2027 Research topics- Published

Foundational Technology (RE)

Air Warfare (RA)

Information & Spectrum Warfare (RF)

Human Performance Wing (RH)

Foundational Technology (RE)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RE27-1	Self-Healing Elastomers for Extreme Environments	Anesia Auguste
RE27-2	Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Characterization via Event-Based Imaging in Wind and Water Tunnels	Abigail Juhl
RE27-3	Wide and Ultra-Wide Bandgap Materials for Extreme Environment Applications	Adam T. Neal
RE27-4	Environmental Assisted Cracking in Third Generation AA7XXX	Andrew Rosenberger
RE27-5	Knowledge Graphs for Materials Research	Benji Maruyama
RE27-6	Using Ordered Bacteria to Make Air Force Relevant Materials	Claretta J. Sullivan
RE27-7	Understanding onset of damage in multifunctional vitrimer nanocomposite	Dhriti Nepal
RE27-8	Physics and Machine Learning for Polymer Materials Design	Jeffrey G. Ethier
RE27-9	Multiscale Simulation Methods for the Design of Performance-Optimized Composite Material Architectures	Michael Keith Ballard
RE27-10	Synthesis and Integration of Quantum Light Sources and Quantum Sensors	Luke Bissell
RE27-11	Ab Initio Modeling of Point Defects for Quantum Information Science	Luke Bissell
RE27-12	Synthetic Biology for Biomaterials Development	Michael S. Carter
RE27-13	Spin-Based Qubits for Quantum Sensing	Michael Newburger
RE27-14	Topological Modification of Magneto-Acoustic Interactions	Michael Newburger
RE27-15	Quantification of Ceramic Constituents	Mathew J. Schey
RE27-16	Automation and autonomy for materials/alloy discovery and development	Megna Shah
RE27-17	Human-Robot Collaboration for Manufacturing through Natural Interactions	Nathan Hertlein
RE27-18	Design of Adaptive Material Networks for Sensing, Actuation and Physical Computing	Philip Buskohl
RE27-19	Self-driving lab for nanomaterials processing	Rahul Rao
RE27-20	Investigations of the Processing Challenges of Ceramic and Ceramic Matrix Composite Structures	Rodney Trice
RE27-21	Ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) materials for electronics and optoelectronics	Shin Mou
RE27-22	Understanding Polyimide Hygrothermal Stability via Molecular Dynamics	Vikas Varshney
RE27-23	Advanced Temperature Measurement Methodologies for Oxidizing Refractory Materials	Charis I. Lin

Air Warfare (RA)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RA27-1	Modeling and Simulation Study of Aircraft Thermal System Architectures for UAS Military Applications	Abdeel J. Roman & Zachary Carner
RA27-2	Modeling and Analysis of Advanced Heat Exchangers for Military Aircraft Thermal Management Systems	Abdeel J. Roman & Zachary Carner
RA27-3	Advanced Control Algorithms for Managing High Heat Flux Thermal Transients in Military Aircraft	Abdeel J. Roman & Zachary Carner
RA27-4	Unsteady Flow Physics and Aerodynamic Flow Control in Turbine Passages	Christopher Marks
RA27-5	Advanced Multi-Scale Combustion Systems	Brent A. Rankin
RA27-6	Rotating Detonation Engine Foundational Research	Brent A. Rankin
RA27-7	Experimental Turbine Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer	Andrew Lethander & Natalia Posada
RA27-8	Advanced Measurement Technology for Aerospace Propulsion Systems	Richard Anthony
RA27-9	Compact Rugged Non-Intrusive Stress Measurement System (NSMS)	Eric Lyall
RA27-10	Reliability and Maintenance Optimization for R&D Facilities	Eric Lyall
RA27-11	Quantum-Enhanced Digital Materiel Management: Integrating Quantum Information Science into AFRL/RA’s Digital Environment	Rhine N. Morland
RA27-12	Affordable Small Engines	Mark Fernelius
RA27-13	Fan and Compressor Experimental Aerodynamics	Michael G. List
RA27-14	Fan and Compressor Design, Modeling, and Simulation	Michael G. List
RA27-15	Novel Power Generation and Thermal Management Concepts for High-Speed Vehicles	Levi J Elston

Information & Spectrum Warfare (RF)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RF27-1	Quantum Entanglement of Photonic States to Advance Quantum Imaging	Rudra Gnawali & Joshua R Hendrickson
RF27-2	Electronic-grade dielectric integration for high-power, high frequency electronic devices	Ahmad E. Islam
RF27-3	Rydberg Arrays for Enhanced RF Direction Finding	Saba Mudaliar
RF27-4	Simulation of Second Order Effect Signatures of Integrated Circuits	Christian Eakins
RF27-5	SDR Technology for Cognitive Phased-Array Applications	Nivia Colon-Diaz
RF27-6	Autonomous Control of Software-Defined Digital Arrays	Brooke E. Hayden
RF27-7	Sensor Resource Management and Scheduling for Multimodal Sensor Systems	Kara Combs
RF27-8	Improving Multi-Task Foundation Models for Dynamic Signal Processing for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Missions	Kara Combs
RF27-9	Collaborative Cognitive AI Agents for Semantic World Modeling and Intent Prediction	Kara Combs
RF27-10	Novel Semiconductor Laser Development	Ricky Gibson
RF27-11	Infrared Photonic Crystal Laser Development	Bradley Thompson
RF27-12	Infrared Event Based Sensing	Matthew Howard
RF27-13	PROSODI: Paralinguistic Radar Observation for Semantic Operational State Detection and Intent Characterization — Adapting Multimodal Vocal Emotion LLMs for Cognitive RF Sensing	Thomas E. Woodward
RF27-14	Global Navigation Satellite Systems Monitoring for Assured Navigation	Mark Carroll

Human Performance Wing (RH)

Topic #	Topic Title	Contact
RH27-1	Information and Fusion of Space Data	Vince Schmidt
RH27-2	Visualization and Fusion of Big Data	Vince Schmidt
RH27-3	Cognitive Technologies for Agile Performance Prediction and Adaptive, Personalized Learning	Tiffany Jastrzembski Myers
RH27-4	Biosensor development for rapid and non-invasive health and performance assessment	Trevor Tilly
RH27-5	Models of Human Decision-Making in Complex Operational Environments	Elizabeth Fox
RH27-6	The advancement of machine learning tools for real-time mass spectral data processing for human performance monitoring	Sean W. Harshman