While President Bush and Sen. John Kerry were weighing the wisdom of engaging in conflicts around the world during the final days of the presidential campaign, directors of 12 university-based laboratories receiving about a billion dollars a year in Department of Defense funding were meeting at the 91探花鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory.
Only the second such summit ever, the directors of these secretary of defense- designated research and development laboratories were here 鈥渢o share science and technology developments and to plan for future needs that will benefit uniformed military personnel abroad and secure coastal waters and airspace at home,鈥� according to Jeffrey Simmen, director of the UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory.
With $40 million annually in federal grants and contracts and no state money, the Applied Physics Laboratory is the UW鈥檚 number one recipient of Department of Defense dollars and the campus鈥檚 largest contributor to research and development addressing national defense and security needs.
鈥淎ny time troops are deployed, it is important for them to have the latest technology for such things as surveillance, sensing, information management, reliable power and defense against chemical and biological attacks,鈥� Simmen says.
鈥淛ust what technologies bring about tomorrow鈥檚 operational advantage?鈥� asked Robert Baker, deputy director of plans and programs for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, as he urged the directors to envision what technologies will be needed to operate effectively in the next 10 to 20 years.
A wide variety of research and development efforts addressing critical defense and homeland security needs were discussed during the Seattle meeting including:
- The Navy, Coast Guard and waterfront police patrols needing to 鈥渟ee鈥� into the water. The UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory has developed unmanned and autonomous underwater vehicles that can patrol for long periods and sonar devices that give acoustic images at high resolutions. These high-definition sonars are small enough for divers to hold in their hands. Or they can be mounted on yard-long underwater vehicles that can scan harbors and seaports for sea floor mines, or on remotely operated vehicles to inspect ship hulls and piers for explosives and detect divers in areas where they don鈥檛 belong.
- The training program 鈥淰irtual Dilemma鈥� developed at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, uses a video game-like program to teach critical thinking. In the demonstration scenario, a vehicle in a detachment that鈥檚 needed immediately across town has struck a boy. A military trainee interacts with the program and is faced with decisions about offering aid, getting to where the detachment is needed, dealing with the boy鈥檚 mother and a gathering crowd of potentially hostile citizens.
- Soldiers wounded on the battlefield often have only an hour in which they either receive treatment or die because of uncontrolled bleeding. World-renowned researchers at the UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory are leading campus efforts to develop high-intensity, focused ultrasound techniques and instruments with the promise of one day being carried by medics into the field. Intensely focused ultrasound produces temperatures of 100 C in the body, causing blood to coagulate and tissue cuts and tears to fuse. High intensity focused ultrasound can even work through the skin if there is internal bleeding, and one day medics may be using an almost Star Trek-like device on the battlefield.
The UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory is the second oldest university-affiliated research center, having been established in 1943, and is currently in the top third of the laboratories in federal funding received. The largest research center is the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.
鈥淓ach university-affiliated research center has a key set of core competencies defining it,鈥� Simmen says. 鈥淓ach one, including the UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory, can be considered to be the world鈥檚 best 鈥� or among the best 鈥� performers in those core competencies. We鈥檙e known internationally as a premier center for acoustics research and development, ocean physics and engineering, and Arctic research and instrumentation.
鈥淲e have new national defense and homeland security initiatives under way to develop networked and mobile surveillance systems for fleet and coastal security, compact and high-bandwidth photonic devices for improved sensing and tools to help the Navy mitigate sonar impact on marine mammals.鈥�
鈥淭hese university-affiliated research centers do the work that is difficult for industry research groups,鈥� according to David Sivillo, deputy director of the Navy University Affiliated Research Centers Office. 鈥淚ndustry must concentrate efforts in terms of maximum profit and maximum market,鈥� he says. Basic oceanographic research, for example, would not be feasible for industry, yet the Navy needs to understand the forces at work in the oceans because it conducts operations there.
In connection with industry, 鈥淭he university-affiliated labs also are our trusted agents to advise us on what鈥檚 available commercially that can serve us well,鈥� says Tom Neuberger, with the Navy University Affiliated Research Centers Office.
Both Sivillo and Neuberger said the universities are the training grounds for the next generation of applied scientists. The UW鈥檚 Applied Physics Laboratory, for example, currently supervises 68 graduate and undergraduate students.
Funding for Department of Defense research and development has increased steadily in recent years. During the last fiscal year Congress appropriated even more money to some branches than had been requested.
Besides the Applied Physics Laboratory, several other units on the 91探花campus receive Department of Defense money, including those with expertise in engineering, computer science, chemistry and environmental and health sciences.
鈥淥ur funding at the Applied Physics Laboratory has increased by almost
30 percent in recent years and could easily increase by an additional 20 percent next year alone from applied research,鈥� Simmen says.
The Applied Physics Laboratory leverages Department of Defense money when possible, obtaining money from other federal agencies with similar research interests, according to William Bakamis, Applied Physics Laboratory鈥檚 associate director. The laboratory, for example, received $9.3 million last year for oceanographic and polar research from the National Science Foundation, which makes it the second-largest recipient of NSF funding on campus among individual units.
Annual grant and contract funding to the Applied Physics Laboratory exceeds external research funding for every 91探花school or college except four: medicine, arts and sciences, public health and community medicine, and engineering.