Photo By Marcus A Morton | Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR)...... read more read more
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Article written by Jim Ingram – The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) knows a great thing when it sees it. In this case, thanks to the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program, it saw two.
It’s no secret the program has been ramping up outreach efforts to discover, harness and fund some of the best talent at Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs). That effort was rewarded two-fold recently when a CEO uniquely familiar with HBCUs began working with North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State (NCA&T) and Tennessee State Universities (TSU). Both schools earned STTR contracts – the first such award in nearly four years.
“About 10 years ago, the Air Force was putting a lot of effort in working with HBCUs. I visited a number of colleges to find out what kind of help they would need and how to help them align with the Department of Defense (DoD) priorities,” Dr. Sivaram Gogineni, president of Ohio-based Spectral Energies, said.
His fact-finding mission aside, Gogineni already had intimate knowledge of the qualities HBCUs offer because he was a graduate of one himself. In fact, he was the first engineering PhD. graduate from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) as part of a joint effort with Florida State University (FSU) in the 1980s.
“I had a tremendous experience working with the FAMU professors and students as well as with the FSU students and staff. Working with them certainly helped me to understand some of the differences in terms of the quality of the work. There were certain differences between the students [at FSU and FAMU], which helped me to better understand the need,” Gogineni said.
In terms of doing business with the Air Force, Gogineni is a pro, having many patents and contracts to his credit in more than 15 years at Spectral Energies and in the years prior. All this makes him the ideal contact for an HBCU program that has a lot to offer, but limited inroads.
Dr. Yi Chung Chen at TSU had that very issue. He, along with his department chair, Dr. Mohamed Saleh Zein-Sabatto, had an idea, but no connections to the Air Force. “[We] sat down with Dr. Gogineni and talked about it and thought about how we could provide. We’re marrying two advanced technologies together. That was the difficulty because you need to find the right [people] and the right technology,” Chen said. “This was a perfect match, and I have to say that’s because of the outreach, because we had no idea how to work with the Air Force. We have a good product, but we want to make it better, more practical.”
The technologies they combined resulted in artificial intelligence-based sensor fusion and sensor management software for distributed engine control systems. This software would be crucial for future autonomous systems such as self-driving cars.
Gogineni and his company were also working with NCA&T – recognized as among the top 200 engineering schools in the country – where they have been collaborating on artificial intelligence-based modeling and control for scramjet engines.
“With this current technology that Sivaram is trying to push forward, it will basically take the things that we have done and capable of doing to the next level. Hopefully push it to where he can develop a product,” according to Dr. Frederick Ferguson at NCA&T.
The NCA&T team, headed up by Ferguson, Dr. Sun Yi and Dr. Michael Atkinson, are researching the phenomena of unstart – a flow issue at an engine’s inlet that reduces the air mass flow rate, causing the loss of thrust and transient loading or mechanical shock – for hypersonic engines.
Atkinson’s experience with the Air Force began as a NCA&T student working at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and studying inlets. The assignment was only for a few weeks during the summer, but it turned into much more than that.
“I stayed there for a couple of weeks, but they were impressed with my work. So, I was able to stay there for the next six or seven years full-time, and they actually paid me to get my PhD. [at the University of Dayton],” Atkinson said.
While these recent HBCU STTR successes with the Air Force are certainly worth celebrating, it’s fair to ask why there was a drought for nearly four years.
“Many colleagues have received grants [from other government organizations]. It’s not easy to find a lot of faculty members who have experience with SBIR/STTR contracts. That is one reason there haven’t been a lot of submissions for SBIR/STTR contracts,” Yi offered.
Ferguson said, when it comes to working with the SBIR/STTR program, some HBCUs simply don’t know what they don’t know. However, NCA&T has built its engineering program – including having an in-house patent office -- to be better equipped to work with the federal government and others.
“It goes without saying that HBCUs know how to handle grants and gifts. But when it came to contracts, that was a whole new ballgame. Not many HBCUs have those systems in place,” he said. “From my experience, when North Carolina A & T were trying to put our university in a position to work with small companies and large businesses, in terms of working on contracts with SBIR/STTR, the framework –how to handle contracts and the other processes – had to be in place on the administrative level.”
Getting the support of a small business such as Spectral Energies, well-versed in those aforementioned processes, makes for a very attractive presentation to the Air Force. Ferguson can attest to this fact.
“Many of us have the capabilities of working with this program, but -- for one reason or another – haven’t capitalized on the opportunity. [Gogineni] is here to help make it happen,” he said.
The SBIR/STTR program’s most recent outreach efforts include webinars and colliders to better affiliate HBCUs with the program, which has made a significant difference, according to Atkinson.
“It’s understood that understanding the processes for SBIR/STTR for HBCUs has been challenging. For me, it’s been beneficial for the Air Force to have these webinars to introduce us to the whole process. How to connect with different people at the Air Force and people with the DoD, and making the connection to small businesses,” he said.
Spectral Energies’ teaming up with both NCA&T and TSU is a collaboration where everyone wins, according to Chen. “It’s the 21st century and HBCUs need to evolve. [This contract shows] we can finally evolve. That’s why we expect more collaborations in the future because these collaborations not only help our faculty, but also our students.”
Learn how you can receive funding to develop your technology solutions to our warfighter by visiting Air Force Tech Connect at https://airforcetechconnect.org/ and Air Force SBIRSTTR at https://www.afsbirsttr.af.mil/!
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.09.2021 14:17 |
| Story ID: | 393464 |
| Location: | WRIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH, US |
| Web Views: | 298 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Spectral Energies lights way to the Air Force for HBCUs, by Marcus A Morton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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