Previously Competed FOCUSED PROGRAMS
(1994-1998)

Developed in response to suggestions from industry and academia, ATP focused programs identified specific, long-range research and business goals that required the parallel development of a suite of interlocking R&D projects. Focused programs allowed the ATP to manage groups of complementary projects and reap the benefits of synergy among the participants. The ATP has established 17 focused programs to date:

Adaptive Learning Systems

To develop new enabling technologies for flexible, network-based and web-based learning systems, including intelligent authoring systems to reduce the cost and time to develop educational content; knowledge management, and interface technologies to improve the delivery of instructional content; and large-scale modular components, instructional frameworks, and middleware to support a highly usable, reliable networked learning environment that makes training and education more accessible than ever before. (First competition in 1998.)

Barbara Cuthill , Acting Group Leader
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3273,
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov

To develop the tools, abilities, and theoretical insight to identify, design, and implement new catalytic and biocatalytic processes and catalyst manufacturing techniques of major economic importance to chemical producers and other catalyst users. (First competition in 1995)

Linda Beth Schilling, Director
Chemistry and Life Sciences Group
(301) 975-2887,
linda.schilling@nist.gov

Component-Based Software

To develop the technologies necessary to enable systematically reusable software components—small, carefully engineered software elements suitable for automated assembly in a broad array of applications. (First competition in 1994)

Barbara Cuthill , Acting Group Leader
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3273,
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov

Digital Data Storage

To support U.S. companies in exploiting the revolution in digital storage by producing dramatic improvements in data storage technology in six key areas: tape and disk storage density, higher performance magnetic recording heads, new lubricants and surface finishes, more reliable tracking devices, improved signal-processing electronics, and data storage and retrieval software. (First competition in 1995)

Michael Schen, Acting Director
Information Technology and Electronics Office
(301) 975-6741, michael.schen@nist.gov

Digital Video in Information Networks

To develop interoperable digital video capabilities for emerging information networks through techniques for encoding, converting, and transcribing video data into the various forms required by the network. The program will help U.S. firms to take commercial advantage of the information network to allow any video-based information product to travel via wire, optical fiber, satellite, or broadcast seamlessly into regular TVs and other information appliances. (First competition in 1995)

Barbara Cuthill , Acting Group Leader
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3273,
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov

Information Infrastructure for Healthcare

To develop critical information infrastructure technologies to enable enhanced, more fully integrated medical information systems across the healthcare industry, increasing accessibility and uniformity while greatly reducing costs and errors in handling medical information. (First competition in 1994)

Barbara Cuthill , Acting Group Leader
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3273,
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov

Manufacturing Composite Structures

To reduce the high initial costs of using advanced composite materials, traditionally found in military and sports applications, through cost-effective manufacturing processes to enable the use of these high-performance, lightweight, durable materials in large-scale commercial structural applications such as surface transportation, civil infrastructure, and offshore oil production. (First competition in 1994)

Felix Wu, Program Manager
Chemistry and Materilas Group
(301) 975-4685,
felix.wu@nist.gov

Materials Processing for Heavy Manufacturing

To develop and demonstrate innovative materials-processing technologies that will help U.S. heavy manufacturing companies make longer lasting, more reliable, and more efficient products. The program concentrates on three major commercial markets: engines, power trains, and chassis for surface vehicles; heavy equipment for construction, agriculture, mining, and oil fields; and engines, turbines, rotors, and related components for power generators. (First competition in 1995)

Felix Wu, Program Manager
Chemistry and Materials Group
(301) 975-4685,
felix.wu@nist.gov

Microelectronics Manufacturing Infrastructure

To develop new infrastructure technologies in materials, design, manufacturing, and testing and to enable strategic advances in semiconductor chips, processes, packaging, and board interconnections. These technologies have been identified in several industry roadmaps as potentially serious barriors to developing the smaller, lighter, faster, and more cost-effective microelectronic products demanded by world markets. (First competition in 1998)

Michael Schen, Acting Director
Information Technology and Electronics Office
(301) 975-32736,
michael.schen@nist.gov

Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Technology

To foster innovations in manufacturing technologies that can strengthen capabilities and lead to dramatic advances along the entire automotive production chain, including more versatile equipment, better control and integration of processes, and greater operational flexibility at all levels. Automotive suppliers are key partners and players in this program. (First competition in 1995)

Jack Boudreaux, Program Manager
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3560, jack.boudreaux@nist.gov

Photonics Manufacturing

To develop critical tools—packaging technologies, simulation and modeling tools, processing methods, equipment, and instrumentation—needed by U.S. manufacturers to develop innovative photonics-based products quickly and manufacture them efficiently in large volume at low cost, improving their competitiveness in global markets. (First competition in 1998)

Thomas Lettieri, Program Manager
Electronics and Photonics Group
(301) 975-3496, thomas.lettier@nist.gov

Premium Power

To develop advanced electric power technologies, including photovoltaic solar arrays, integrated fuel cell systems, advanced batteries, ultracapacitors, and flywheels, to support modular, high-quality, highly distributed power sources required for developing technologies in broadband wireless telecommunications, portable electronics, and power-quality-sensitive industries. (First competition in 1998)

Gerald Castellucci, Program Manager
Electronics and Photonics Group
(301) 975-2435, gerald.castellucci@nist.gov

Selective-Membrane Platforms

To develop the combination of materials science and manufacturing technology advances needed to create new families of membrane materials and process technologies for advanced high-selectivity, high-throughput chemical separations (including concentration and purification), producing feedstocks for areas as diverse as pharmaceuticals and medical diagnostics, automobile parts, consumer electronics, clothing, and alternative fuels. (First competition in 1998)

Chuck Bartholomew, Program Manager
Chemistry and Materials Group
(301) 975-4786, richard.bartholomew@nist.gov

Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications

To develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to create affordable manufacturing software applications that can be rapidly integrated, reconfigured, and, in the long run, that can automatically adjust their performance in response to changing conditions and requirements. (First competition in 1995)

Amit Bagchi, Program Manager
Information Technology and Applications Group
(301) 975-3638, amit.bagchi@nist.gov

Tissue Engineering

To enable dramatic advances in the development and use of biocompatible materials, with or without a cellular component, to replace damaged or defective tissues and organs. The program concentrates on four key areas: biomaterials, cellular components (including large-scale culturing techniques and genetic or environmental manipulation), manufacturing processes, and implantation and transplantation technologies. (First competition in 1997)

Mrunal Chapekar, Program Manager
Life Sciences Group
(301) 975-6846, mrunal.chapekar@nist.gov

Tools for DNA Diagnostics

To develop compact, low-cost, automated DNA analysis technologies and equipment to enable fast, inexpensive detection and diagnosis of human, animal, and plant diseases. Other applications include personal identification, toxicology, environmental monitoring, and bioprocessing. (First competition in 1994)

Thomas Wiggins, Program Manager
Life Sciences Group
(301) 975-5416, thomas.wiggins@nist.gov

Vapor Compression Refrigeration Technology

To develop more efficient, quiet, and compact air-conditioning and refrigeration systems with the lowest achievable environmental impact. The projects selected focus on improving the vapor compression cycle, the principle of operation for most current cooling equipment. The overall technical goals are to increase system efficiency, reduce noise levels, and reduce refrigeration components' sizes—each by 25 percent—and to design and manufacture systems in which no refrigerant leaks. (First competition in 1995)

Richard (Chuck) Bartholomew, Program Manager
(301) 975-3214, richard.bartholomew@nist.gov

Date Created: June 1996
Last Update: July 26, 2007