project will directly manipulate plant diversity in large-scale experimental plots and measure a number of ecosystem function variables to test existing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and evaluate new hypotheses regarding ecosystem function for multiple trophic levels (plants, herbivores, and soil microbes) in the Inner Mongolian Grassland, part of the largest natural grassland in the world.

Testing Macronutrient Imbalance as a Key Factor Limiting Range Expansion in Herbivores

This research project is taking advantage of an ongoing outbreak of the South American locust (Schistocerca cancellata) to test the hypothesis that the ability for S. cancellata to attain a balance of nutrients optimal for growth limits their capacity to maintain persistent high populations over broad regions of South America. Locusts are a major challenge for food security globally, with outbreaks causing 80-100% crop losses. In the future, working collaboratively with government plant protection agencies, this research can be directly applied to strategies to improve livelihoods, human and environmental health, and global food security. Moreover, this award will support postdoctoral and student training, and cross-cultural exchange.

The Archaeology of Local Human Response to a Global Environmental Transformation

This project is a case study designed to identify the dynamics of local subsistence adaptations to the climate-induced environmental transformation of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

The Assembly of Photosynthetic Light-Harvesting Complexes in Whole Cells

This interdisciplinary project will bring together sophisticated biological and structural monitoring of photosynthetic membrane assembly, function and regulation with the tools of dynamic spectroscopy required to record and analyze the detailed function of the in vivo system.

The Complexities of Ecological and Social Diversity: A Long-Term Perspective

This research project will examine how social and ecological diversity interact to influence the resilience of societies facing major changes in their social or environmental circumstances. The goal of the investigators conducting this project is to discover configurations of diversity in ecological landscapes and in forms of social organization that make systems more or less able to cope with significant environmental or social changes without undergoing an unpleasant transformation.

The CUbiC CAReS Note-Taker: Enabling Students Who are Legally Blind to Take Notes in Class

This project will develop and evaluate a portable Note-Taker device that does not require any adaptation of the existing classroom infrastructure, and which allows visually impaired students to shift their attention between the writing surface and the class presentation without inefficient context switching.

The Dynamics of Adaptation to Climate-Driven Variability in California Current Fisheries And Fishing Communities

In this project, ecologists, economists and social scientists will collaborate and integrate primary survey research, modeling, and outreach to: 1) understand how environmental variability affects, and is affected by, linked social and ecological processes; 2) investigate how more integrated fisheries management can enhance social and ecological resilience; and 3) engage state and federal fisheries managers and fishing communities in the development and application of modeling approaches to better achieve ecological and social goals.

The Dynamics of Earth System Oxygenation

Oxygen, in the form of the molecule O₂, is abundant in the Earth's atmosphere and oceans, where it is vital for all multi-cellular life, including humans. However, O₂ was nearly absent from the atmosphere and oceans during the first half of Earth's history. In the past decade, we solidified our understanding of when the prolonged and complex transition to the modern, O₂-rich environment began. However, the cause of this so-called "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE) and later changes in O₂ remains one of the major mysteries in Earth System Science. Solving it is of more than academic interest because it will help us understand how the Earth supports life, and provide insights and perspective on some of the environmental challenges posed by human activity. This project will tackle this challenge by combining new data and calculations that reach from the Earth's core to the top of the atmosphere to develop a comprehensive model of the geochemical cycle of O₂ that can explain the GOE.

The Dynamics of Multi-Scalar Adaptation in Megacities: Autonomous Action, Institutional Change and Social Hydrological Risk in Mexico City (MEGADPT)

MEGADAPT is both an international, transdisciplinary research initiative, designed to capture and simulate the social and biophysical dynamics that create flood risk and water scarcity in Mexico City, and a decision tool, enabling diverse actors in the city to explore the consequences of different approaches to risk management for the city and its residents.

The Dynamics of Religion and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary, Empirical Approach

Building upon insights from a wide range of disciplines (e.g., social psychology, political science, religious studies, anthropology, sociology) and existing findings about the processes that contribute to group conflict (e.g., perceived competition over scarce resources, incompatible values), this project tests hypotheses about where, how, under what circumstances, and for whom religion-influenced conflict could emerge.

The Economics of Environmental Vulnerability: Epidemiology, Household Status, and Air Pollution

Analyses of U.S. air quality regulations identify subpopulations that are particularly sensitive to the adverse health effects associated with air pollution on the basis of epidemiological studies of the physiological effects of pollution. The observed susceptibility of children and older adults to environmental degradation stems from not one but two important factors: physiological sensitivity and economic vulnerability.

The Embryo Project Training and Research

The project will provide rigorous interdisciplinary training and research for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in history and philosophy of the life sciences, with a focus on developmental biology.

The Emergence of Coupled Natural and Human Landscapes in the Western Mediterranean

This project will collect archeological data on ancient human land use, vegetation, and land form at four Neolithic sites in Spain and Italy. These data will guide the development of models of social and natural processes that will attempt to predict the long-term outcomes of alternative patterns of land use.

The Integrity of Geosynthetic Elements of Waste Containment Barrier Systems Subject to Large Settlement and Seismic Loading

The objective of this project is to investigate the ability of modern landfill waste containment systems to maintain their integrity when subject to waste settlement, earthquake loading, and loads from operational practices.

The Joint Modeling of Seasonal Recreational Demand, Entry-Exit Decisions, and Fish Stocks over Time with an Application to Great Lakes Sportfishing

This project plans to develop a model that integrates a multi-site, multi-species, seasonal model of angler demand for sport fishing with a dynamic, bioeconomic model of fish stocks for the purpose of comparing the welfare impacts and conservation implications of various recreational fishery management alternatives.

The Measurement of Scale and Process Heterogeneity Through Local Multivariate Models

This project will address several fundamental issues in the statistical analysis of local processes through three types of multi-scale models that recently have been developed. Such research is important because all data collected in both biophysical and social environments results from a variety of processes, and a fundamental characteristic of many processes is the geographic scale at which they occur.

The Persistence of Biodiversity in Southern California under Future Land-Use Scenarios

This project will identify the life history traits of plants that are predictive of extinction risk in the face of the top three threats to plant species in the United States - habitat loss, altered fire regimes and competition with invasive species.

The Relative Importance of Generic vs. Specific Capacity in Addressing Drought Vulnerability in NE Brazil

This research examines how the vulnerability of rainfed farm households to drought has changed through time as a function of both specific and generic government-led interventions. The research also explores how these two categories of interventions are related, both in terms of their relative importance in defining overall adaptive capacity, and in terms of how they may create synergies or be mutually conditioning.

The Role of Resource Legacy on Contemporary Linkages Between Biodiversity and Ecosystem Processes in a Cold Desert Ecosystem: The McMurdo Dry Valley LTER Program

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (MCM) LTER project focuses on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in a cold desert region of Antarctica. The overall objectives of MCM are to understand 1) the influence of physical and biological constraints on the structure and function of Dry Valleys ecosystems and 2) the modifying effects of material transport on these ecosystems.

The SDG Experience - Student Immersion in SDG Solutions Through Virtual Field Trips

The project will use a digital learning platform and teaching network to teach young people how to create 360-degree spherical imagery of field sites that function as virtual field trips to share their experiences about specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and better engage and teach others.

Toward Verifying Smart-Health Infrastructure Safety from their Impact on Human Physiology

This project, investigating formal modeling and analysis of medical device control operations to verify patient safety, aims to advance the state-of-the-art in guaranteeing patient safety impacted by Smart Health Infrastructure (SHI).

Training the Next Generation Faculty and Students to Address the Infrastructure Crisis

This TUES Type 2 project establishes the Center for Infrastructure Transformation and Education (CIT-E) as the centerpiece of a community of practice.

Transformation and Transport of Organic Carbon in the Colorado River-Reservoir System

This project will assess the distribution, composition and reactivity of terrestrial and riverine carbon along a sequence of well-characterized reservoirs in a single watershed.

Transforming Feature Selection to Harness the Power of Social Media

This project investigates a novel approaches to feature selection in linked data in general and social media data in particular. Specifically, it seeks to exploit link information in supervised as well as unsupervised feature selection for social media data.

Transport-Enhanced Thermogalvanic Energy Conversion

The proposed project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between mechanical engineering (thermal transport) and chemistry, and is a largely experimental effort aimed at improving fundamental understanding of thermogalvanic systems.

Tunnel Junction for Reading All Four Bases with High Discrimination

At least seven NIH-supported groups are exploring sequencing methods that propose to use electron tunneling as the readout for a nanopore sequencer, an approach that might greatly reduce the cost of sequencing. We have shown that all four nucleosides and 5-methyl cytidine can be read by functionalized electrodes and we will develop reagents suitable for DNA sequencing in aqueous electrolyte and make these widely available.

TUV Rheinland PTL, LLC

TUV Rheinland Group has joined forces with Arizona State University to create TUV Rheinland PTL, LLC, the most comprehensive, sophisticated, state-of-the-art facility for testing and certification of solar energy equipment in the world.

Twentieth Century Theories of Development in Context

The research project focuses from multiple perspectives on scientific change. Its goal is to understand that change historically and conceptually and also to contribute to ongoing scientific debates.

Understanding Agents of Scientific Change: The Case of Embyro Research

This project explores agents of scientific change in a dynamic, interactive, integrative, interdisciplinary, international research environment.

Understanding and Modeling the Trade-Offs in Data Centers for Next-Generation Sustainable Management

This project is addressing the scientific and engineering challenges involved in decision making of cloud data centers (DCs) management arising from an array of complicating factors -- e.g., server heterogeneity, cyber-physical interactions between DCs and their environment, varying workload and electricity pricing -- and trade-offs -- e.g., energy-delay, time-accuracy, and cooling-computing..

Understanding Impacts of Desert Urbanization on Climate and Surrounding Environments to Foster Sustainable Cities Using Remote Sensing and Numerical Modeling

Overall goals are to better understand the impacts of changing land cover spatial distribution, patterns and arrangements within and around these cities in relation to climate change and to use this knowledge to support adaptive management and foster sustainable desert cities.

Understanding Supramolecular Architectures in Photosynthesis by Space and Time Resolved Spectroscopy

Seventy percent of mankind's current energy needs are met by burning fossil fuels. This is already problematic since oil and gas supplies are limited and because of the adverse environmental effects of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Moreover this situation is set to get worse as current predictions estimate that our energy needs will double by 2050. Mankind is therefore facing a major challenge to find new sources of clean renewable fuels. Photosynthesis is a biological process able to use solar energy to produce such fuels.

Understanding the Challenges Inherent in the Design, Execution and Participation in Governance Challenge Platforms

There is growing interest in the use of information and communication technologies for community engagement and for crowd-sourcing solutions to difficult problems through challenges and prizes. Governmental and nongovernmental organizations are being encouraged to design, deploy, manage and support appropriate online platforms to address both goals and improve economic competitiveness.

Uranium Isotopes in Carbonate Sediments: Assessing a Novel Paleoredox Proxy

This work tests the application of Uranium (U) isotopes preserved in carbonate sediments as a paleo-redox proxy

Urban Form and Energy Use Explored Through Dynamic Networked Infrastructure Model

Engineering and design of urban form is an important strategy for managing climate change and other environmental impacts of energy, as well as being key to the livability of cities. This project aims to clarify connections between urban form and use and energy use in the built environment and transport.

Urban Resilience to Extreme Weather Related Events

Urban areas are vulnerable to extreme weather related events given their location, high concentration of people, and increasingly complex and interdependent infrastructure. Impacts of Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and other disasters demonstrate not just failures in built infrastructure, they highlight the inadequacy of institutions, resources, and information systems to prepare for and respond to events of this magnitude. The Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) will develop a novel theoretical framework for integrating social, ecological, and technological system (SETS) dimensions for conceptualizing, analyzing, and supporting urban infrastructure decisions in the face of climatic uncertainty in a more holistic way.

Urban Vulnerability to Climate Change: A System Dynamics Analysis

This project will identify community and demographic markers of high-risk environments that decision-makers can use to develop spatially informed early warning systems and heat-illness prevention programs

Urban Water Innovation Network (U-WIN): Transitioning Toward Sustainable Urban Water Systems

The network, a consortium of academic institutions and key partners across the U.S., include research, engagement and educational programs that address challenges that threaten urban water systems. The mission of UWIN is to create technological, institutional, and management solutions to help communities increase the resilience of their water systems and enhance preparedness for responding to water crises.

Urbanization and Global Environmental Change

This collaborative project is building greater knowledge and understanding of the bidirectional interactions between global environmental change and cities, present at local, regional, and global scales, and integrating the work of decision makers, practitioners, and academic researchers.

US-Mexico Border Water & Environmental Sustainability Training (UMB-WEST)

This project will provide US undergraduate students and graduate students with an international collaborative research experience in water resources management.

US-UK Collab: Risks of Animal and Plant Infectious Diseases through Trade (RAPID Trade)

This work supports an interdisciplinary and international team who seek to solve that problem by developing new tools for evaluating the disease risks of world trade. The risk assessment tools produced by the project will provide animal, plant, and human health authorities at national and international levels with the capacity to make improved assessment of the disease risks associated with imports, and of the consequences of alternative trade responses.

Using Carbohydrates as Molecular Markers to Determine the Contribution of Agricultural Soil to Ambient Fine and Course PM

The overall goal of the project is to fully develop, employ and verify a technique to quantify the contribution of agricultural soils entrained in the atmosphere to ambient fine and coarse particulate matter (PM).

Using Informatics to Advance History and Philosophy of Science Research

The project is designed to address simultaneously the need of acquiring additional professional experience in informatics to advance research in the history and philosophy of science and to open up new areas of research and investigation at the intersection of these two areas.

VOCALS — Interaction of Aerosols with Marine Boundary Layer Clouds

This project will lead to insight into how aerosol production due to human activity influences precipitation and the radiative impact of clouds on Earth's climate.

VOSS: Managing Hybrid Challenge Platforms to Promote Innovation

This project has a multi-disciplinary research team exploring how community participation spreads, the effects of feedback on participation, and the changes in community and collaboration structure over time.

Water Availability Controls on Above-Belowground Productivity: Herbivory Versus Plant Response

This study addresses the questions: How does precipitation affect the above/belowground partitioning of carbon? During drought periods, are above and belowground structures equally affected, or are roots affected less than leaves and branches? Finally, is the effect of precipitation on carbon allocation constant or does it vary from deserts to humid grasslands?

Water Sustainability under Near-term Climate Change: A Cross-Regional Analysis Incorporating Socio-Ecological Feedbacks and Adaptations

The main objective of this study is to understand and quantify the potential impacts of near-term climate change and population growth on freshwater sustainability - defined here as integrating daily to annual flows required to minimize human vulnerability and maximize ecosystem needs (including native biodiversity) for freshwater - by explicitly incorporating the feedbacks from human-environmental systems on water supply and demand in various target basins spanning Arizona to North Carolina.

Wavelet Analysis of High Spatial Resolution Imagery for Urban Mapping Using Infinite Scale Decomposition Techniques

This research project aims to develop a frequency-based, multi-scale classification algorithm using overcomplete wavelet transforms that can generate higher-level spatial arrangements of objects and features for detailed urban land categorization. The investigator will seek to enhance spatial modeling and concepts that describe spatial association, spatial pattern, spatial regression, and segregation by adding decomposition procedures that can extract spatial features in different directions at infinite scale.

Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities - A Senior LSAMP Alliance

This project is a comprehensive, concerted, sequenced effort that uses NSF funding for historically underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate student activities, including the transition of college sophomores, juniors, and seniors toward graduate school and the development of high technology products with application or dissemination both regionally and nationally.

When Strengths Can Become Weaknesses: Emerging Vulnerabilities in Coupled Natural Human Systems under Globalization and Climate Change

Long-lived coupled natural human systems (CNHs) are often distinguished by how they have evolved the right fit between their biophysical and social sub-systems. Researchers have characterized this fit in terms of the close feedbacks that enable a system to function well when faced with a known set of disturbance regimes. This project addresses a key question that naturally arises when these systems are exposed to a new set of disturbance regimes or novel change as is likely to occur with increased globalization and climate change: to what extent do the interdependencies that developed to strengthen the system's capacity to fit to a certain set of disturbances limit or enhance its capacity to refit to new conditions?

WINTech

The goal of WINTech is to improve the current standard of living through the design and advancement of small, highly integrated electrical and electro-mechanical systems.