The NASA SBIR product catalog

The purpose of this catalog is to assist small business firms in making the community aware of products emerging from their efforts in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. It contains descriptions of some products that have advanced into Phase 3 and others that are identified as prospective products. Both lists of products in this catalog are based on information supplied by NASA SBIR contractors in responding to an invitation to be represented in this document. Generally, all products suggested by the small firms were included in order to meet the goals of information exchange for SBIR results. Of the 444 SBIR contractors NASA queried, 137 provided information on 219 products. The catalog presents the product information in the technology areas listed in the table of contents. Within each area, the products are listed in alphabetical order by product name and are given identifying numbers. Also included is an alphabetical listing of the companies that have products described. This listing cross-references the product list and provides information on the business activity of each firm. In addition, there are three indexes: one a list of firms by states, one that lists the products according to NASA Centers that managed the SBIR projects, and one that lists the products by the relevant Technical Topics utilized in NASA's annual program solicitation under which each SBIR project was selected

Integrated landscape approaches to managing social and environmental issues in the tropics: learning from the past to guide the future

Poverty, food insecurity, climate change and biodiversity loss continue to persist as the primary environmental and social challenges faced by the global community. As such, there is a growing acknowledgement that conventional sectorial approaches to addressing often inter-connected social, environmental, economic and political challenges are proving insufficient. An alternative is to focus on integrated solutions at landscape scales or ‘landscape approaches’. The appeal of landscape approaches has resulted in the production of a significant body of literature in recent decades, yet confusion over terminology, application and utility persists. Focusing on the tropics, we systematically reviewed the literature to: (i) disentangle the historical development and theory behind the framework of the landscape approach and how it has progressed into its current iteration, (ii) establish lessons learned from previous land management strategies, (iii) determine the barriers that currently restrict implementation of the landscape approach and (iv) provide recommendations for how the landscape approach can contribute towards the fulfilment of the goals of international policy processes. This review suggests that, despite some barriers to implementation, a landscape approach has considerable potential to meet social and environmental objectives at local scales while aiding national commitments to addressing ongoing global challenges

Pitching Change: Micro-Community of Higher Learning

Being around sports growing up has given me some experiences that have shaped who I am today. Playing and watching sports is a common activity amongst my friends and family. These events spark engagement and camaraderie between us. The stadium in which these sports are played within are a key component to this engagement. They bring people together to enjoy and root on your favorite teams along side thousands of other fans. Stadiums today are becoming a remarkable instrument to generate communal spirit besides marketing, recruiting and hosting games for universities. The iconic design of these stadiums has become more complex. They have pushed the limits of technology and design however their iconic design is not without the parking wasteland that creates an island of a specific sports activities. I believe that KSU must consider student life for all students to better embed the sports facilities they intend to build by substituting the large amounts of parking surface area with a more productive program to foster a strong sense of communal spirit—an active micro community. A place where students, faculty and visitors share the festive and competitive nature of sports as well as their education at KSU. Research has time and again shown that baseball stadiums with stronger spatial connection to their social surroundings have become strong social hubs to serve their communities well. Kennesaw State University is regularly adding surface parking in an effort to accommodate its exponential growth. As well as building new sports facilities with a weak connection to campus communal and student activities. My project aims to design a new baseball stadium in KSU connecting the fragmented spatial pieces of the campus to foster a cohesive fabric of spatial patterns that should generate an active community of students. Supported by a mixed used developments and a retail spine. My thesis project (Baseball Stadium) aims to eliminate the wasteland of parking dead space and fragmented spatial patterns in KSU with program that pushes the spirit of live-work-play-study for student success—an immersive and vibrant micro community of students catalyzed by a Baseball Stadium—to bring spatial cohesion to the spatial fragmentation of our North Campu