Outreach & Engagement

Areas of Research :: National Security :: Sensor Research

Left to Right: Dr. John Chapin, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Dr. Omowunmi Sadik, Binghamton University

• Known for his "robotic rat" invention, SUNY Downstate Medical Center professor Dr. John K. Chapin is developing this technology for search and rescue applications. The rats can be used for surveillance, to detect explosives or biological/ chemical weapons, or to crawl through rubble to find people after disaster or terrorist attack. Dr. Chapin's training method ensures that the rats are fully under control.
  
  
• Using a tiny structure found in the ears of a small fly as a model, Binghamton University professor Dr. Ronald Miles is developing the world's smallest directional microphones, which can be used in security devices.
  
  
• SUNY-based research at the highly successful Center for Advanced Technology in Diagnostic Tools and Sensor Systems is leading to sensor-based breakthroughs in theory, design, and manufacture, which can be applied to homeland security and anti-terrorism efforts. The Center is led by Dr. Serge Luryi, a SUNY Distinguished Professor whose research in high-speed electronic and photonic devices, material science, sensor systems and electronic packaging is covered by 39 U.S. patents.
  
  
• Mr. Richard J. Gambino, professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of the Laboratory for Magneto-Optical Materials at Stony Brook University, is investigating magnetic sensors and diamond-like carbon.


• Dr. Pelagia-Irene Gouma, assistant professor of Materials Science and Engineering and director of Advanced Materials Characterization Laboratory at Stony Brook University, is leading a team of researchers that is funded by the National Science Foundation to produce the next generation of nanostructured materials for selective electronic noses. Using resistive gas sensor technology, Dr. Gouma's team has developed highly selective detectors and their arrays and the applications that we target are breath analysis monitoring systems for medical diagnostics.
  
  
• At the University at Buffalo, Drs. Harsh Deep Chopra, associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Susan Hua, director of the Bio-Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems Facility, have produced nanoscale magnetic sensors that could increase the storage capacity of hard-disk drives by a factor of 1,000.
  
  
• Dr. Frank V. Bright, distinguished professor and associate chairperson of the Department of Chemistry at University at Buffalo, has made a series of discoveries that are building toward a new generation of biosensors that can simultaneously detect and quantify multiple chemical and biochemical species in a single sample. These biosensors are applicable to a wide variety of problems in medicine, remote assessment and monitoring scenarios, and human space travel.
  
  
• Dr. Omowunmi Sadik, associate professor of Chemistry at Binghamton University, is conducting groundbreaking research on microelectrode biosensors and electronic noses that are able to detect even trace amounts of organic materials. Applications for this technology include drug detection (in the place of drug-sniffing dogs) and bomb detection.