The need for fast and accurrate early detection of chemical warfare agents remains a persistent need for the Warfighter. Most currently used technology is either too slow, inaccurate, or easily obscured in dynamic environments. CCDC Soldier Center has researched and developed a chemical warfare agent (surrogate) multiplexed sensor capable of classifying analytes quickly and accurately in simple binary mixed vapor environments using an array or graphene nanoplatelet/polymer nanocomposites coupled with novel data science techniques. Now, we are focusing on identifying analytes in complex mixtures with obscurant heavy background environments while moving the platform towards a future-fieldable device based on flexible and printible electronics. Successful sensor operation require an optimal set of sensor array elements and novel data science algorithms capable of identifying response patters in complex backgrounds.

The postdoctoral candidate will pursue and focus on the discovery of the optimal array of sensor materials and work in conjunction with data scientists to help them develop the novel signal processing and classification algorithms. Furthermore, the candidate will work with university and industrial partners to test the fieldable sensor device prototype utilizing the identified optimal sensing materials.  

References:

Wiederoder, M. S.; Nallon, E. C.; Weiss, M.; McGraw, S. K.; Schnee, V. P.; Bright, C. J.; Polcha, M. P.; Paffenroth, R.; Uzarski, J. R., Graphene Nanoplatelet-Polymer Chemiresistive Sensor Arrays for the Detection and Discrimination of Chemical Warfare Agent Simulants. ACS Sens 2017, 2 (11), 1669-1678.

Weiss, M.; Wiederoder, M. S.; Paffenroth, R. C.; Nallon, E. C.; Bright, C. J.; Schnee, V. P.; McGraw, S.; Polcha, M.; Uzarski, J. R., Applications of the Kalman Filter to Chemical Sensors for Downstream Machine Learning. IEEE Sensors Journal 2018, 18 (13), 5455-5463

Wiederoder, M. S.; Weiss, M.; Yoon, B.; Paffenroth, R. C.; McGraw, S. K.; Uzarski, J. R., Impact of graphene nanoplatelet concentration and film thickness on vapor detection for polymer based chemiresistive sensors. Current Applied Physics 2019