New DARPA award continues hunt for revolutionary tech

DARPA continues series of awards in search for revolutionary technology. This time it's an $11 million contract to Agentase LLC of Pittsburgh for nanoparticle research.

Agentase LLC of Pittsburgh, Pa., received an $11.2 million award from the Defense Department, for research work in the In Vivo Nanoplatforms program, the department announced today.

The Defense Advanced Research and Development Agency (DARPA) program aims to develop new classes of adaptable nanoparticles for persistent and unobtrusive physiologic and environmental sensing. It also involves treating physiologic abnormalities, illness and infectious diseases.

It’s the third award based on a solicitation that DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) released in 2012.

Rockwell Collins of Columbia, Md., received an $8.5 million award to develop a quantizer signal processor that taps the full potential of a low-jitter photonic sample.

Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. of Atlanta received a $360,000 award for work on Novel and Efficient Experimental Technologies for Content Aware Computational Hierarchies.

DARPA’s MTO works to maintain superior technology to prevent any surprises. In the solicitation, officials wanted to counter threats from commercial-off-the-shelf technologies that enemies nowadays can employ. They also want to develop technologies outside of and beyond the commercial industry.

“By continuing to drive revolutionary capabilities, we seek to ‘un-level’ the playing field,” DARPA wrote.