UM Tops in Defense Dept. MURI Grants for Third Year

Physics Profs Head All Four MURI Projects

The Shape of Future Computing?

This is the third year in a row that Maryland has led or tied for the lead in the number of MURI project grants for which it is the primary university. In addition to the four new research projects that it will head, Maryland will participate in four other 2009 MURI projects.

MURI is a multi-agency program overseen by the Department of Defense and comprising three awarding offices: the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Each MURI grant is awarded for a research proposal led by one institution. However, a MURI award frequently involves multiple institutions with researchers drawn from a variety of science and engineering disciplines.

Two universities, Stanford and the University of California San Diego were just behind Maryland, each winning three 2009 MURI awards as primaries. The University of California Berkeley, MIT and Duke University each received two awards as primary university.

"The University of Maryland is extremely proud to have won four MURIs this year," said University of Maryland President C. D. Mote, Jr. "These awards recognize our strengths in addressing critical national problems and reflect the high quality of UM research."

An optical microscope image of a graphene semiconductor From:Physicists Show Electrons Can Travel More Than 100 Times Faster in Graphene

No 1 for Three Years

In 2008 and 2007, the University of Maryland tied for the lead in primary MURI awards with three. Maryland tied with Carnegie Mellon University in 2008 and with the University of Virginia in 2007. No other university has been in the top spot for even two of the past three years, nor do any come close during that time to Maryland's 10 primary MURI grants and 9 as a participating university.

For the 2009 awards, Maryland will lead research on:

• Tailoring the electronic properties of graphene at the nanoscale (lead researcher Michael Fuhrer, UM department of physics, Maryland Nanocenter and Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials);


• Investigating new phases of matter for quantum information/computing (lead researcher Paul Julienne, UM department of physics, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the UM/NIST Joint Quantum Institute);


• Studying quantum-optical circuits of hybrid quantum memories (lead researcher Christopher Monroe, UM department of physics, and the Joint Quantum Institute);


• Searching for new, practical superconductors (lead researcher Richard Greene, UM department of physics and Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials).

"Our faculty have a long tradition of multidisciplinary work in academic and research areas important to the Department of Defense, as borne out by the breadth of topics covered by the 19 MURI projects awarded over the past three years, that Maryland either leads or participates in," said Mel Bernstein, University of Maryland vice president for research.

MURI research projects grants for 2009 in which the university will participate are: (1) figure-Ground Processing, saliency And guided attention for analysis of large natural scenes; (2) opportunistic sensing for object and activity recognition from multi-modal, multi-platform data; (3) distributed learning and information dynamics in networked autonomous systems; (4) computer-aided human centric cyber situation awareness.

The MURI program supports multidisciplinary research in areas that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering field. The highly competitive awards are for up to five years -- a three-year base period with a two-year option. Proposals were solicited in 18 topics important to the Department of Defense, with a total of 104 proposals received. The winning proposals were selected for funding based on merit review by panels of experts in the pertinent science and engineering fields.

According to the Department of Defense, the MURI program complements those DoD basic research programs that support traditional, single-investigator university research. By supporting multi-disciplinary teams with awards larger and longer in duration than traditional awards, MURI awards can provide greater sustained support than single-investigator awards for the education and training of students pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering fields critical to DoD, as well as for associated infrastructure such as research instrumentation.

UM, a Leader in Basic and Applied Research Critical for U.S National Security

The 2009 MURI awards are just the latest evidence that the University of Maryland is the go to university for all kinds of research essential for national security. The university is the site of the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity; the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror (START) -- creator of the world's largest unclassified database of terrorism attacks; the Center for International Security Studies; the Center for the Advanced Study of Language and a host of other security and defense related programs.

Maryland researchers designed a mobile robot (left) with a guidance system based on the echolocation ability of the common brown bat. Photo by John T. Consoli.

Outside of these centers, Maryland researchers in chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, behavioral and social science and engineering work across and within disciplines on basic and applied research vital to national defense and security. For example, UM research is helping to provide tools and knowledge that our military forces need today, and helping to create technologies that will shape our armed forces of tomorrow. Researchers in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) are developing the SOMA Terror Organization Portal (STOP) and other language, culture and behavior analysis software tools that can help soldiers, intelligence analysts and others, understand and communicate with friend and foe. And Maryland engineers and scientists are developing bio-inspired miniature autonomous vehicles that will give soldiers' awareness of complex terrain before they enter it; and researching electromagnetic technologies that will form the basis for the all-electric ships, speed-of-light weapons and advanced communication technologies that the Navy anticipates deploying in the future.

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