Participating Lab: DEVCOM Soldier Center (DEVCOM SC)

Research involves growth of cultures for bacterial cellulose (BC) production and processing. Standard microbiological/aseptic techniques will be used growing bacterial strains in liquid fermentataion, cleaning and treatment of BC for chemical functionalization. Growth conditions will be chosen to produce various form factors including production of films/membranes, microspheres/pellets, and transforming BC into advanced materials such as aerogels. BC processing includes treatment with base, extenstive washing and freexe drying.

Biological camouflage and dynamic color change are sophisticated defense mechanisms exemplified by cephalopods such as cuttlefish and squid. Understanding the fundamental structure-property relationship of a dynamically tunable and stimuli-responsive bio-enabled/inspired plasmonic metasurface, one that can reversibly and rapidly modulate optical properties, is of interest. This project will focus on identifying such an artificial optical amplifier to enable precise control and manipulation of light.

Scoring performance of military teams often requires multiple subject matter experts. Computer vision offers a means of reducing the number of human observers needed to score team performance, but training models to score team behavior is challenging for many reasons. These include being able to collect sufficient training data, deal with inconsistencies in lighting, camera positions, and training sites, and the requirement for specialized tools and expertise to build and field these models. The intern will identify at least one challenge to building such models and will attempt to implement a solution that will mitigate that challenge.

This DTRA project seeks to understand the structure/function relationship between novel 1D lepidocrocite titania material and their photo- and non-photocatalytic reactivity towards organophosphates, simulants for chemical warfare agents. In situ Diffuse Reflectance Infared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) will be used with a custom-designed gas delivery system to study the surface reactivity of the materials in real time. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) will be used pre- and post-experiment to further characterize the materials. Candidiate will work closely with the collaborative teams at Drexel University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Intern will utilize their programming skills to help us develop tools for automated labeling of large datasets using new deep learning tools. Intern may also help develop models. Intern must be comfortable working in Python and ideally would have experience with a deep learning framework such as PyTorch or Tensorflow. Experience with modeling software (such as Blender, Unity, etc.) is a plus.

This internship project will focus on researching, planning, and developing a prototype for an internal directorate-level task marketplace designed to improve collaboration and make better use of available workforce skills and capacity.

The proposed system would function similarly to a controlled internal “TaskRabbit” model, where teams or employees could post defined tasks, short-term projects, or technical support needs and other employees within the directorate could volunteer or be matched to those opportunities based on their skills, experience, interests, and availability.

Legacy materials currently used for uniform flame-retardancy and ablative coatings are being phased out and are typically produced overseas, which is causing significant supply chain risk. This opportunity aims to take bacterially-sourced cellulose and functionalize it prior to wet spinning into fibers. We currently have a lab-scale spin line and are in the process of installing a pilot-scale wet spin line for scale-up of fiber production. With a suite of post-spinning material characterization tools (including TGA-DSC, FTIR, XRD, microscopy and tensile testing) we aim to correlate cellulose functionalization and spinning conditions to match the fiber properties of legacy fibers. Opportunities exist for designing components and systems needed to successfully operate both spin lines and exploring the chemistry within cellulose functionalization and wet-spinning.

This project focuses on developing new materials and methods for controlled assembly of nanomaterials. The assembled nanomaterials will be analyzed to explore their unique properties and develop new technologies to protect and enhance America’s Warfighters. We are looking for talented and driven individuals that have experience working in wet chemistry laboratories and experience using analytical instruments/equipment.

This project focuses on developing novel catalytic materials using cyclic macromolecules. The investigation of these novel materials will be used to develop new technologies ranging from chemical decontamination to fuel production and storage to protect and support America’s Warfighter. We are looking for talented and drive individuals with experience in wet chemistry laboratories and experience using analytical instruments/equipment, have an interest in organic chemistry or materials science.

The DEVCOM Soldier Center is looking to create a way to provide guided tutorials, for example button highlights, tooltips, etc., for the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) battle tracking application. Ideally the capability would highlight different buttons of the application and guide the user step by step through certain basic Soldier setup and communication workflows such as “how do I connect to a server” or “how do I report an enemy sighting” using ATAK. ATAK is a map based Android application with a variety of functions for Soldier’s to conduct battle tracking. The end goal of this research opportunity would be a prototype software capability, running on the ATAK Android smartphone, that can then be further matured into a capability that supports better ATAK training for the Army.

DEVCOM Soldier Center is looking to create a way to provide guided tutorials, for example button highlights, tooltips, etc., for the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) battle tracking application. Ideally the capability would highlight different buttons of the application and guide the user step by step through certain basic Soldier setup and communication workflows such as “how do I connect to a server” or “how do I report an enemy sighting” using ATAK. ATAK is a map based Android application with a variety of functions for Soldier’s to conduct battle tracking. The end goal of this research opportunity would be a prototype software capability, running on the ATAK Android smartphone, that can then be further matured into a capability that supports better ATAK training for the Army.

DEVCOM SC is looking to modernize it Camouflage Evaluation Facility, implementing AI tools and other mechanical tools to develop a state of the art programmable evaluation facility to assess camouflage performance. The Camouflage Evaluation Facility will be used to recreate different operational environments and environmental conditions in which newly developed camouflage patterns need to perform. This opportunity will provide the selected intern with hands on experience not only with programming or writing code but it physical implementation into engineering tools to accomplish the evaluations. It will also help the selected candidate see how the work is used to develop new data sets to train AI Algorithms.

Develop a landmark tracking method from 4D scan sequence. 4D scan is a sequence of 3D scan of human body. It records the movement of a 3D body surface. By manually setting up landmark locations in the first frame, the algorithm is to track new locations of the same landmarks for sequential frames. This will enable us to do motion analysis or guide template matching. The student will investigate feasible methods (algorithms) for this topic and implement it (prefer in Python so that you can leverage existing libraries).

Student will work with mentor to characterize materials with various substrate characterization techniques. Student should have knowledge of mechanics, electromagnetism, and chemistry. Some Python programming will be involved to process data and run computational physics code, so programming experience or a strong interest in programming is highly desirable. Material science or engineering is a plus.

In alignment with the Combat Feeding Division’s Functional Objective of Optimized Packaging, this research assignment will provide technical support across multiple combat ration packaging initiatives. The researcher will conduct foundational evaluations, material characterizations, and performance analyses for primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging tiers for operational ration platforms such as the Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) and Unitized Group Ration (UGR). Core responsibilities include conducting standardized mechanical, barrier, integrity, and rough handling evaluations alongside paperboard moisture absorption and edge crush testing to validate packaging performance and survivability across various operational and logistics pipelines.

Develop a mapping program to transfer one posed mesh to another A-pose mesh, presuming these two meshes have different mesh densities. An A-pose scan is a person scanned in a standing pose with arm open in about 30 degree. A posed scan is in an arbitrary pose when the person moves or acts. An open source program called SMPL/SMPL-X can fit a template mesh to a posed scan or image. We want to map a pose in SMPL-X structure to a new template mesh which has a higher resolution. This will be an optimization process that can be implemented through PyTorch or similar package. The student will familiarize above mentioned packages, as well as open3d, trimesh, etc. for this project and implement the program.

Working with materials and sub systems related to Shelters, both rigid wall and fabric walled, and ancillary components, trying to improve them for sustainability and warfighter use.

This project will focus on evaluating commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) fibers and fabrics that display multifunctionality and weather protection in austere environments. The student intern will assist in the testing and evaluation of different properties of the fabric, including moisture management, vector protection, FR protection, thermal insulation and heat retention. The results of the evaluation will serve established the properties needed for the development of improved fabrics and garments for the warfighter.

This internship will focus on testing/evaluating the ability of developmental individual water purification systems to produce potable water from (simulated) indigenous source water. This effort is also evaluating water sensor technologies in different form factors to assess the accuracy, precision and efficacy of these technologies to detect toxic industrial chemicals/toxic industrial materials in water at or below EPA/military exposure guidelines to determine whether a purification system is still functioning.

This research opportunity invites a motivated undergraduate student to explore the cutting-edge intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Systems Engineering, and Modeling & Simulation (M&S). The project focuses on addressing a critical challenge in military simulation: the manual, time-consuming, and often redundant process of developing and updating simulation models. Traditional methods result in stove-piped systems where valuable models and behaviors are locked into specific architectures, preventing reuse and slowing the pace of modernization. This research supports a paradigm shift from manual software authoring to an automated, AI-driven framework where simulation capabilities are generated directly from structured, managed knowledge, significantly accelerating the delivery of relevant training and analysis tools.

The student will contribute to developing and refining an AI-powered pipeline that automatically extracts simulation models from legacy source code and doctrinal documents, transforms them into a neutral, simulation-agnostic format, and regenerates them as executable code for modern simulation environments. The research will involve applying the principles of Context Engineering, where the student will help structure and curate domain knowledge (e.g., user stories, system architecture constraints, and operational scenarios) to effectively guide Large Language Models (LLMs) in the code generation process. This project offers hands-on experience with agentic AI workflows, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), and the creation of composable, reusable software components, providing a unique opportunity to work on solutions that are shaping the future of AI-enabled software development and military M&S.