I-Corps: Nanoenabled Electronic Nose

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，该项目基于计算、工程和材料技术的技术可以为嗅觉丧失者（嗅觉丧失者）提供安全感和舒适感。 失去嗅觉的人通常会担心靠近潜在的危险，这些危险在没有嗅觉的情况下很难检测到，例如火灾，煤气泄漏，变质的食物和危险化学品。由于没有方法或产品可以近似模仿人的鼻子，替代设备的检测性能和用户友好性将针对相对未开发的市场-约占总人口的5%或仅在美国就有超过1500万人。预计该项目的设备将成为手术或其他治疗的更经济、可靠和侵入性更小的替代方案。此外，该技术可用于广泛的应用，如毒品或爆炸物检测，食品质量监测（如识别疾病和/或水果和其他农产品的成熟度），空气质量监测和控制，用于国防应用的有害溶剂检测，以及用于伤口监测的智能绷带。该I-Corps项目涉及制造具有高密度，基于纳米技术、化学、计算机科学和工程的高性能气体传感器阵列。作为传感材料的纳米材料的简易、快速的制造方法引入了大规模制造的可能性。对一系列气体分析物的实时响应沿着传感介质的快速恢复为该项目提供了坚实的技术基础。目前，该设备处于预阿尔法原型阶段，与定制设计的电路板和精确制造的传感纳米材料完全集成，不仅消除了对繁琐和昂贵的微制造的需要，这是气体传感器的典型特征，而且还可以模仿人类鼻子的检测水平，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is that the project's technology, based on computing, engineering and materials technologies, may provide a sense of safety and comfort to anosmics (those who suffer from a loss of a sense of smell). People with a loss of their sense of smell are typically concerned about being near potential hazards that are difficult to detect without a sense of smell, such as fires, gas leaks, food that is spoiling, and hazardous chemicals. As there are no methods or products that can closely mimic the human nose, the detection performance and user-friendliness of a substitute device will target a relatively untapped market -- approximately 5% of the general population or over 15 million people in the United States alone. It is anticipated that this project's device will be a more affordable, reliable and less invasive alternative to surgery or other treatments. Furthermore, the technology can be used in a wide range of applications, such as drug or explosives detection, food quality monitoring (such as identifying diseases and/or ripeness of fruits and other produce), air quality monitoring and control, harmful solvent detection for defense application, and smart bandage for wound monitoring.This I-Corps project involves the manufacture of a device with a high-density, high-performance gas sensor array based on nanotechnology, chemistry, computer science and engineering. The facile, fast fabrication methods of nanomaterials as sensing materials introduces the possibility of mass manufacturing. Real-time response to a range of gas analytes along with fast recovery of the sensing medium provides a solid technical foundation for this project. Currently at a pre-alpha prototyping stage, the device, with its full integration with a custom-designed circuit board and precisely fabricated sensing nanomaterials, not only eliminates the need for tedious and costly microfabrication, which is typical for gas sensors, but may also be able to imitate the detection level of a human nose, even exceeding the detection performance for some gas analytes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.