NSF Awards $68M for New Engineering Centers
October 20, 2003

The National Science Foundation (NSF) will create four new Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) to conduct pioneering studies of emerging technologies. Each center will focus on a specific area of research - storm prediction, extreme ultraviolet light, clean chemical manufacturing, or implantable electronics for treating incurable diseases.

NSF will invest $68 million over the next five years, distributing roughly $17 million to each center under a 10-year cooperative agreement, after which the ERCs are expected to become self-sufficient. Each center is based at a university but will function as a collaborative partnership with industry partners, state governments, and other universities.

The new centers will be: Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Science and Technology (EUV ERC) at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (CEBC) at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems (BMES) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

"The ERCs advance knowledge and develop new technologies to transform U.S. industry. The centers foster collaboration among researchers from many disciplines and provide an educational and research environment that prepares a new generation of engineering leaders," said Dr. John Brighton, Assistant Director for Engineering at NSF.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Including the new awards, NSF supports 24 Engineering Research Centers, working in the fields of Bioengineering, Earthquake Engineering, Design, Manufacturing and Product Development Systems, and Microelectronic Systems and Information Technology.

The following is a description of each Engineering Research Center, its fields of study, its partnerships and outreach activities.

Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology

Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Science and Technology (EUV ERC) at Colorado State University in Fort Collins will develop short-wavelength, optical measurement instrumentation to further nanotechnology research. The center's studies could help provide a foundation for routine microscopic observations and manipulations at the nanoscale, in times measured in femtoseconds (1 quadrillianth of a second).

The center operate in partnership with the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Department of Energy Center for X-ray Optics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, also in Berkeley. Currently, there is a start-up partnership with four semiconductor manufacturers, (Intel, Motorola, AMD, and IBM), Sematech (a consortium of semiconductor manufacturers), a laser manufacturer (Spectra Physics), and an advanced optics manufacturer (CDM Optics). Nine additional firms have expressed interest.

Outreach will involve year-round research experiences with undergraduates and faculty from the ERC and the following institutions that serve underrepresented groups: Agnes Scott College, Bryn Mawr College, Colorado State University-Pueblo, Morehouse College, and Spelman College. Harvey Mudd College, Sewanee University of the South, Hamline University, Brigham Young University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California Davis at Livermore, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will also be US outreach affiliates in research and education. Pre-college outreach includes students and teachers from high schools that serve predominantly underrepresented minority populations in Pueblo, Denver, and Fort Collins, Colorado.

Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis

Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis (CEBC) at the University of Kansas in Lawrence will study environmentally benign catalytic processes to reduce pollution from the manufacture of chemicals and minimize energy use. The team of chemists, biochemists, chemical engineers, and manufacturing engineers will explore underlying fundamentals and test new processes in partnership with industry in a range of test beds that includes a pilot plant.

CEBC will operate in partnership with the University of Iowa in Iowa City and Washington University at St. Louis in Missouri. Potential partnerships initially involve seven chemical manufacturers, including DuPont, Praxair, Rohm and Haas, and Procter & Gamble.

Outreach will involve CEBC faculty and undergraduates through a summer research experience and a visiting scholars program. The outreach will extend to the following institutions that serve underrepresented groups: Garden City Community College, Kansas City Community College, Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Additional participants include faculty and students from Iowa State University, Kansas State University, the University of Notre Dame, Oklahoma State University, and Wichita State University. Pre-college outreach will involve the Kansas City and Iowa City public schools and the NSF-supported St. Louis Inner Ring Mathematics and Science Partnership. The Los Alamos National Laboratories and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories are outreach affiliates in research and education.

Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere

Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst will develop low-cost sensing networks and information systems to improve the detection, understanding and prediction of severe storms and other atmospheric hazards, with the goal of ultimately saving lives and reducing property loss. Systems will gather information not available from current weather observing systems in the region of the atmosphere where tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, and other hazards form. Currently, the nation's weather observation systems are fundamentally constrained in sensitivity and resolution and unable to view much of the lower atmosphere due to the sparse distribution of weather radar systems.

CASA will operate in partnership with Colorado State University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, and will be supported in partnership with the Division of Atmospheric Sciences in the Directorate for Geosciences. The National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Massachusetts Department of Education will be strategic affiliates.

The ERC is based on a partnership with sensor system and information technology companies (including Raytheon, M/A-Com, Telephonics, and IBM); manufacturers of weather sensors, software, and services, (Vaisala, Baron Services, The Weather Channel, Weather Services International, and Vieux Associates); and public and private-sector end users of weather products (Texas Medical Center, the National Weather Service, and the Oklahoma Climatological Survey).

Center outreach will include high school-level activities in partnership with the Springfield, Mass. public schools, community college-level activities with the Springfield Technical Community College, and college-level activities at Clark-Atlanta University, Mount Holyoke College, Tufts University, Rice University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Delaware.

Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems

Engineering Research Center for Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems (BMES) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles will develop enhanced microelectronic systems to enable implantable devices to treat blindness, paralysis and loss of cognitive function. BMES will bring physicians, biologists, and engineers together to develop microelectronic systems that interact with living, human tissues. The resulting technology will enable implantable/portable devices. The researchers will focus on mixed signal systems on a chip, power and data management, intelligent analog circuits, interface technology at the nano- and micro-scales to integrate microelectronic systems with neurons, and new materials designed to prevent rejection.

BMES will operate in partnership with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of California at Santa Cruz, and will work with the medical device and information technology industries.

The partner institutions will collaborate with the California State University at Los Angeles which serves a predominantly underrepresented-minority student body. Pre-college outreach will be built on an award-winning USC outreach program and will involve middle and high school students and their teachers. The BMES will also collaborate with the Braille Institute in Los Angeles and the Exploratorium Science Museum in San Francisco to bring information about these emerging technologies to the disabled and general public.

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