Active Projects
Agriculture and Food- Animal Health Sensing and Surveillance
Dr. Eric Vanzant at the University of Kentucky focuses on the development of coordinated surveillance, monitoring, and response systems for tracking and early detection of disease outbreaks in the U.S. livestock population to help prevent disruptions of the beef supply. This project has developed an ear tag based sensor that monitors the health of individual animals. The system is designed to wirelessly communicate with a personal computer to provide livestock producers with continuous information about the health status of their animals.
Agriculture and Food- Natural Antimicrobials to Mitigate Biological Threat Agents
Dr. Melissa Newman with the University of Kentucky is identifying effective Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) antimicrobials that can be utilized as either a direct additive in the product formulation, as an edible bio-film/coating, or as a component of the packaging process to control the growth and survival of bio-threat agents in foods.
Agriculture and Food- Optical Detection of Microbial Contamination in Food Matrices
Dr. Fred Payne with the University of Kentucky and the and the Quality & Safety Assessment Research Unit, USDA ARS, Athens, GA) is researching the potential for real-time detection, for identification and quantification of microorganisms in food matrices. These techniques will be investigated for their ability to detect and validate the presence of food borne pathogens in food matrices.
Blast Mitigation- Reduction of the Explosive Potential of Amn Nitrate by Coating with Low cost, Coal combustion Byproducts
Dr. Darrell Taulbee with the Center for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky demonstrated that the explosive potential of ammonium nitrate can be reduced or eliminated by coating ammonium nitrate prills with inexpensive and agriculturally attractive, coal combustion by-products (CCBs) that are produced at coal-fired electric power plants.
Chemical- A Study of Foreign Availability of the Chemicals in the United States Supply Chain
Dr. Stephen Lange, with Morehead State University is leading a project to determine the extent to which certain critical chemicals in the U.S. supply chain are being manufactured in foreign countries and to understand the implications of this foreign manufacturing to homeland security.
Dams- A Compact Neutron Interrogation System for Underwater Threat Detection and Identification
Dr. Ivan Novikov with Western Kentucky University is developing a neutron-based system for quick non-destructive detection and identification of underwater threats. The system will consist of an electronic d-T neutron source, which produces mono-energetic 14.1-MeV neutrons, a gamma detector to detect the gamma signal from the irradiated object and a data acquisition system. The detected signal will then be analyzed to quantify the chemical elements of interest and to confirm the presence of explosives or chemical warfare agents.
Dams- Assessment and Mitigation of Water-Side Attacks on Dams
Dr. Sebastian Bryson with the University of Kentucky is identifying existing concepts and developing new ones to reduce the risk from water-side attacks to dams and gated spillways. The approach is to identify or develop cost effective concepts for reducing risks to dams from water-borne and underwater threats. Concepts to be investigated include passive and less-than-lethal options so that the protection schemes are viable options for owners and operators.
Drinking Water & Water Treatment Systems- Cyber Security for Process Control Systems Used in Critical Infrastructure
Dr. James Graham at the University of Louisville, will be assessing and developing technology, methods and educational support to mitigate vulnerabilities systems that control much of the nation’s critical infrastructure, specifically in the Water Sector. This project will feature a detailed review and analysis of the ongoing research in the area, with particular attention to water system industrial control systems (ICS).
Drinking Water & Water Treatment Systems- Studying Distribution System Hydraulics and Flow Dynamics to Improve Water Utility Operational Decision Making
Dr. Ormsbee, with the University of Kentucky, is working on improving the water utility operational decision making process (including responses to contamination events) by studying distribution system hydraulics and flow dynamics. Dr.