Improved autonomous sensors for biological and chemical threats

Summary: The diversity and frequency of natural and manmade toxic chemicals are increasing, and sea level rise will exacerbate the issue as ground water intrusion, flooding and inundation move toxins in unexpected ways. As these chemicals spread, they will impact ecosystems and communities likely with the greatest impact on underserved communities. Given advances in electronics, chemical detection and molecular biology, there is an unprecedented opportunity to build autonomous sensors to detect chemicals from toxicants (for example, harmful algal bloom products or PFAS pollutants). The chemical and biological detection can be connected to systems that autonomously survey a given area, or placed on platforms that scan regions, and then transmit data back to a laboratory. This capability would provide monitoring and early detection for a wide range of threats. The obstacle to achieving such platform include the lack of support to promote truly interdisciplinary efforts that seek to solve intellectual challenges and engineering a cost-effective solution that can be mass-produced. Ideal such sensors would be affordable to enable federal, state, or local monitoring systems.

Sector: Academia
Organization: University of North Carolina Wilmington
POC: Ken Halanych, halanychk@uncw.edu
Other Contacts: Chris Blanco blancoc@uncwe.edu