Researchers at the Pratt School of Engineering received four highly pursued grants from the federal government for their novel research.
Funded by the Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program, the grants will provide each of the four projects with an average $1.5 million annually for five years. All four projects—including cloaking technology and meta-material—are supported by the Office of Naval Research.
Stefano Curtarolo, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and director of the Center for Materials Genomics, will receive $8.6 million to come up with combinations of elements with properties that can relieve the current dependence on “rare-earth” elements.
“We want to come with new materials not so much based on their composition, but their functionality,” Curtarolo said in a Duke News press release. “Ideally, we’d like to come up with materials that can be conductive as well as transparent.”
Curtarolo’s project involves collaborations with scientists from Brigham Young University, University of North Texas, Central Michigan University and University of Maryland.
$7.5 million will be awarded to Steven Cummer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, to develop novel cloaking technologies for acoustic waves by using human constructed meta-materials, which possess properties unique from naturally occurring materials.
“Acoustic metamaterials are useful not only for hiding objects but for making better devices for generating, sensing and manipulating sound,” Cummer said in the press release.
The Navy hopes to use this technology in marine environments, he added.
Cummer will also work with researchers from Rutgers University, University of California at Berkley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Austin on the project.
Jungsang Kim, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, physics and computer science, and Dan Gauthier, Robert C. Richardson professor of physics will work on the third MURI grant project led by the University of Illinois. They will contribute to developing and underwater message transmission system by using quantum physics.
The fourth MURI grant, led by researchers from the University of California, will target theoretical and experimental analysis of ocean noise. Electrical and computer engineering professor Jeff Krolik will head Duke’s efforts in the project. Along with Krolik’s team, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Portland State University will also contribute.
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