DAGSI RESEARCH TOPICS

2026 Research topics- Published

Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (RX)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RX26-1	Engineering Photonic Materials Using Exceptional Points	Robert Bedford
RX26-2	Synthesis and Integration of Quantum Light Sources and Quantum Sensors	Luke Bissell
RX26-3	Ab Initio Modeling of Point Defects for Quantum Information Science	Luke Bissell
RX26-4	Design of Adaptive Material Networks for Sensing, Actuation and Physical Computing	Philip Buskohl
RX26-5	Characterizing Quantum Defects in Silicon Carbide	Chandriker Kavir Dass
RX26-6	Understanding onset of damage in multifunctional vitrimer nanocomposite	Dhriti Nepal
RX26-7	Physics and Machine Learning for Polymer Materials Design	Jeffrey Ethier
RX26-8	Cooperative Human and Machine Learning for Manufacturing	Andrew Gillman
RX26-9	Physics-Based Modeling of Agile Composite Manufacturing	Matthew Grasinger
RX26-10	Unlocking High-Energy Density Artificial Muscles: Multiscale Investigation of Advanced Dielectric Elastomer Composites	Matthew Grasinger
RX26-11	Machine-learning Driven Inverse Design of Optical Metasurfaces	Eric Harper
RX26-12	Human-Robot Collaboration for Manufacturing through Natural Interactions	Nathan Hertlein
RX26-13	Oxidation and mechanical performance of ceramics and ceramic matrix composites from ambient air to vacuum	Charis Lin
RX26-14	Knowledge Graphs for Materials Research	Benji Maruyama
RX26-15	Ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials for electronics and optoelectronics	Shin Mou
RX26-16	Wide and Ultra-Wide Bandgap Materials for Extreme Environment Applications	Adam Neal
RX26-17	Advanced Processing of Ceramic and Ceramic Matrix Composite Structures	Lisa Rueschhoff
RX26-18	Automation and autonomy for materials/alloy discovery and development	Megna Shah
RX26-19	Using Ordered Bacteria to Make Air Force Relevant Materials	Claretta Sullivan
RX26-20	Understanding Polyimide Hygrothermal Stability via Molecular Dynamics	Vikas Varshney
RX26-21	Organic Materials for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications	Ly Tran
RX26-22	Self-Healing Elastomers for Extreme Environments	Anesia Auguste

Aerospace Systems (RQ)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RQ26-1	Extending the Tractability of Large-Eddy Simulation for High Reynolds-Number Flows	Dr. Daniel Garmann
RQ26-2	Meta-materials for Structural Applications	Dr. Alex Pankonien
RQ26-3	Numerical Simulation of High Mach Number Viscous Flow	Dr. Nick Bisek
RQ26-4	Advanced Flight Control	Dr. Michael Bolender
RQ26-5	Leveraging Both Experimental and Computational Data to Study Hypersonic Flight	Dr. Matthew Borg Dr. Matthew Tufts
RQ26-6	Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Research	Dr. Campbell Carter
RQ26-7	Compact and Novel Combustion Concepts	Dr. Andrew Caswell
RQ26-8	High-Altitude Combustion Ignition and Relight Research	Dr. Andrew Caswell
RQ26-9	Enabling Robust and Durable Aerospace Structures for Combined, Extreme Environments	Dr. Thomas Eason
RQ26-10	Intelligent Power Systems for Next Generation Aircraft	Dr. Joe Fellner Dr. James Scofield
RQ26-11	Efficient Small Scale Propulsion and Power Systems	Dr. Mark Fernelius
RQ26-12	Enhanced Optical Flow Diagnostics/Minimization of Particle Seeding	Benjamin Hagen
RQ26-13	Active Thrust Balance of Engine Mainshaft Bearings	Mr. Brian Nicholson
RQ26-14	Wall-Modeled LES of Shock-boundary Layer Interaction (SBLI)	Dr. Ez Hassan
RQ26-15	Advanced Structural Concepts for Lighter and Low Cost Aircrafts	Dr. Richard Beblo
RQ26-16	Low-Speed, Unsteady Aerodynamics: Physics, Modeling, and Control	Dr. Albert Medina
RQ26-17	Advanced Analytical Tools for Turbine Engine Bearing Compartments	Mr. Brian Nicholson
RQ26-18	Combustion Stability in High-Speed Flows	Mr. Timothy Ombrello
RQ26-19	Correcting Structural Calibration Data to Enable High Frequency Force Measurements	Mr. Ian Maatz
RQ26-20	Chimera Hole Cutting for High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Fluid Solver	Mr. Christopher Schrock
RQ26-21	Structural Dynamics & Mechanics of Turbomachinery Components	Dr. Dino Celli
RQ26-22	Magnetocaloric Effect of Ni-Mn based Heusler Alloys	Dr. Zafer Turgut
RQ26-23	Design Approaches for Hypersonic Inlet and Isolator Operability	Mr. Tyler Gardner
RQ26-24	Reusable Thermally Complaint Air Vehicle Structure Design and Analysis	Dr. Justin Clough
RQ26-25	Control Techniques for Aircraft Energy Management	Dr. Adam Parry
RQ26-26	Trajectory Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems	Dr. Dave Grymin
RQ26-27	Computational Design, Analysis and Integration of Aircraft Power and Thermal Management Subsystems	Dr. Soumya Patnaik
RQ26-28	Digital Engineering and Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for Aircraft Power and Thermal Subsystems	Dr. Soumya Patnaik
RQ26-29	Modeling and Simulation Study of Aircraft Environmental Control System for UAS Military Aircraft	Dr. Abdeel Roman
RQ26-30	Study of DEW thermal performance under aircraft mission profile conditions	Dr. Abdeel Roman
RQ26-31	Two-phase flow thermal systems study for UAS aircraft applications	Dr. Abdeel Roman
RQ26-32	Analysis and Development of Inlet Systems for Airbreathing Propulsion	Dr. Stuart Benton
RQ26-33	Machine Learning Approaches in Computational Fluid Mechanics	Mr. Christopher Schrock
RQ26-34	Fan and Compressor Experimental Aerodynamics	Dr. Michael List
RQ26-35	Fan and Compressor Design, Modeling, and Simulation	Dr. Michael List
RQ26-36	Unsteady Flow Physics and Aerodynamic Flow Control in High-Work Low Pressure Turbine Passages	Dr. Christopher Marks
RQ26-37	Multidisciplinary nonlinear time-spectral methods for air vehicle design	Dr. Nathan Wukie
RQ26-38	Goal-oriented adaptive methods for air vehicle design	Dr. Nathan Wukie
RQ26-39	Coupling Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis and Optimization Techniques for Scramjet Engine Design Applications	Dr. Mark Hagenmaier
RQ26-40	Novel Power Generation and Thermal Management Concepts for High-Speed Vehicles	Dr. Levi Elston
RQ26-41	Advanced Multi-Scale Combustion Systems	Dr. Brent Rankin
RQ26-42	Rotating Detonation Engine Foundational Research	Dr. Brent Rankin
RQ26-43	Experimental Aeroservoelasticity for Rapid Vehicle Design	Dr. Kevin McHugh
RQ26-44	Mission Engineering Research for Aerospace System of Systems (SoS)	Dr. Rick Graves

Sensors Directorate (RY)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RY26-1	Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) detection using neuromorphic solutions	Kara Combs
RY26-2	Reinforcement learning guided by analogical graph neural networks (GNNs)	Kara Combs
RY26-3	Situationally Aware, Intent-based Sensor Fusion and Generative AI	Kara Combs
RY26-4	SDR Technology for Cognitive Phased-Array Applications	Nivia Colon-Diaz
RY26-5	Nanoscale Vacuum Field Emission Devices	Harris Hall
RY26-6	Advanced Packaging Solutions for mm-W RFIC and MMIC	Trevor Dean
RY26-7	Infrared Photonic Crystal Laser Development	Bradley Thompson
RY26-8	Epitaxy research	Arnold Kiefer
RY26-9	Next generation resonant microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) for aerospace precision navigation and timing (PNT)	Harris Hall
RY26-10	Adaptive Platforms for Integrated Optical Coupling	José Figueroa-Soto
RY26-11	Conditional Confidence Calibration	Chris Ebersole
RY26-12	Enhancing Geo-location Accuracy of OTHR Systems	Braham Himed
RY26-13	Enhancing Strip R-CNN for Robust Object Detection in Remote Sensing Imagery via Transformer Networks and Keypoint Analysis	Oliver Nina
RY26-14	RF GaN Device electrical behavior correlation to MTTF / Lifetime with investigation of failure and modeling of expected vs measured.	Stephen Tetlak
RY26-15	3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) for Radio Frequency Sensing/Imaging	Robert Ewing
RY26-16	AI/ML Enabled Direction Finding Using Reconfigurable Hardware	Jinhong Chen
RY26-17	Electronic-grade dielectric integration for high-power, high frequency electronic devices	Ahmad Islam
RY26-18	Connected Arrays with Artificial Dielectric Layers for Extreme Field of Views and Operating Bands	Carl Pfeiffer
RY26-19	Novel Semiconductor Laser Development	Ricky Gibson
RY26-20	Rydberg Arrays for Enhanced RF Direction Finding	Saba Mudaliar
RY26-21	On-chip Synchronized Lasers	Catalin Badescu
RY26-22	Wideband Digital Beamforming	Brooke Hayden
RY26-23	Machine Learning-Accelerated Defect Prediction in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors	Catalin Badescu

Human Effectiveness Directorate (RH)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RH26-1	Making Do with More: Investigating the Training Needs of Warfighters Teaming with AI	Beth Hartzler
RH26-2	Biosensor Development for Rapid and Non-Invasive Health and Performance Assessment	Trevor Tilly
RH26-3	The advancement of machine learning tools for real-time mass spectral data processing for human performance monitoring	Sean Harshman
RH26-4	Technologies for Agile Performance Prediction and Adaptive, Personalized Learning	Tiffany Myers

2026 Research topics- Published

Councils & Committees