University News

The University of Memphis' Herff College of Engineering has received a five-year $1.5 million federal grant to establish a Center for Advanced Sensors. The Center connects the U of M with Vanderbilt University 's expertise in nanotechnology and the University of Alabama-Huntsville 's program in wavefront sensing. The three universities will conduct research to develop new imaging devices for military applications. Graduate and undergraduate students will participate in the research.

Technical partners include the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, and the Army's Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate.

"This will change the research nature of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering," said Dr. Carl Halford, professor and principal investigator on the project. "The military has a need for imaging sensors."

While the military already uses passive sensors to target terrorists and other aggressors, the Center's research will focus on active sensors. "We may now be able to light up the target with an active source to see things that perhaps we haven't been able to see before and operate at a safe wavelength where we can't be seen," Halford said.

The war on terrorism has changed many facets of military operations, he added. Today's military operations are conducted in an urban terrain that requires more advanced monitoring of deployed personnel.

The Center also will be working with terahertz concepts, a technology similar to radar. Many common materials and living tissues are semi-transparent and have terahertz "fingerprints," allowing them to be imaged, identified, and analyzed. Applications include checking for concealed weapons at airports, inspecting packages, and facilities security.

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