Skip to main content

Search Results

TechSolutions and Marines Bring a Decades-Old Process into the 21st Century

Assessing surf zone conditions has never been an exact science for the Department of the Navy. That’s about to change thanks to a recent request to TechSolutions, which has resulted in new surf observation (SUROB) technology to make operational forecasts more precise. For the past six months, a team of scientists and engineers from the Naval Research Lab (NRL) and the U.S. Army’s Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) have been developing the technological tools needed to create a more precise surf observation report. In order to gain greater insight into how the surf observation tool may improve warfighter operations, NavalX recently organized a workshop that brought together the science and engineering developers with the Sailors and Marines who would use it. TechSolutions received the request less than a year ago for a technology-driven solution for surf observation from Maj. Zachary Taylor, a technology officer with the Marines’ Warfighting Lab. Within weeks, TechSolutions began working with the development team at NRL and ERDC to come up with a prototype.
April 04, 2024

ONR-Sponsored Research Could Potentially Lead to Millions of New Materials

Extraordinarily rugged with a melting temperature of several thousand degrees Fahrenheit. That describes the results of research into new ceramic materials sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and recently published in the Journal Nature. A research team, led by ONR’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Stefano Curtarolo, Duke University, developed a computational method for creating new types of ceramics using transition metals – carbonitrides or borides – through a process called Disordered Enthalpy-Entropy Descriptor (DEED). The applications are endless, said Dr. Eric Wuchina, a research materials engineer who was the program officer with ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons department when Curtarolo’s research team was awarded the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). According to Wuchina, the variety of new compositions could create potentially millions of new materials.
January 04, 2024

Research and Development Opportunities for Small Biz with the Office of Naval Research

More than 225 representatives of technology-focused small businesses joined a webinar, Oct. 23, to learn the ins and outs of the contracting process for awards through the Office of Naval Research. The Office of Small Business (OSB) at ONR initiated the webinar with the help of Virginia PTAC, an APEX Accelerator program that is partially funded through the Department of Defense (DoD) and administered by George Mason University.
October 31, 2023

A Mighty Wind: Using Wind Tunnels to Measure Sound by Deadening the Noise

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored a project at Virginia Tech University nearly 20 years ago that is now growing in influence across the world for measuring aerospace and aeronautical acoustics. Since noise reverberates against solid surfaces, such as the walls of a wind tunnel where acoustical testing takes place, collecting accurate sound data had been nearly impossible at the time. Researchers were also struggling to discern the sound of the wind tunnel’s air flow from the noise of the object traveling through it. After learning about some experiments on Kevlar as a wind screen, William Devenport, an engineering professor and director of Virginia Tech’s Stability Wind Tunnel, said he and a colleague wrote a proposal to then-ONR program officer Ron Joslin to try adding Kevlar to their wind tunnel walls. Devenport submitted the original grant proposal (N00014–04–1–04933) through the FY 2004 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) for alterations to Virginia Tech’s existing Stability Wind Tunnel that would allow it to measure flow-induced noise of relevance to Navy applications.

August 14, 2023

Semper S&T: ONR Showcases Warfighter Lethality, Readiness at Modern Day Marine

ONR leaders gave remarks during Modern Day Marine, held April 29-May 1 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Modern Day Marine is the largest military equipment, systems, services and technology exposition exclusively targeted to the Marine Corps.
May 16, 2025

Subsurface Platform Science & Technology

The Office of Naval Research's Subsurface Platform Science & Technology program is focused on preserving and advancing the advantage of U.S. Navy platforms over adversaries.
March 18, 2022

Maintenance Alert: Portable Kit Analyzes Fluids to Gauge Health of Military Vehicles

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has sponsored the development of an integrated tool to make fluid and fuel analysis faster, easier and mobile. It’s called the Portable Fluid Analyzer Plus (PFA+).
September 30, 2024

Navy Undersea Research Program

The Office of Naval Research's Navy Undersea Research Program (NURP), in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, sponsors science and engineering graduate students pursuing thesis topics in core undersea weaponry technology areas.
March 18, 2022

Semper Science: ONR Showcases S&T Efforts at Modern Day Marine

The Office of Naval Research participated in Modern Day Marine, held April 30-May 2 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Modern Day Marine is the largest military equipment, systems, services and technology exposition exclusively targeted to the Marine Corps.
May 07, 2024

Directed Energy Weapons: Counter Directed Energy Weapons and High Energy Lasers

The Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) Program is part of the Office of Naval Research's Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department.
March 18, 2022