Army awards $1.6 million grant

The U.S. Army has awarded the University College of Engineering a $1.6 million grant to develop an artificial eye.

The grant, which goes into effect today, will fund the multidisciplinary project that involves the efforts of research centers across the country. The project plans to focus on creating hardware that will detect light in a far more detailed way than ever seemed possible.

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Prof. Pallab Bhattacharya, director of the Solid State Electronics Laboratory, is leading the project.

Bhattacharya said the grant was awarded by the Army's Department of Defense after an intensive selection process stemming from proposals written by research centers.

The Army brought engineers from the University together with engineers from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California. The University and UT-Austin engineers will produce the actual artificial eye hardware, while USC engineers will be involved in the modeling and simulation of the hardware.

Clark Nguyen, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said the artificial eye won't collect light information "like a camera," but the eye "will be able to (detect) sensitive motion and adapt to different lighting situations."

"Unlike the human eye, which only detects 'visible' parts of the spectrum, we are aiming to make this artificial eye sense other wavelengths beyond visible light, extending into the infrared and ultraviolet portions of the spectrum," Nguyen said.

Bhattacharya said the project's research will affect several areas of study.

"The fields which would be greatly impacted (by the artificial eye research) include research on materials growth and the development of lasers, photoreceivers and systems dealing with optical communication," Bhattacharya said.

He added that the artificial eye will also have a large number of applications in civilian fields -- including optical communication and navigation systems -- and has the potential to aid those with visual impairment.

Bhattacharya said University students will be at the forefront of the project.

"Because (the project) is so multidisciplinary, the students will learn more via the interaction with students in other fields and will be aware of other applications to their own field of expertise," Bhattacharya said.

06-01-98