The Air Force Office of Scientific Research awarded a Department of Defense (DoD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program grant to Arizona State University in May 2006, potentially totaling about $6 million over five years. The leading principal investigator is the AIMS Center Director, Aditi Chattopadhyay. Co-Principal investigators are Douglas Cochran, Antonia Papandreou-Suppappola and Pedro Peralta. The participating universities are Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Arizona State University. The MURI program is a multi-agency DoD program that supports research teams whose efforts intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. Multidisciplinary team efforts can accelerate research progress in areas particularly suited to this approach. Cross-fertilization of ideas hastens the transition of basic research findings to practical applications, and helps to train students in science and/or engineering in areas of importance to DoD.
In particular, the team is conducting a major aerospace research project to support the development of advanced sensor systems for aircraft. The goal is to establish a sensor system that can better assess the structural health of aircraft and improve the accuracy of risk assessment and aircraft lifespan estimates. By doing so, they hope to help cut costs for the Air Force in the long run by reducing the operation and maintenance cost of its current fleet. The MURI team would like to thank the program manager, Dr. Victor Giurgiutiu, for his continuing support.