TSU Research Team receives $2 million Air Force grant to study strategic initiatives

Capt. Jason Simmons and Staff Sgt. Clinton Tips update anti-virus software for Air Force units to assist in the prevention of cyberspace hackers at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. Tennessee State University was recently awarded a grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory to study the adoption of a cloud-computing model for soldiers equipped with smartphones and their effects on cybersecurity. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – A team of researchers at Tennessee State University has received a multimillion dollar grant to study the development, discovery and integration of warfighting technologies to support air, space and cyberspace forces with the Department of Defense.

The U. S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded the College of Engineering a multiyear grant worth nearly $2 million to study power sources for air and space vehicles, and to study how to intelligently adapt communications and networks to provide friendly forces unfettered and reliable communications during joint forces operations. During the five-year term of the grant, five graduate and 10 undergraduate students will work side-by-side faculty members in their research efforts.

“The College of Engineering continues to compete in this highly competitive field of advanced research that supports the mission of the Air Force Research Laboratory,” said Dr. S. Keith Hargrove, dean of the College. “For more than a decade, we have conducted research in advanced sensors for military surveillance, aircraft electronics (avionics), and product reliability.”

The $1.93 million funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory, which comes from the, Materials and Sensors Directorates, will be used to fund five separate projects.

The one Materials project will focus on lithium Ion batteries used to power aerospace platforms, such as the F-35 Lightning II jet fighter, satellites and remotely piloted vehicles, with researchers developing analytical models for behavior, performance, reliability and cost of the batteries. The research team includes Drs. Hargrove, Landon Onyebueke and Lizhi Ouyang.

Three Sensors projects will include research in communication in congested electromagnetic environments; layered sensing exploitation and fusion in contested environments; and cross layers decision-making and fusion models for automated sensor exploitation in layered sensing. A fourth project will cover cyber security and will look at how to adopt a cloud-computing model needed for soldiers equipped with smartphones to enhance mission outcomes.

Researchers include Drs. Liang Hong, Wei Chen, Amir Shirkhodaie, Saleh Zein-Sabatto, Fenghui Yao, Sachin Shetty, and Tamara Rogers.

According to Hargrove, the funding supports faculty and students in research activities, and partners the College of Engineering with Clarkson Aerospace, a minority-owned business, and United Technologies Corporation.

“We are targeting our research activities relevant to key strategic initiatives advocated by the National Academy of Engineering, and we want to collaborate with local industry to advance these technologies that will benefit the consumer and military within the next decade,” Hargrove added.

The College of Engineering has been awarded multiple grants from the Department of Defense throughout the year, including a $334,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to research automated surveillance systems.

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With nearly 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 undergraduate, 22 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.