7 minute read
Today's challenges, tomorrow's achievements
Creating a secure future, one innovation at a time
Military innovations change the world. From GPS tracking and microwave technology to digital photography and virtual reality, some of the nation’s most groundbreaking inventions have emerged from the military sector. At ASU, even greater innovations lie ahead that will serve our national defense and security, making the impossible possible.
New Economy Initiative
ASU is creating new partnerships with industry to drive breakthroughs that will push emerging technology out of the lab and into the real world in areas that are critical to national defense and security. The engine is the state-funded New Economy Initiative that tasks Arizona’s three universities to develop a coordinated response to attract high-tech industry, drive job creation and create a competitive and resilient economy in Arizona.
ASU lends its muscle as a research powerhouse through six new science and technology centers (STCs):
• Manufacturing, Automation and Data Engineering (MADE) STC focuses on the development of new technologies aimed at transforming manufacturing through 3D printing, robotics and automation, and new materials, with strong links to private industry support in aerospace, defense and space systems.
• Advanced Materials, Processes and Energy Devices (AMPED) STC is a national research resource for advancing new energy materials and device technologies in solar, batteries and electronics to market, growing industry engagement and workforce training.
• Performance Engineering and Research for Optimizing Response Mechanisms (PERFORM) STC leverages regional strength and technology opportunities to enhance physical and cognitive performance, medical prevention and intervention, and drive research from discovery to marketplace.
• Extreme Environments (EXTREME) STC focuses on management and technology opportunities associated with growing population centers, and research to engineer resiliency into the energy, water, materials and transportation systems in the built environment of future cities and regions.
• Advanced Communications Technologies (ACT) STC develops physical information systems as the Internet of Things becomes more prevalent, and as users increasingly desire greater access, information and reliability in communications.
• Sustainability Innovation STC unites industry, academic and government partners to co-create systems-level approaches to pressing challenges in sustainability. Focus areas include water security, renewable energy transitions, regenerative design, and sustainability planning and implementation.
• Sustainability Innovation STC unites industry, academic and government partners to co-create systems-level approaches to pressing challenges in sustainability. Focus areas include water security, renewable energy transitions, regenerative design, and sustainability planning and implementation.
New Economy Initiative’s goals for Arizona
• 40K new high wage jobs by 2041
• $6.9B economic output by 2032
• 100+ industry partners
• 2x return on state investment by 2032
MacroTechnology Works
Posing security and economic risks to the country, America’s share of global semiconductor production has fallen from 37% in 1990 to just 12% today. But ASU and its industry partners are poised to help close the microchip manufacturing gap. Arizona has led the nation in chip investments since 2020, with the announcements of two new chip-making plants by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and two additional factories from Intel that will cost a combined $60 billion. Efforts are fueled by the federal government’s $52 billion CHIPS and Science Act that acts as a catalyst for improving American research, innovation, manufacturing, workforce development and national security related to semiconductors.
ASU is taking the next step by advancing the creation of Southwest Advanced Prototyping (SWAP) Hub through the DOD Microelectronics Commons program. The ASU-led SWAP Hub is a nationwide network of chip manufacturers, labs and universities with complementary strengths, allowing secure transfer of knowledge and research between member institutions. The university is also focused on workforce development, increasing the number of engineers and bridging the critical “lab to fab” gap — the time and investment gap between when technology is invented and when it’s ready to be fabricated and put to use. One important component of that will be ASU’s MacroTechnology Works, a unique lab and fabrication space that is open to university and defense researchers and community partners, from tiny ventures to big corporations.
CXFEL
ASU is building the world’s first compact X-ray free electron laser, or CXFEL, a one-of-a-kind roomsized X-ray laser instrument that will fill a critical need for researchers to explore the intricacies of complex matter at atomic length and ultrafast time.
The CXFEL will allow scientists to observe molecular processes in detail — processes that will help investigators advance renewable energy research, quantum technologies, new medicines and drugs, and semiconductor research and manufacturing. The CXFEL’s powerful imaging capability could advance semiconductor designs
at a time when domestic manufacturing is a national priority, and potentially usher in faster, more efficient electronics. The CXFEL will dramatically shrink the size of the technology used by existing X-ray free-electron laser facilities, allowing it to be housed in a university, medical or industrial setting. Its reduced size will make this technology accessible to more research institutions at a fraction of the cost.
The National Science Foundation granted $90.8 million in funding — the largest NSF award in the university’s history — to advance this groundbreaking research in X-ray science.
Dreamscape Learn
At the forefront of educational innovation, ASU strives to help create the STEM talent and national security workforce the nation needs. The university is creating new educational models that can be used to help DOD and civilian employees master new skills through Dreamscape Learn. A collaborative venture with Dreamscape Immersive, the world’s leading virtual reality company, Dreamscape Learn provides a first-of-its-kind virtually immersive experience that combines cinematic storytelling with innovative curriculum and emerging technology to create highly engaging educational experiences. The approach has the potential to be applied to all kinds of classrooms as well as adult learners in defense and national security, making troops on the ground safer and better equipped at a fraction of the cost of inperson learning.
The Dreamscape Learn partnership delivers avatardriven immersive experiences for campus-based and online courses, starting with introductory biology and expanding throughout the sciences and beyond. These learning labs enable students to work beside leading-edge science, arts and engineering faculty to solve problems, engage with virtual worlds and dive deeper in their learning.
Immersive experiences created in a VR environment can replicate almost anything, offering educators and learners the opportunity to modify, improve and practice, often at a fraction of cost of replicating those experiences in real life, without the limitations of time and geography. VR educational platforms like Dreamscape Learn also help build the workforce of the future, with an estimated 23 million jobs worldwide using VR and augmented reality by 2030.
Security & Defense PLuS
As part of a global effort to ensure peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia will become the seventh country in the world to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines. That move is part of a historic security partnership created a year ago among the United States, Australia and United Kingdom, called AUKUS, intended to strengthen and share advanced defense capabilities, including helping Australia develop long-range subs powered by nuclear energy.
Now, an alliance of three top universities from those countries — Arizona State University, King’s College London and the University of New South Wales — known as the PLuS Alliance has launched a new initiative to become the intellectual engine behind AUKUS. Called Security & Defense PLuS, it provides independent, original knowledge and understanding of national and global security issues to advance and support statecraft, research and policy in the spirit of the AUKUS partnership.
