Homeland Security-Center for Research, Education, and Sensor Technology (HS-CREST)

The goal of the proposed DHS STEM Center at NCCU is to advance institutional research and educational capabilities in STEM disciplines related to DHS at NCCU and strengthen the pipeline for the advancement of underrepresented minorities in DHS STEM disciplines. This will be done in partnership with the ALERT center and will leverage the assets of both institutions to enable significant increases in minority participation in material science and at the same time produce research and educational outcomes that have a significant impact beyond the time limits of this funding. 

The vision of this proposal is to establish NCCU as a premier institution in DHS detector science with the accompanying infrastructure and human capital necessary for such a transformation. The research thrusts at the core of this proposal are (1) a high-selectivity and high-sensitivity label-free biochemical sensor for continuing detection based on quantum confinement; (2) robust and reproducible plasmonic nanostructures for multimodal spectroscopic detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and rugged field-deployable detectors for on-site detection of CWAs; (3) object recognition and compressive sensing; (4) millimeter-wave spectroscopy; and (5) seed projects related to DHS that will include new ideas from faculty not currently included and provide vitality to the center.

The proposed partnership addresses a key educational challenge, manifested in the low participation of underrepresented minorities in material science. The vision is not merely to provide opportunities for NCCU students to participate in the ALERT program and thereby correct such a disparity. The intellectual merit of this proposal lies in the quality of the opportunities provided and the outcomes that will result. The four-tiered plan consists of (a) recruitment strategies targeted at the best and brightest high school and community college transfer students in the region by highlighting the central role of DHS STEM science in the 21st century, (b) academic enrichment programs focused on DHS STEM science, (c) an effective mentoring program that will pair minority participants in the NCCU with mentors at ALERT and NCCU, and (d) productive research experiences at the frontiers of DHS-STEM science supported by close mentoring by both NCCU and ALERT faculty and researchers at all levels.  

The underlying framework that will enable productive research is the broad and deep links between the individual research thrusts identified above and ongoing projects in ALERT. These links will leverage the expertise and resources in ALERT to generate important scientific advances in the short term as well as create sustainable research programs at NCCU in these four areas at the end of four years.  The key scientific challenges that are addressed in this proposal are (a) the ability to control tunneling between an analyte and detector nanostructure and to use that phenomenon for analyte detection, (b) controlling optical properties of metal nanoparticle and thin films for multispectral imaging devices, and (c) improving our object recognition algorithms and adopting them for DHS needs, as well as extending our 10–300 GHz laboratory to the THz region.  In all cases, the facilities and expertise available via our partners at ALERT would be critical for us here at NCCU to be able to transition to a level where these achievements can be utilized in actual devices.

The project will create a multidisciplinary DHS science community at NCCU that will increase public awareness of the field, recruit talented minority students to this field, prepare these students for future careers in the field through comprehensive academic and research programs, and increase rates of matriculation of minority students from NCCU to DHS science doctoral programs at ALERT and elsewhere.  Beyond this demographic impact, this partnership will enable us to attain a higher level of research capability that would enable us to sustain a nationally competitive research program in DHS science.  Acquiring such a national reputation in DHS science is critical to attracting more students into the discipline and maintaining the flow in the pipeline.