University of Colorado at Boulder

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Many processes change Earth's landscape, including volcanoes, plate tectonics (earthquakes), weather, and erosion. Impact cratering has also played an important role throughout the history of Earth. When impact craters formed and how often they happen is not well understood. The goal of this proposal is to develop new ways to measure the age of impact craters on Earth's surface. The results will let scientists test the effects of impacts on Earth's climate and geology. Studying impacts and impact cratering is also important for society. Many impact craters around the world are mined for mineral resources. This project may also help determine how impacts concentrate these mineral resources. This project will also develop a lab class for university students to increase interest in the geosciences. Lab activities will provide students with important technical workforce skills. Additionally, an after-school Ad Astra Colorado program will be expanded by creating an online platform. The educational activities developed in this project can be a model for other universities. The goal of this CAREER proposal is to develop new methods to measure the age of impact craters on Earth's surface. Earth's surface has been shaped by geologic processes such as volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics (earthquakes), weathering, and erosion. Impact cratering has also played a very important role throughout the history of Earth. However, the history of impacts on the Earth, such as the timing and environmental effects are not well understood. Studying impacts and impact cratering is also important for society. Many impact craters around the world are mined for mineral resources. Because large impact events may affect climate, biodiversity, and tectonic/volcanic activity, they are important to national security. Better ways to measure the age of Earth’s impact craters will help scientists investigate connections between impacts and mass extinctions, episodes of volcanism, and climate change. This project will also develop lab-based activities that can be used as alternatives to geology field-based courses that are required by most university geoscience programs. The lab activities will help increase student participation in the Geosciences by making new field courses. The lab activities will provide students with important technical workforce skills. Additionally, this project will develop impact cratering curriculum for an online after school program through the Ad Astra Colorado program. Educational activities developed at CU Boulder may serve as a model for more accessible undergraduate courses and outreach activities at other universities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Living people carry archaic genetic material inherited from other hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. This genetic inheritance can affect fitness and health, and its persistence and effects cannot be fully understood unless studies consider each group’s unique population history and the evolutionary processes that shaped them. The goal of this study is to assess the presence and evaluate the impact of archaic hominin ancestry in groups with a complex population history. To achieve this goal, the study applies sophisticated computational genetic techniques to existing information. The study develops educational tools, provides training opportunities for students at different educational levels, and builds capacity in a new generation of scientists. This research advances knowledge of archaic ancestry in groups with complex admixture. To separate the archaic ancestry contributions from those derived from modern groups, this study analyzes the genomes of individuals that predate well documented historic processes as well as those from modern peoples. To improve admixture models, the study creates computational tools that benefit from artificial intelligence techniques. The study examines the relationship between archaic gene variants and phenotypic traits. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Understanding how airway cells function is essential for studying lung diseases and developing improved treatments. The tiny hair-like structures on airway cells, known as cilia, play an important role clearing mucus and harmful particles from the lungs. When cilia do not function properly, conditions such as cystic fibrosis and chronic respiratory diseases can develop. Current imaging methods for studying cilia have limitations. These methods require artificial dyes that may interfere with the cells or lack the ability to capture the complex motion of cilia in three dimensions. This project aims to develop a new imaging technology which will allow scientists to image cilia movement in 3D without the need for labeling dyes. This advancement will provide a clearer picture of how airway cells function in health and disease. The proposed capabilities could aid in the development of better treatments for respiratory disorders. Through partnerships with the Colorado Photonics Industry Association (CPIA) and the Washington University Cardiovascular Research Summer (CardS) Program, undergraduate and graduate students will gain valuable experience in advanced imaging technologies. The project will also help prepare a skilled workforce for future biophotonics innovations, addressing industry needs and supporting economic growth in science and technology fields. This project will develop the first high-speed 3D Dynamic Contrast Microscopic Optical Coherence Tomography (3D DyC-μOCT) system, a label-free optical imaging technology designed to study human airway organoids with high temporal and spatial resolution. Traditional imaging methods either lack sufficient depth and speed for real-time volumetric studies or require fluorescent labels that introduce experimental complexity and phototoxicity. 3D DyC-μOCT overcomes these challenges by integrating a novel swept-source laser architecture with parallel imaging using space-division multiplexing and lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) photonic integrated circuit technology. The project is structured around four key objectives: (1) engineering a broadband, high-coherence LNOI-based swept laser source to achieve superior axial resolution and imaging depth, (2) designing a scalable optical imaging platform to overcome current voxel rate limitations, (3) integrating 3D DyC-μOCT with widefield fluorescence microscopy to allow cross-validation of imaging data, and (4) applying 3D DyC-μOCT to study ciliary beating in airway organoids, demonstrating its potential for pulmonary research. The system will provide a new tool for studying airway physiology in disease models with applications in respiratory health research, drug screening, and personalized medicine. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

With support from the Chemical Structure and Dynamics (CSD) program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Markus Raschke of the University of Colorado Boulder is combining nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy with novel optical nano-cavity concepts to study elementary electronic and vibrational excitations in chemical systems. The interaction of light with a single quantum state in an atom, molecule, or solid is the most elementary step in all light-induced processes from photosynthesis to quantum sensing and information processing. However, optically prepared quantum states rapidly dissipate into the local chemical environment. Professor Raschke and his students will apply nano-cavity enhanced imaging and spectroscopy to study these relaxations in individual nanostructures. Their discoveries could have implications for understanding non-radiative relaxation and vibrational energy flow in molecules and materials used in future quantum-based technologies. The project will also provide research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and contribute to the development of a quantum-enabled STEM workforce. Optical cavities can control light-matter interaction in the weak coupling limit and enable new hybrid states in the strong coupling regime. Despite low quality factors, the deep sub-diffraction mode volume of nano-cavities provides for enhanced spectroscopy and quantum state control of even small ensembles and single emitters. Combining scanning probe microscopy with tip-enhanced near-field spectroscopy creates a tunable nano-cavity which allows one to separate the competing dynamics of the cavity-coupled electronic and vibrational excitations. By spectrally and spatially tuning the tip-cavity interaction, radiative and non-radiative emission can be independently controlled. Through Purcell-enhanced nano-spectroscopy this research aims to increase the quantum yield and to control exciton emission of quantum dots, as well as to resolve intra-molecular vibrational energy redistribution in molecular nano-ensembles. Further, by combining the tip-enhanced nano-cavity with multi-resonant antenna coupling to achieve vibrational strong coupling, the project will address the nature of dark states and provide new pathways for vibrational quantum coherent control. The work will answer questions of the fundamental limit of quantum coherence and dissipation at the elementary scale of electronic wavefunctions and vibrations in chemical systems, and it has direct applications in quantum chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, and materials science, with industry collaborations, and student workforce training. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Ankle braces are prescribed to make walking easier for people with disrupted ankle function. These braces can help some people, but many brace users still have difficulty walking. One reason braces may not provide benefit is that the ankle is complex, but most braces act like a simple spring. Another reason is that current methods for brace customization are based on trial and error as there is not a good model for how to change the brace’s properties to best meet each person’s needs. Ankle braces with tailored properties that better mimic normal ankle function may make it easier to walk for people with ankle injuries. The purpose of this study is to develop an ankle brace model with more complex properties based on typical ankle function. The project will evaluate how changing different model properties in the brace impacts how healthy and post-stroke people walk. Results from this study are expected to advance our understanding of how to design and prescribe personalized ankle braces and other assistive devices. This collaborative project between the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Delaware will investigate the potential benefits of passive ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs) with customized and biomimetic stiffness profiles. The project's goals will be achieved by first using AFO benchtop testing data to develop a control scheme for an AFO emulator that can effectively mimic both dual-stiffness and single-stiffness passive AFOs in both plantarflexion and dorsiflexion. Then, human-in-the-loop optimization (HILO) will be performed over a range of input control parameters for both dual-stiffness and single-stiffness profiles to determine how these optimized profiles affect walking function in (a) healthy individuals as a proof of concept and (b) individuals post-stroke. Walking speed will be used as the primary optimized outcome metric, with metabolic cost as a secondary metric. User-preferred parameters will also be determined and compared with the optimal parameters determined from HILO for each population. The fundamental knowledge gained from this study will provide critical understanding necessary to positively transform the way passive AFOs and other novel assistive devices are designed and customized. Such advancements will improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities by enhancing mobility. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This project addresses the role and effectiveness of institutions in the mitigation of conflicts over natural resources, particularly resources that are important to people who raise livestock in arid regions. In these settings, access to water and pastureland can be contentious, and local institutions that have been designed to mitigate conflict must increasingly accommodate new challenges. This project examines the extent to which individuals regard different institutions as helpful for managing natural resources. The project enhances the education and training of an early-career social scientist while building capacity for future collaborative research on natural resource management. This doctoral dissertation project uses a multi-sited research design to examine how trust in local institutions varies based on resource availability and, concomitantly, how this trust affects cooperative or conflictual attitudes among resource users. While leveraging a household survey among four different groups of livestock owners, which is further supplemented by focus group discussions with community members, the study collects primary data on resource use, conflict patterns, cooperation between and within the groups, and strategies for resolution. By sampling in multiple communities, this project examines a range of ecological contexts, providing a clearer picture of the role of institutions in shaping behavior and social outcomes in increasingly challenging environments. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This grant will provide travel support to about 10 U.S-based students to attend the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Pioneers Workshop, to be held in conjunction with the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2025). HRI is a selective venue that bridges robotics, human factors, artificial intelligence, behavioral sciences, human-computer interaction, and other related fields to advance knowledge around designing effective interactions with robots. The HRI Pioneers Workshop provides a forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their work, learn about the current state of HRI, and network with one another and with select senior researchers in a relaxed and interactive setting associated with the conference. Workshop participants will discuss important issues and open challenges in the field, encouraging the formation of collaborative relationships across disciplines and geographic boundaries. Alumni from prior years of the workshop will be invited to participate in a forum with current attendees to further develop these professional relationships. The availability of travel funding will be widely advertised to bring in a large and diverse pool of potential funding awardees. Criteria for selection include having the need for funding, the timing in the student's career, the estimated benefit to the attendee and to the workshop as a whole, and the quality and fit of the application to conference topics. In alignment with the workshop's overall goal to bring together a variety of academic and industry researchers, the selection committee will also seek to fund students from a wide range of personal, disciplinary, institutional, and topical backgrounds. Participation in the workshop will provide an opportunity for participants of diverse backgrounds to increase their knowledge of the current state of the field of human-robot interaction and to encourage them to continue their career as HRI researchers in academia, government, or industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This award will support about six (6) student attendees for the 2025 Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI). TEI is a leading conference at the intersection of physical and digital interaction design that brings together researchers, practitioners, businesses, artists, designers, and students from various disciplines, including engineering, interaction design, computer science, product design, media studies, and the arts. Selected students will participate in either the Graduate Student Consortium (GSC) or the Student Design Competition (SDC) parts of the conference. The GSC is a one-day event held before the main conference where promising scholars are selected to participate in a day-long critical discussion and review of their work with senior mentors. The SDC issues a design challenge, solicits a demonstration video and a document with rationale/motivation for their design visions from student teams, and selects a small number of teams to present at the conference. Participating in the GSC or SDC helps students gain experience communicating their work and critiquing the work of peers. Through this, along with the feedback provided by senior mentors, graduate students will develop new research insights and directions, a greater awareness of the field, and a stronger knowledge of related disciplines to inform their work. Beyond the student consortium and design competition themselves, students will also be invited to present their work at the main conference, giving their work wider visibility in the community. This will allow students to build professional and social connections that transcend the conference event and gain awareness of potential career paths in both academia and industry. Thus, the travel grant will contribute to the professional development of a more knowledgeable, capable, and productive workforce in the U.S., helping graduate students from a wide range of disciplinary, institutional, topical, and personal backgrounds succeed in TEI-related research areas. Students will be selected based on the quality of their submissions and the likelihood that their work indicates a sustained interest and future effort in the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

Andrés Montoya-Castillo of the University of Colorado Boulder is supported by an award from the Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods program in the Division of Chemistry to develop accurate and efficient theories to predict and control light-induced currents and reactivity in materials that can convert sunlight into electricity and chemical fuels. While scientific advances over the last decade have enabled researchers to quantify these currents and reactivity, understanding these experiments and predicting how to control and optimize this energy conversion process remains a fundamental challenge – one rooted in the difficulty of describing the quantum mechanical motion of atoms and electrical charges. To address this problem, Montoya-Castillo and his team will develop methods to describe these quantum mechanical processes with unprecedented accuracy and atomistic detail and over experimentally relevant material dimensions and times, and apply them to elucidate and optimize promising light-energy conversion materials. Montoya-Castillo and his team will offer his developments as open-source software for the community to advance their own research on similar problems. These developments should have transformative impact in renewable energy, photocatalysis, and emerging quantum materials. In addition, Montoya-Castillo will develop and offer portable and easily deployable college-level teaching tools that emphasize testable models, observation, and computation to offer students transferable skills needed to advance, thrive, and contribute to modern job market while minimizing their math anxiety and promoting a growth mindset. Transition metal oxides are cheap and promising photocatalysts, except for their low charge mobilities and high recombination rates. These properties are consequences of the material deformation an electronic excitation causes, i.e., polaron formation. While recent microscopies can now track polaron formation and transport, and electronic structure theory can characterize their structure, their quantum dynamics remains a mystery, preventing a full understanding of polaron formation, flow, and reactivity. To address this challenge, Montoya-Castillo and his group will develop scalable and accurate dynamical theories that can employ ab initio energies and forces to probe experimentally relevant sizes and times and interrogate recent experiments on photocatalytically promising Fe2O3 and TiO2. These advances will reveal how to control polaron formation and transport mechanisms via chemical changes to the underlying material, and offer a robust and flexible theoretical framework for related problems involving the dissipative quantum dynamics of many-body systems. Montoya-Castillo will develop and release software to enable researchers in chemistry, materials science, and condensed matter physics to complement their transport research. Further, Montoya-Castillo will develop physical chemistry labs that are easily deployable at primarily undergraduate to research-intensive institutions, unite theory, experiment, and computation to offer students transferable skills needed in the modern STEM-focused job market, and reduce math anxiety via a gradual build-up of skills in a low-stress environment that fosters a growth mindset. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will fund research that attempts to enable transformative locomotion in insect-scale robots by endowing them with shape-shifting capabilities for achieving agile and adaptable locomotion in real-world environments. Natural terrains are complex and feature various types of clutters and confinements that restrict movement. In order to locomote through them effectively, robots must be small, as well as malleable and reconfigurable into terrain-specific body shapes just like their animal counterparts who expertly vary their body shapes and limb configurations. Thus inspired, this CAREER project aims to create a novel class of insect-scale exoskeletal robots that can passively conform to environmental restrictions, sense these constraints, and actively vary shape to be proficient at locomotion. In the long term, this research will improve the agility and adaptability of robotic systems and hasten their integration into real-world operations. Such shape-shifting miniature robots would squeeze through a pile of debris to autonomously locate survivors during search-and-rescue efforts, crawl inside a human body cavity to carefully remove tumors while assisting surgical procedures, or scurry between the blades of a jet engine to rapidly inspect and repair blade damage from bird collisions for the significant benefit of our society, health, and economy. The research is complemented by educational and outreach activities including project-based learning modules, lesson plans and training programs for K12 teachers, summer research programs for high school students, and interactive exhibits at distinguished science museums across Colorado. Research completed in association with this project intends create a novel class of shape-shifting insect-scale legged robots by focusing on three components – (1) Design body articulation to enhance adaptability via shape morphing and derive an empirical confined space locomotion model; (2) Incorporation of distributed sensing and actuation to actively control shape and improve agility; and (3) Development of a geometric mechanics modeling framework to find and optimize shape. By incorporating these innovations, this project intends to demonstrate novel insect-scale shape shifting robots capable of rapid, omnidirectional locomotion through laterally confined terrains, a first for legged systems. By leveraging insights from experimentally driven enhanced shape analysis and first principles-based effective shape finding, the project strives to take the first step towards rationally designing high-performance shape-shifting robots for applications beyond confined space locomotion. The project intends to demonstrate mapping and locomotion in GPS-denied confined environments utilizing a bioinspired tactile probe, a much-needed capability for effective complex real-world navigation. Finally, the project intends to contribute to several advances in integrated fabrication technology that enable new distributed sensing, actuation, and control in laminate designs at insect-scale for the first time to serve as a steppingstone towards realizing autonomic robotic structures embodying animal-like functionalities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Surface temperatures in the Arctic are increasing rapidly, at a rate that outpaces the global average. Arctic clouds help to determine surface temperatures and sea ice extent, yet clouds and the ways in which they interact with atmospheric and surface conditions represent some of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate models. This project aims to clarify the role that Arctic clouds play in modifying surface temperature and the amount of solar energy absorbed by the ground, sea ice, and ocean surfaces. By combining observations from the North Slope of Alaska with high-resolution regional models, this research will investigate how clear and cloudy conditions develop, how upwind conditions control cloud properties, and the impact that clouds have on the energy dynamics of underlying surfaces. Understanding the role of Arctic clouds as they relate to Arctic warming and sea ice extent will help local communities adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions and provide clues for the conditions that regions beyond the Arctic will encounter if they reach a similar level of warming. The investigator will mentor aspiring scientists by involving them in this research and will engage in efforts to improve climate science literacy among the public. The amount of time spent in a clear versus cloudy Arctic cloud regime exerts a strong control on the amount of energy absorbed by the underlying surface, with implications for sea ice coverage, permafrost thaw, and Arctic amplification. However, the processes controlling those time scales and their response to climate change are unclear. This project will begin with a detailed characterization of the cloud regimes and their surface impacts at an Arctic observatory on the northern coast of Alaska. The air masses resulting in each cloud regime will then be tracked backwards in time with archived output from a high-resolution forecast model to determine how cloud-relevant properties such as temperature and humidity evolve and respond to surface conditions. There will be a particular focus on the time scales of cloud formation and dissipation and how those time scales depend on surface and atmospheric conditions. Finally, moisture fluxes will be added to the forecast model to construct moisture budgets along air mass trajectories and determine the processes that control moisture availability and cloud formation in the Arctic. Focusing on key time scales and the predictability of downwind cloud properties will provide a framework for understanding cloud formation and radiative effects that can be applied across the broad range of environmental contexts encountered in the Arctic. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-03

Computers are part of our everyday lives yet the hardware we use is subject to complex security vulnerabilities. Current vulnerability detection approaches at the hardware level focus on post-hoc patches applied after hardware is deployed, but to date these solutions have been short-lived and inadequate for long term protection. Furthermore, standard methods to evaluate security at the computer hardware level are basically non-existent, leading to ad-hoc custom solutions. As a result, industry stakeholders do not have the tools they need to compare the security of different architectural designs and cannot make informed decisions about the trade-offs between performance and security. This project proposes new abstract methods for reasoning about hardware vulnerabilities and builds an evaluation infrastructure that can be easily integrated into commonly used hardware design tools to incorporate security metrics. In addition, this project investigates a new angle for reasoning about vulnerabilities at the computer architecture (or microarchitectural) level resulting in more robust hardware designs. This project introduces a new programming interface for programs to state the desired memory region to be used and an abstract model to represent vulnerable microarchitectural structures. The outcomes of this project have the potential to help industry identify security challenges at hardware design time and make informed decisions about security tradeoffs. The microarchitectural attacks and defenses topics are introduced to computer engineering education as standard modules in both undergraduate and graduate level courses. The developed computer engineering course within the Precollegiate Development Program brings computer engineering concepts to a diverse population of high-school students. The project addresses modern vulnerabilities in the microarchitecture by introducing a new interface to represent expected regions of memory. This new interface helps address the root of most microarchitectural vulnerabilities: the unauthorized access to sensitive data. The project further explores a method to differentiate “normal” from “abnormal” memory access patterns and then uses the normal memory region to establish protection mechanisms. In addition, it expands gem5, a commonly used performance evaluation tool, with abstract-based models that represent microarchitectural attacks to enable computer experts to reason about security challenges. The project includes several case studies in which the proposed security evaluation methods can shed light of the security or insecurity of microarchitectural designs. The novelty of this work lays in exploring a new angle for mitigating microarchitectural vulnerabilities and for exploring security metrics that can be incorporated into the existing hardware design cycle. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-03

The overarching goal of this project is to investigate the sources of day-to-day variability in near- Earth space environment during geomagnetically quiet periods. Forecasting of space weather is often done using physics-based computer models. However, these models often lack skills in accurately predicting day-to-day variabilities, a significant portion of which originates from the lower atmosphere. This project aims to improve the scientific understanding of these variabilities using state-of the-art Whole atmosphere Model-Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (WAM-IPE). The improvements of the model, and scientific insights gained from this project have the potential to directly enhance the forecasting accuracy of the operational version of WAM-IPE at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which monitors and provides regular space weather alerts to a wide range of stakeholders. The model improvements and scientific tools developed in this project will be made publicly available, fostering collaboration across the scientific community. In addition, the project will provide training opportunities for early career scientists enabling development of a broad and skilled workforce prepared to address future challenges of our society in short-term predictive space weather science. This project aims to advance understanding of the connections between day-to- day variability in the ionosphere, ionospheric electrodynamics and neutral wind tides in the Ionosphere- (I-T) region. The neutral wind in the lower thermosphere ~90-150km region is highly variable due to complex spectra of upward propagating waves from the lower atmosphere. Numerical whole atmosphere models have been increasingly used in the investigations of fundamental I-T processes for accurate space weather forecasting. However, these models have a major source of uncertainty stemming from poor understanding of drivers of short-term variability. To address this uncertainty, the proposal will leverage state-of-the art Whole atmosphere Model- Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (WAM-IPE) model in conjunction with diverse observations from ground- and space-based instruments. Specifically, this study will focus on quantifying the contributions of different tidal components to the variability of the upper mesosphere, middle thermosphere to bottom side F-regions of the Earth’s atmosphere (~80-250 km). Advanced techniques such as autocorrelation and wavelet coherence analysis will be used. Ultimately, by revealing causal mechanisms linking tidal day-to-day variability to ionospheric changes, this research will play a significant role in enhancing I-T predictability during geomagnetically quiet times, driving future advancements in whole atmosphere modeling, improving operational forecasts at NOAA/SWPC, and strengthening global space weather resilience. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Manufacturing high-volume, commodity chemicals relies heavily on catalytic processes that require feedstocks derived from natural gas or petroleum, together with energy from the combustion of natural gas – both contributing to atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane. A promising path to net-zero carbon emissions involves the transition to bio-based feedstocks combined with electrochemical technology powered by sustainable electricity generated, for example, from wind or solar energy. Electrochemical processing of bio-feedstocks to high-value chemical products is challenging, however. This project will prove a novel concept for electrocatalytically converting bio-resourced carboxylic acids to alcohols, creating an opportunity for reduced carbon emissions relative to current technology. The project will provide research opportunities for undergraduate students and educational initiatives for students, scientists, and non-expert community members. A research experience for local community college instructors will be offered to help them shape future curricula and guide students in continuing from two-year to four-year degree programs. The project explores the hypothesis that electrochemically-generated surface hydride can cooperate with Lewis acid catalysts to selectively reduce carboxylic acids to alcohols, imitating the mechanism of harsh chemical reagents such as aluminum hydride. The proposed systems bear similarity to so-called “frustrated” Lewis pairs, which can activate hydrogen heterolytically and reduce challenging bonds. These concepts will be investigated in the context of synthesizing 1,2-propanediol (propylene glycol), a major commodity and outlet for propylene, using bio-derived lactic acid. To that end, the project bridges gaps between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis with the design of molecular-catalyst-like surfaces, and will delineate fundamental requirements for harnessing strong acidity and hydricity to activate difficult bonds. Controlling these properties simultaneously is a grand challenge as they are intrinsically at odds and require sophisticated schemes to avoid reactivity quenching. The project also will explore new mechanisms to mimic the activity of strong reagents with electrochemical driving forces. It will further expand basic understanding of phenomena such as proton transfer and pH in non-aqueous environments and develop approaches to rigorous benchmarking of novel materials that lack established protocols. Fundamental requirements will be examined in non-aqueous electrolytes with hydrogen as the dominant hydride precursor, while further work will aim to translate the chemistry to more desirable aqueous conditions. In a similar vein, initial studies will combine heterogeneous hydride generation with homogeneous Lewis-acid electrolytes and then move to full “heterogenization” with solid acid/metal interfacial catalysts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Magnetic field imaging plays a crucial role in advancing science and technology, with applications ranging from studying physical systems to understanding biological processes. Recently, two innovative quantum sensors have gained attention for their ability to measure magnetic fields with high precision: the microfabricated optically pumped magnetometer (μOPM) and the nitrogen-vacancy (NV)-diamond magnetometer. The μOPM is highly sensitive, capable of detecting extremely weak magnetic fields at the millimeter scale, making it ideal for measuring weak fields but less effective for capturing fine details. On the other hand, the NV-diamond magnetometer excels in providing nanometer-level detail, which is ideal for imaging but has lower sensitivity to weak fields. This project aims to bridge the gap between these two technologies by developing a new type of magnetic field microscope that combines high sensitivity and high resolution. This will be achieved by advancing the synthesis of rare-earth-doped magnetic nanoparticles and utilizing cutting-edge dual-comb microscopy techniques. The resulting nanoparticle-based dual-comb magnetic field microscope will be the first of its kind, offering unparalleled sensitivity to detect extremely weak magnetic fields and the ability to capture fine details at the micrometer scale. This breakthrough technology will enable cellular-level studies of magnetic fields in biology and precise mapping of magnetic patterns in integrated circuits, addressing key challenges in both fields. We will leverage our complementary expertise to overcome the key limitations of the current state-of-the-art non-invasive magnetic field microscopy. In the first aim, we will build on our preliminary work to address several key issues needed to obtain high-quality magnetic nanoparticle-polymer composite with high Verdet constant and low absorption. Specifically, we will (1) obtain polymer nanocomposite films with high magnetite nanoparticle (MNP) loading, and low absorption to enable high resolution imaging, (2) investigate rare-earth doping in MNPs for higher Verdet constant, (3) develop silica coating to mitigate degradation of MNPs, and (4) explore other inverse spinel magnetic nanoparticles that might exhibit even higher Verdet constant. In the second aim, we will build on our preliminary work to develop an innovative high-resolution and high-sensitivity magnetic field microscopy that uses magnetic nanoparticle thin film as the sensing unit and dual-comb microscopy as the readout unit. Specifically, we will (1) develop a high-power and low-noise single-cavity dual-comb light source, (2) build a 2D spatial disperser and RF electronics necessary for dual-comb microscopy, (3) retrofit the existing microscope with the free-running single-cavity dual-comb light source, 2D spatial disperser, and RF electronics, and (4) characterize its imaging performance with micromagnet array phantoms. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-02

Every cell in the body harbors essentially identical DNA sequences, so how are different cell types established and maintained? Different cells express a distinct subset of DNA sequences, i.e., they make only the RNA and proteins characteristic of that particular cell type. This project focuses on the study of one of the most critical proteins in this process, DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1). This enzyme is responsible for silencing the subset of DNA sequences that need not be expressed for the cell to function. This project will utilize structural biology, biochemistry, and cell biology methods to understand DNMT1 regulation in cells and to discover the mechanism cells utilize to ensure DNMT1 only acts on a specific subset of DNA sequences. This will provide insight into gene regulation, and by extension dysregulation that may result in a loss of function and disease states. The principal investigator will develop a practical learning module integrating teaching and research to advance critical thinking for undergraduate students, with the goal to inculcate the ability to utilize computational methods for biological data handling and visualization. The practical learning module will be adopted as part of classroom (undergraduate or graduate level courses in Biochemistry), and non-classroom teaching (undergraduate research experience through programs at CU Boulder). It will also be implemented in outreach (summer research exposure for community college students) and made publicly available on GitHub. DNA methlyation patterns define the distinct cell types that arise from a single genome, and these patterns must be accurately passed onto daughter cells by the enzyme DNMT1, which requires specific activation cues. Several studies have established that DNA hemi-methylation, and the modification of the histone proteins which package DNA impact DNMT1 activity. More recent studies have shown that DNMT1 is also regulated by interactions with G-quadruplex RNA. Precisely how the RNA and the different activation partners interact with DNMT1 to regulate its activity remain unknown. This project will combine RNA and chromatin structural biology to visualize DNMT1 interaction with RNA and chromatin. The tight integration of structural and functional studies promises to reveal the essential elements of DNMT1 regulation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The development of quantum networks marks a groundbreaking advancement in how we communicate, compute, and measure the world around us. A key component of these networks is the photonic quantum register—a local quantum memory capable of storing information carried by optical photons. This program aims to create the first scalable solid-state photonic quantum register that can simultaneously store multiple photons within a single nuclear spin. Breakthroughs in the proposed research will lead to ultra-secure communications that are virtually impossible to intercept or hack, a new computing paradigm by allowing multiple quantum computers to collaborate seamlessly, and enhanced precision measurements for applications ranging from navigation to observational astronomy. Furthermore, the program includes an integrated education and outreach plan designed to make quantum science accessible to a wide range of learners, from K-8 students to industry professionals. These efforts will increase the number of people in the STEM field, cultivate a pipeline for the quantum workforce, and empower communities through education. The quantum internet promises fundamentally secure communication, distributed quantum computing, and entanglement-enhanced quantum metrology, each carrying profound technological and societal implications. Central to this vision is the photonic quantum register—an array of long-lived qubits capable of exchanging quantum states with optical photons. Solid-state quantum emitters, particularly their adjacent nuclear spins, offer a scalable solution for constructing these registers due to their seamless integration with on-chip photonic circuits. However, a significant challenge persists: usable nuclear spins are either stochastically distributed around the quantum emitter or, if deterministically integrated, limited to a single spin. This constraint impedes the simultaneous storage of multiple photons in a deterministic way. The proposed program aims to develop the first deterministic solid-state photonic quantum register capable of storing multiple optical photons. We will utilize single Germanium Vacancy (GeV) centers in diamond as quantum memory. The nuclear spin of 9/2 from the 73Ge isotope forms a 10-dimensional qudit, enabling the storage of multiple qubits of quantum information. We will demonstrate the sequential storage and retrieval of multiple photons through a high-fidelity electron-spin-photon interface and controlled nucleus–electron interactions. Additionally, the program includes an education and outreach plan integrated with the research, aimed at creating publicly available resources for teaching and learning quantum optics for broad audiences, ranging from K-8 students to graduate students and industry professionals. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Imola (Intelligent Map recOgnition LAb) project develops advanced computational methods and scientific approaches to extract historical geographic information from scanned maps originally published by the US Geological Survey between 1884 and 2006. The project transforms historical road networks in these maps into a database that allows scientists to study the evolution of transportation networks and how humans interact with their environment over extended time periods and geographical regions prior to the era of satellite imagery. Extracting detailed geographic information from historical USGS topographic maps is a difficult task. The Imola project uses a new intelligent system called DaVinci to automate the extraction process and produce a large spatiotemporal database of historical road networks called US1884+. DaVinci reads maps like humans by automatically exploring geographic features in maps and in other datasets to generate more information related to historical road networks to then extract them. The DaVinci method eliminates the need for large, manually created training data and provides a way to measure uncertainty in the features extracted from the maps, which is important for conducting research with the data. The project provides a case study and creates tutorials to demonstrate how the US1884+ platform can be used in scientific research and how it advances knowledge of how humans interact with their environment. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are strongly linked to modern global warming. Over long periods of time (thousands of years or longer), the planet regulates the balance of carbon in the in different components of Earth’s system. The ocean is the largest such component, where fjords store a disproportionately large volume of carbon compared to their total area in the global ocean. In this project, investigators will use a variety of geochemical indicators from three sediment cores, that were previously collected, to improve the understanding of the role that fjords have in the global carbon cycle. Specifically, the team will constrain how much carbon is stored in Icelandic fjords and evaluate how that storage may increase or decrease in a warmer world. The research conducted will benefit the scientific community by providing new data on carbon storage in fjordic systems, which is a critical component of climate change research. Educational and outreach activities will broaden participation in Colorado and Iceland through the GAMES (Girls at the Museum Exploring Science) program and by involving underrepresent undergraduate students in research. This project will also support an early career researcher. Fjord systems capture ~11% of global organic carbon (~18 Mt) in the ocean every year and play a major role in global carbon cycling and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. While many regions are well studied in terms of fjord carbon storage, Iceland, which has extensive fjord systems, has comparatively limited data. In this project, the investigators will first provide needed quantitative constraint on total sedimentary organic carbon stored in Iceland’s largest fjord system using bulk geochemical proxies and seismic survey datasets. Second, they will reconstruct Holocene variations in organic carbon burial, climate, and redox conditions to decipher the controls on warm period (interglacial) organic carbon burial in Icelandic fjords using lipid biomarker and radiocarbon-dating techniques. These efforts will be critical to account for carbon storage more accurately on Quaternary timescales, better understand coastal carbon cycling, and better constrain predictive carbon cycling models at a global scale in a warmer future world. The modern and paleoclimate approach draws on a wide range of diagnostic geochemical and lipid biomarker sediment proxies and will be conducted through an experienced, international team of long-term collaborators, including native Icelanders. This project is funded by the Marine Geology and Geophysics and the Chemical Oceanography Programs in the Division of Ocean Sciences This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Diagnostic tests play a crucial role in the management of infectious disease transmission. Testing is the fastest most reliable way to inform a person whether they are infected, and thus whether they should adjust their behavior to prevent onward spread. Testing policies have long contributed to public health, including in the control of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. During the COVID-19 pandemic, various test-based policies were successful, including pre-event screening (e.g., testing before entering a sporting event), traveler screening (e.g., testing before boarding a flight), and regular screening (e.g., weekly testing at universities). Such policies could also help control the spread of other existing and novel respiratory pathogens. However, we currently lack a robust, data-driven framework to estimate the potential impact of testing-based infection control strategies in general. To fill this gap, this project will develop a flexible modeling framework to simulate how different testing policies might perform for various pathogens, tests, and human behavioral scenarios. This project will also develop the statistical tools needed to infer how diagnostic test results, infectiousness, and behavior relate to one another, informed by data on SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens. To maximize the impact of these findings, this project will build mature, open-source software products to compare testing-based policies, accompanied by tutorials for policymakers and a new open-source data hub to consolidate information relevant to testing-based policies. The successful completion of this project will improve our ability to control existing respiratory pathogens and enhance our preparedness for future pandemics. Fundamental to this project is the characterization of how infectiousness, detectability, symptoms, and behaviors change over the course of a respiratory infection – a collection of features called an infection trajectory. While the details of an infection trajectory can be omitted for some types of policy assessments, testing-based policies depend critically on an accurate and statistical understanding of infection trajectories. Infection trajectory-based models allow for the separation of individual-level features of disease transmission from the between-host dynamics, permitting a “plug-and-play” approach to policy design, without compromising the ability to tailor solutions to local needs and populations. This project’s policy modeling framework will develop a stochastic description of infection trajectories, represented by a joint distribution of an infection’s measurable variables. This will allow the researchers to assess variability in policy outcomes and to identify cross-policy interactions. This project will develop a framework to infer infection trajectory distributions from multimodal data and will deploy that framework to guide the design of studies for collecting new infection trajectory data. Finally, this project will create a suite of software, educational, and data tools for informing infection trajectories and associated policies. For the public health policy community, successful completion of this project will produce new, high-quality policy design models and assessment tools, complemented by educational and interactive exploration webpages. For the scientific community, this project will provide statistical tools and data sharing standards for infection trajectory data, supporting advances in virology and modeling. This award is co-funded by the NSF Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) and the CDC Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division (CORVD). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are protected areas of seas, oceans, and estuaries. They need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management to fulfill their conservation potential. Coordination is challenging, however, often due to knowledge gaps caused by inadequate access to data and resources, compounded by insufficient communication between scientists and managers. This Research Coordinating Network (RCN) uses the world’s largest MPA in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, as a model system to create an international interdisciplinary network supporting policy-relevant research and monitoring that could be implemented in other remote, large-scale international MPAs. The first 10-year review of the Ross Sea MPA in 2027 will present a critical opportunity to coordinate across science, policy, and other partner communities to ensure the 2027 review (and subsequent reviews) are well grounded in robust scientific data, analyses, and streamlined inputs into policy. Many Antarctic research, policy, and conservation groups exist, some are even already focused on the Ross Sea, but there is not yet a formalized framework for coordination. Hence, the need for an RCN which can formalize connections among policy, research, and other communities focused specifically on research and monitoring of the Ross Sea region MPA. The RCN also provides an example of how to bring together diverse interdisciplinary participants towards an effective, integrated science-policy collaboration. To fulfill their conservation potential and provide safeguards for biodiversity, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) need coordinated research and monitoring for informed management through effective evaluation of ecosystem dynamics. The Ross Sea MPA in Antarctica is the world’s largest MPA and the only one on the high seas. The Research Coordination Network (RCN) will connect three key components: (i) policy engagement, (ii) community partner engagement, and (iii) integrated science. The science component comprises three themes: data science and cyberinfrastructure; biophysical modeling; and observations that include monitoring and process studies. Guided by clear research questions across the three components, the RCN will lead to new knowledge about the barriers to science-policy engagement and strategies to overcome them; strategies for effectively engaging diverse community partners; and science needed to better understand the Ross Sea ecosystem structure and function, including strategies for international coordination. The three science themes inform understanding of the ecosystem, and thus, the potential efficacy of the Ross Sea region MPA. Data science and cyberinfrastructure provide essential structures for coordinated research. Biophysical modeling is critical for evaluating ecosystem metrics and can be illustrative for understanding changes in ecosystem structure and function. Observations and process studies are needed for addressing knowledge gaps and informing cyberinfrastructure tools and biophysical modeling efforts. The science integration component will advance knowledge while also advancing transformative interdisciplinary collaboration across data science, modeling, and observations. The RCN will build new connections and collaborations among scientists, policymakers and community partners, internationally and across disciplines, while integrating science and policy in novel ways. The RCN will operate through regular engagement across the network communities, including meetings and targeted activities with specific products and outcomes. The RCN increases diversity, science diplomacy, knowledge exchange, and conservation and five early- to mid-career researchers have leading roles. The contributions from this RCN will facilitate significant advances in the ability to understand high latitude marine ecosystems and how these systems respond to competing stressors, including climate change and fishing. Further, lessons learned through the RCN could offer guidance on how other large-scale international MPAs are monitored and assessed. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

This project aims to investigate relative contributions of different sources to the observed large-scale gravity waves (GWs) in the thermosphere and their impacts on tides, planetary waves (PWs), and circulations. Atmospheric waves are important drivers for coupling between different layers of the atmosphere. It has been also recognized that gravity waves can also propagate into the thermosphere and impact the ionosphere. These GWs can affect tides and planetary waves, and large-scale waves also affect the propagation or dissipation of GWs, resulting in the impacts on the ionospheric variability. However, quantitative understanding of importance of lower atmospheric GW sources in the thermosphere/ionosphere and their impacts on dynamics, including interaction with tides/PWs and changes in circulations, are still missing. Advancing knowledge of GW sources and their interaction with tides will improve our understanding of coupling processes and the lower atmospheric influences on space weather forecast, which are great interest to our society because of satellite communications and GPS accuracy. This work will improve our understanding of GWs in coupling processes, GW sources and their impacts on the ionospheric variability. and the lower atmospheric influences on space weather forecast. This work will support undergraduate students and two women scientists. The team will conduct controlled simulations to isolate GW sources from below (i.e. from the troposphere) and above the stratosphere. Then, relative contributions of these sources to the observed large-scale GWs in the thermosphere and their impacts on tides, PW, and circulations will be investigated. This project will use the Specified-Dynamics Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with Thermosphere and Ionosphere Extension (SD-WACCM-X) simulations and satellite observations (ICON-MIGHTI and TIMED-SABER) from 30 km to 250 km altitudes. Using these observations and simulations, this project aims to answer the following science questions: (1) What are the relative contributions of GW sources from the lower atmosphere and above the stratosphere/mesosphere to thermospheric GWs? (2) What are the impacts of large-scale GWs on wind structure and circulations? and (3) How do large-scale GWs impact atmospheric tides and PWs? This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

When communicating with their conversational partners, speakers rapidly and flexibly comprehend and produce language across a variety of situational contexts. These abilities develop early in children regardless of whether they are acquiring one, or multiple, languages and–with training–extend to reading and writing as well. But because sounds, words, grammars, and meanings can vary widely across languages, speakers of different languages face distinct learning and processing challenges. The strategies that speakers use to meet these challenges can provide novel insights into the flexibility and creativity of language and cognition in humans. Thus, it is critical to investigate diverse languages and populations to accomplish the fundamental goal of psycholinguistics: to understand the mechanisms that enable the remarkable feats of language acquisition and processing in speakers of any human language. This conference brings together psycholinguists investigating diverse languages to highlight and stimulate research in linguistic and cognitive diversity. The regions in which these diverse languages are used come from a variety of language families and have certain key characteristics that distinguish them from many other, well-studied, languages. These diverse languages are also represented by multiple writing systems, and the populations speaking these languages are typically multilingual, with many children being exposed to multiple languages and scripts during their school years. Speakers of these languages encounter a variety of linguistic experiences whose impacts on the development, representation, and processing of language are not yet accommodated by current theories. The conference highlights cutting-edge research by leading scholars that investigates these diverse linguistic experiences, focusing on four key themes: first language acquisition, language processing, multilingualism, and literacy. The conference also aims to inspire young scholars to conduct psycholinguistic research from a crosslinguistic perspective by encouraging graduate students and early career researchers to submit their work and participate in the conference. Two tutorial presentations targeting this audience are delivered by influential experts on the documentation of child language in diverse communities and the processing of language in children with typical and atypical development. Research on the impacts of diversity on the mechanisms of development and processing also has ramifications beyond basic science, for instance, in clinical interventions, human-computer interface design, education policy, and classroom practice. Therefore, conference activities include dissemination of research presented at the conference to the wider community through a peer-reviewed journal special issue. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The University of Colorado will extend the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) BPC Alliance to broaden participation in computing with a focus on those marginalized by gender via a research-based national effort to enact systemic long-lasting change. Computing is the vanguard of American innovation and a key driver of the nation’s economic growth. Computation is fundamental to advances in healthcare, national security, and nearly every STEM discipline. NCWIT was founded in 2004 to ensure that the perspectives and contributions of those who identify as women are meaningfully represented at all levels of computing. Every woman has multiple intersecting identities, including race, ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, religion, and ability status. Implicit and explicit beliefs about what women of different identities can, should, and do contribute emerge into everyday practices and implicit policies about how women are to be treated. These beliefs create disparities for women in computing, including lower likelihood of being promoted, significant pay gaps, continued discrimination, and higher quit rates. Intersections with other marginalized identity categories exacerbate women’s comparatively limited access to social and economic opportunities and capital. NCWIT provides social science-based interventions for change leaders in postsecondary computing departments by reshaping the ways in which they consider social structures, data and evaluation, recruitment and retention practices, and the institutionalization of practices. NCWIT has developed, rigorously evaluated, and extensively deployed interventions aimed at supporting sustained institutional transformation. With this project, NCWIT will extend its efforts to diversify all computing disciplines, while adding a special focus on rapidly advancing research subfields. The alliance will expand participation in department-focused systemic change initiatives, including (1) the Tech Inclusion Journey® (TIJ), an assessment- and decision-support tool that teams use to build shared vision, assess strengths and needs within their units, and then identify and adapt appropriate actions to their local contexts, conditions, and resources; (2) a guided Learning Series for Postsecondary Researchers, Teaching Faculty, Teaching Assistants, and Department Leaders; and (3) Cohort-based Learning Circles, a peer-to-peer approach to learning about BPC systemic change and its implementation. The project also (4) brings together a growing membership of more than 650 postsecondary computing departments in virtual and in-person convenings and (5) provides freely available, professionally designed research-based materials that explain BPC concepts and practices in an easily digested and shareable manner. As a national resource, NCWIT develops approaches that interrupt inequities in social systems by altering policy, everyday practices, decision-making, beliefs, and norms by empowering individuals to become change leaders in their organizations. Institutionalizing systemic change in academic computing will lead to equity and greater well-being for women, gender-queer, and nonbinary individuals of all intersectional identities; improved computing education for all students; better trained teaching faculty and teaching assistants; a highly qualified, diverse, computing workforce to advance the economy, health care, national security, and other computing-dependent STEM fields; and computing research fueled by diversity in influential, rapidly advancing fields. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

This research will study the fundamental relationships that control the assembly of solid materials from many small, shape changing ribbon-like particles using combined and integrated experiments and numerical modeling and simulation. Made of liquid crystal elastomers, these particles can reversibly change from flat, ribbon-like shapes to 3D curved shapes in response to changes in temperature. If many of these particles change shape in proximity to one another, the individual particles are linked through entanglement, thus creating a porous solid with controlled mechanical properties. This porous solid exists only until the temperature is reverted and the individual particles return to their flat state, breaking the entanglement. Typical porous materials are notoriously fragile and difficult to recycle. The use of reversible physical entanglement will enable new ways to extend the lifetime of porous materials through healing and new ways to recycle porous structures. The structural approach to material assembly is applicable to a wide range of other shape-changing materials, like hydrogels. The fundamental principles in this work could be used to design injectable biomaterials. These entangled materials will also serve as powerful tools to demonstrate basic scientific concepts to the next generation of scientists and engineers. This research will elucidate the fundamental stimulus-structure-property relationships that govern a new class of responsive materials, which is derived from the reversible physical entanglement of many shape-changing polymer ribbons. This work will enable porous synthetic materials that self-assemble via macroscopic entanglement on command and have widely tunable mechanical properties and porosity. In this class of materials, changes in temperature will induce a fluid dispersion to assemble into an open-celled porous material with controlled viscoelastic properties. Furthermore, these dynamic, transient solids will have self-healing capability without needing chemical reactions or diffusion. This research includes closely integrated experiments and computational models and will provide fundamental understanding of structure-property-assembly relationships of these materials as a function of the shape change and mechanical properties of the individual polymer ribbons. This research is comprised of three tasks: assemble dynamic aggregates from liquid crystal elastomer ribbons and characterize microstructure and thermomechanical properties of aggregates; construct a theoretical model to fundamentally understand the link between the network statistics and the emerging behavior of the material; and fabricate and characterize aggregates of ribbons that can combine bending and twist deformation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.