Jeffrey Thayer News

CU Boulder spinout that revolutionized LiDAR acquired by major government contractor

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 21:11:54 +0000

CU Boulder spinout that revolutionized LiDAR acquired by major government contractor Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/23/2024 - 14:11

LiteWave Technologies, a spinout of CU Boulder and a subsidiary of Orion Space Solutions, has been acquired by Arcfield, a leading government technology and mission support provider.

LiteWave’s core technology emerged from the lab of Jeffrey Thayer, professor emeritus and research professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Engineering Sciences (College of Engineering and Applied Science). In 2011, alongside two CU Boulder graduate students, he invented a new type of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) that could ‘see’ objects in shallow water from above the water’s surface.

Until Thayer’s discovery, sonar was the gold standard for detecting underwater features, but its acoustic-based, underwater approach was problematic in exploring shallow waters. Thayer wanted to overcome sonar’s navigation, access and field of view limitations with LiDAR, which uses pulses of visible light to create a detailed, 3D picture of the desired environment. “It was a difficult problem that people talked about using sophisticated solutions. We provided a robust solution without it being overly complex,” he said. “We proved we could do that detection with a design that would work outside the lab.”

LiteWave’s resulting Edge™ technology solves the problem of measuring water depth and identifying features in shallow water to a centimeter-level depth resolution. It is now used on unmanned aerial systems for mapping, surveying, hazard assessment, natural resource monitoring, disaster recovery and more.

The Path to Commercialization

When a university startup is created, it is the culmination of years of research and significant work by the founders to build a compelling company vision, strategy and business model. The team at Venture Partners is here to help with each step along the way, including:

intellectual property (IP) services,
entrepreneurial training through the I-Corps^TM Hub West,
a network of industry mentors,
funding through the Lab Venture Challenge,
the Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator,
fast and simple IP licensing through the Licensing with EASE^® program,
and many other resources.

The technology was originally licensed through CU Boulder’s Technology Transfer Office—what’s now Venture Partners at CU Boulder—over a decade ago. The company worked with Thayer, who served as LiteWave’s chief technology officer, to file patents and negotiate an agreement with Orion Space Solutions. LiteWave landed funding from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) and the university through CU Boulder’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) in 2018.

That $125,000 LVC grant was instrumental in commercializing LiteWave’s drone-mounted LiDAR. “That really helped advance the technology to the product level,” said Thayer.

By leveraging grants like LVC and generating early revenue with their Edge mapping solution, LiteWave was able to “build an attractive and sustainable business,” said Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for research and innovation and managing director of Venture Partners. “What’s remarkable about the LiteWave story is how the team was able to successfully launch and grow without raising any private investment,” he said. “It’s a testament to Professor Thayer’s elegant innovation for underwater mapping and also to the entire LiteWave team.”

Over the years, Thayer has patented related technology and has continued to work with Venture Partners. Overall, the process of bringing an invention to market “was an eye-opening experience, and it was exciting, and it’s still exciting now,” said Thayer. “Because there’s a new entity [Arcfield], even more momentum will accelerate things that we are hoping to get done.” Post-acquisition, Thayer expects to continue in an advisory, mentoring and consulting role for Arcfield.

Today, CU Boulder’s leading-edge research continues to drive innovation with market potential and, through Venture Partners, inventors have a whole suite of options to help them navigate the commercialization process from intellectual property management, business modeling, funding, licensing and more.

Off

Traditional

White

Seminar - Aerospace Environments: From Sun to Mud - April 4

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 21:30:23 +0000

Seminar - Aerospace Environments: From Sun to Mud - April 4 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/29/2022 - 15:30

Jeff Thayer
Professor - Smead Aerospace, and Director of SWx-TREC
Monday, April 4 | 3:30 P.M. | Hybrid: AERO 111 and Zoom - Register Now

Abstract: A common phrase in the vernacular of the NASA Heliophysics Science Mission Directorate is to study the Sun-Earth system from “Sun to mud”. Curiously this phrase can also be used to describe my research path over the 18 years at CU in the Aerospace Department. In this talk, I will demonstrate the connections and couplings that exist within the Sun-Earth system and their impact on technologies. This will naturally lead to the topic of space weather and the creation of a space weather center on campus called the Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education center (SWx TREC). I’ll describe some of the challenges in space weather that lie ahead along with an exciting new NASA mission and other projects that my group will be pursing in the coming years to address these challenges. We’ll also get our hands dirty with lidar system developments within my Active Remote Sensing Lab at CU. I’ll discuss specific lidar technologies applied to subaerial and subaqueous (this is the mud part) environments that ultimately led to patents and a startup company called ASTRALiTe.

Bio: Dr. Thayer is the Joseph T. Negler Professor in the Ann and H. J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is also Chief Technology Officer of the ASTRALiTe, LLC company responsible for advancing lidar technologies. Furthermore, he is the Faculty Director of the Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC) at CU. Dr. Thayer has over 30 years of experience leading research in the near-space environment, advancing remote sensing technologies (US and EU patents), developing strategic plans for NASA and NSF, managing research enterprises, and publishing over 120 journal articles. His academic area of expertise is in geophysical fluid dynamics, gas and plasma interactions, thermodynamics, and electrodynamics applied to the near-space environment. He specializes in active remote sensing techniques employing engineering concepts to design, develop, deploy and apply lidars and radars for geoscience studies. These techniques engage engineering concepts and solutions with an acute understanding of the scientific purpose. This effectively bridges and balances engineering concerns with scientific expectations. His research area of expertise combines ground, aerial, and space-based instruments and observations, along with theory and modeling, to advance our understanding of near-space, atmosphere, and water environments. In his eighteen years as a CU professor, he has supervised 20 PhD students, 11 Masters students, numerous undergraduates, several post-doctoral researchers, professional research assistants, research and senior research associates, and professional-exempt staff. Prior to arriving at CU, Dr. Thayer was a research physicist at SRI International and most notably PI of a US national radar observatory in Greenland.

Off

Traditional

White

Thayer named to science team for six-satellite NASA orbital mission

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 17:07:04 +0000

Thayer named to science team for six-satellite NASA orbital mission Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 01/10/2022 - 10:07

Jeff Zehnder

Professor Jeff Thayer is part of a major new NASA science mission to better understand our sun’s influence on generating space weather.

Thayer is one of three interdisciplinary scientists chosen by NASA for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) mission to build and launch six satellites to provide the first direct global measurements of our planet’s atmospheric interface with the space environment and how it responds to energy from the sun.

“The space-atmosphere interaction region is where directed energy from the sun is deposited and where satellites orbit,” Thayer said. “Space weather generated by the deposition of solar energy disturbs those satellite systems, causing drag and radio frequency communication issues. We need to understand the processes responsible for space weather and provide predictive capabilities for space operators.”

Thayer is faculty director of the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center (SWx TREC), a Grand Challenge initiative of the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the Joseph T. Negler Professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He is a leading researcher in remote sensing of the atmosphere and ionosphere and an expert on geophysical fluid dynamics and electrodynamic processes.

The GDC mission will be a constellation of six satellites flying in formation. Using an array of sensors on each spacecraft, it will explore fundamental physics of the ionosphere-thermosphere region, which extends from 80-600 kilometers (50-375 miles) above Earth.

The level of detail and resolution provided by the mission will give an unprecedented understanding of how our planet’s space environment responds to energy from the sun and how it internally redistributes this energy on a global basis. The scientific results from the mission will ultimately lead to improvements in our ability to understand and ultimately predict space weather that affects our technology and society.

“The upper atmosphere has a lot of different ways it manages energy from the sun,” Thayer said. “It can transform solar energy into heat, momentum, chemical reactions and other forms of energy. This region serves as an atmospheric shield to the world below from the extreme energies generated by the sun. This mission is exploring how solar energy is transformed and how the upper atmosphere responds. We know certain processes take place, but we need to know how it all works as a system.”

A six-satellite mission is a massive undertaking. The project is estimated to take seven years to design and build, followed by three years of science operations. Thayer is being brought on at the ground level to shape the mission design, requirements and specifications for the satellites.

The project follows earlier successful NASA missions including the Parker Solar Probe, which is orbiting the sun, and the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS).

“We’re following the energy from the sun,” Thayer said. “Parker is looking at the sun’s energy generation process. MMS is analyzing how the sun’s energy is captured by Earth’s magnetosphere, which extends out thousands of kilometers, and now GDC will study how that energy is dissipated.”

NASA also selected Dr. Rebecca Bishop of the Aerospace Corporation and Prof. Yue Deng at the University of Texas at Arlington as mission interdisciplinary scientists.

Thayer’s team at CU Boulder includes Dr. Eric Sutton, a senior research associate at SWx TREC, and three engineers at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics: Dr. Katelynn Greer, Dr. Greg Lucas and Dr. Marcin Pilinski.

Off

Traditional

White

Four CU Boulder aerospace students earn major NASA awards

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 17:05:47 +0000

Four CU Boulder aerospace students earn major NASA awards Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/01/2021 - 11:05

Jeff Zehnder

Four University of Colorado Boulder aerospace graduate students have been named 2021 Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST).

Daniel da Silva, Sarah Luettgen, Riley Reid, and Kevin Sacca have each earned the grants, which provide up to $45,000 annually for three years for tuition and to cover graduate student-designed and performed research projects.

FINESST proposals must address goals relevant to NASA's science mission directorate divisions -- heliophysics, earth science, planetary science, or astrophysics. The agency received 835 applications from students across the country for 2021 and is funding 130 of them.

Find out more about each of our awardees and their research below:

Off

Traditional

White

Building a satellite swarm to investigate an atmospheric anomaly

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 15:05:47 +0000

Building a satellite swarm to investigate an atmospheric anomaly Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/16/2019 - 09:05

Jeff Zehnder

What is Ideas Lab?

Ideas Lab is a National Science Foundation initiative that aims to solve big scientific questions and advance the limits of technology using diverse research prospectives.

How does it work? In short, NSF brings together a group of 20-30 researchers who typically do not know each other and essentially puts them in a room for a week with the directive to work as a group to take on a science or engineering problem.

By the last day of the workshop, attendees were expected to have a general research plan and funding proposal to submit to NSF.

“At the end of the workshop, seven project ideas were pitched to NSF. They invited four to submit full proposals and ultimately selected two, including SWARM-EX,” Palo said.

The concept of Ideas Lab originated in England, where the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, a British equivalent of the United States-based National Science Foundation, sent out a standard request for research funding proposals.

They felt the responses were not ambitious enough, and developed what they called a “sandpit” workshop in response.

The goal is that by bringing researchers from diverse subject areas together, they will share ideas, interact and argue, and think of new solutions to problems no one researcher would come up with on their own.

Scott Palo is leading a multi-university effort to unlock a scientific mystery in near-Earth space.

He is leading a team that has earned a $4 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Ideas Lab to design and build three CubeSat nanosatellites to investigate the relationship between charged particles and neutral particles in the thermosphere, an area that extends from 95 km – 600 km (50 miles - 375 miles) above Earth's surface and includes the orbits of many satellites and the International Space Station.

The project is called SWARM-EX, or Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment. The phenomenon to be studied is known as the equatorial ionization anomaly and equatorial thermosphere anomaly.

“Their formation and behavior are not well-determined. There are competing theories, and we want to make measurements to fundamentally understand how they are related,” said Palo, the principal investigator on the project and a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Renderings of the SWARM-EX CubeSat.

Working with Palo at CU Boulder is Jeff Thayer, an aerospace professor who has done theoretical modeling of the anomalies in the past and is eager to see the results of real-world measurements.

“Understanding these anomalies is important for societal reasons. They negatively impact GPS and communications satellites, and the neutral particles cause drag on spacecraft and orbital debris,” Thayer said.

The CubeSats are small – just slightly larger than a loaf of bread – but do not let their size fool you. Advances in technology have made it possible to pack a strong scientific punch in even the smallest spaces. Each CubeSat will carry two scientific instruments in addition to communications equipment, batteries, solar cells and fuel.

CU Boulder is one of six universities working on the project, along with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Olin College, Stanford University, University of South Alabama and Western Michigan University.

By building and flying three satellites, the team hopes to better understand the development of the anomalies.

“The plasma is unstable and changes quickly. Typically, you only have one satellite, and it passes over an area every 90 minutes, but we know these processes happen faster than that. With a constellation of three CubeSats, we’ll have control over their distances and be able to see the evolution of the particles,” Thayer said.

The goal of the CubeSats is twofold, with research as only one part of the overall mission. The second objective is to push the limits of CubeSat technology by incorporating propulsion and autonomous systems so the satellites can communicate with each other to coordinate movements and adapt to changing conditions automatically.

“SWARM-EX will demonstrate how we can fly these small sensor platforms in various configurations and that the resulting instrument-formation is more than the sum of its parts,” said Marcin Pilinski, a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at CU Boulder and the instrument lead on SWARM-EX.

Onboard propulsion is not typically part of small satellites due to the complexity it adds, and autonomous navigation algorithms are new enough to be novel in any satellite. The team is incorporating both in an intentional effort to advance the limits of technology in small satellites. Funding big, new concepts is a deliberate goal of the NSF Ideas Lab program.

“They tell you to push the envelope,” Palo said. “They’re looking for things that haven’t been done before.”

Each university involved in the project has a different role:

CU Boulder: Command and data handling, software, spacecraft assembly and integration, principal investigator, science lead
Georgia Tech: Propulsion
Olin College: Mechanical design, systems engineering and operations
Stanford: Autonomous navigation systems
South Alabama: Communication systems
Western Michigan: Systems design for propulsion integration

The grant officially begins January 1, with launch expected during the third year of the project. The satellites’ orbital mission should last for six to 12 months after that.

The timeline is a unique feature of CubeSat projects. Unlike large communications or research satellites that can take 10 or more years and well over $100 million to build, CubeSats can go from concept to completion in just a few years, allowing college students to see all parts of the process before graduating.

“The technology and the science are both exciting,” Palo said. “But we also have students involved in ways they never could be before.”

Scott Palo is leading a multi-university effort to unlock a scientific mystery in near-Earth space. He is leading a team that has earned a $4 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation's Ideas Lab to design and build three CubeSat nanosatellites to investigate the...

Off

Traditional

White

Grand Challenge: Solar storm chasers

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Grand Challenge: Solar storm chasers Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/13/2018 - 00:00

Mass media representations of space weather—variable conditions in space that can affect the technological systems modern society depends on—often evoke visions of catastrophic power grid failures and global chaos. The result can be gripping film or literature but, while such worst-case scenarios are possible, they can distort our understanding of space weather’s more frequent and broader effects.

“Our concerns about space weather focus more on things like ground-induced currents disrupting power grid operations, atmospheric drag shifting satellite orbits, ionosphere disturbances interrupting high-frequency communications and GPS signals, and radiation exposure affecting satellite operability and human space activity,” said Jeffrey Thayer, a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

These are some of the less flashy day-to-day effects of space weather, or the ebbs and flows of energy from the sun to space. Solar winds blow and bluster, disturbing satellite orbits and damaging pricey scientific instruments in space.

Minimizing the dangers posed by this flow and facilitating systemic coordination between space weather researchers and space operators are key objectives of the newly launched Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center (SWx-TREC) within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at CU Boulder. The center, a main component of the university’s Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future., brings together diverse research on space weather occurring across the university and the Front Range.

The “Grand Challenge: Our Space. Our Future.” initiative launched the ambitious Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center in 2017, reinforcing CU Boulder’s leadership in Earth and space sciences.

“It’s a recognition that space weather activities have been going on for some time at CU in a variety of capacities, in the scientific arena but also in the technological arena, including mission concepts, instrument development and satellite operations,” said Thayer, SWx-TREC principal investigator and research office lead for the center.

There’s a lot to build on, too. CU Boulder has long been a national leader in understanding the physics of space weather and its implications for people on Earth. That reputation draws on the contributions from researchers in aerospace engineering, astrophysical and planetary sciences, atmospheric sciences, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and more. When LASP, for example, started launching rockets into space in the 1950s and 1960s, many of these early missions explored the influence of the sun on Earth’s atmosphere.

The new CU Boulder center, which kicked off in 2017 with a three-year mandate, will deliver practical tools for people around the world, said Thomas Berger, director of SWx-TREC. When it comes to predicting how solar winds might cause spacecraft to drift, satellite operators have few accurate resources to draw on, he said. SWx-TREC will work to develop new computer simulations that can give these operators a heads-up on impending hazards up to three days in advance.

That’s not an easy scientific feat, Berger said. Traditional weather forecasters, for comparison, only have to worry about a relatively narrow region of Earth’s atmosphere.

“We’re creating a forecasting system that extends weather models from zero to 60 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers to cover low Earth orbit—a much larger volume with more complex physics to deal with,” said Berger, who previously directed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

SWx-TREC will also help to develop new space missions and educational opportunities at the university, including a space weather certificate that undergraduate and graduate students will soon be able to earn.

Daniel Baker, director of LASP, added that the focus on space weather shows that CU Boulder isn’t just interested in exploring the physics and wonder of space. The university also wants to make a difference in the lives of people on Earth.

“We recognize that basic research is hugely important,” said Baker, a co-investigator at SWx-TREC. “But basic research that has practical utility is also extremely important in this day and age.”

Off

Traditional

White

CU Boulder LiDAR technology in the news

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 16:25:12 +0000

CU Boulder LiDAR technology in the news Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/19/2018 - 10:25

A LiDAR technology patented by the University of Colorado Boulder made news this week when ASTRALiTe, the exclusive licensee of the technology, announced the achievement of a major milestone in enhancing its mapping capabilities.

The technology, invented in the lab of Jeffrey Thayer, professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder, was spotlighted when Boulder-based ASTRALiTE successfully demonstrated its pioneering LiDAR system on a UAV with outstanding results.

The scanning 2-in-1 topographic-bathymetric (topo-bathy) LiDAR system, acquiring scanning bathymetric imagery at unprecedented vertical resolution, enables new applications in underwater infrastructure inspection, military logistics, natural disaster assessment and recovery, risk assessment for industrial retention ponds, and water resource management.

Visit the Technology Transfer Office to learn more about CU Boulder inventions and related support.

Off

Traditional

White

Space Weather, CubeSat projects awarded CU Boulder Grand Challenge grants

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:20:41 +0000

Space Weather, CubeSat projects awarded CU Boulder Grand Challenge grants Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/20/2017 - 14:20

The cross-campus Grand Challenge initiative is announcing the selection of new additions to the Grand Challenge portfolio and projects led by Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences faculty are being awarded two of the three grant awards.

The call for proposals, which was announced in June, is funding one large research initiative at approximately $1 million per year and two smaller projects at $250,000 per year, each for at least three years.

The selections augment the current Grand Challenge portfolio, building on the accomplishments of Earth Lab, Integrated Remote and In Situ Sensing (IRISS), the university's space minor and the Center for the Study of Origins.

“These projects are the epitome of impacting humanity, leading in innovation and developing tomorrow's leaders,” said Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano. "They combine our strengths with inspiration, innovation and world-class faculty and researchers."

Space Weather

The new “initiative-level” selection, Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center, will be led by Jeff Thayer (Aerospace Engineering Sciences), in collaboration with Dan Baker (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, or LASP), Cora Randall (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) and Nils Halverson (Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences).

This proposal seeks to establish CU Boulder as the world’s leading university in space weather by establishing the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center (SWx TREC). Space weather poses a significant threat to humans working in space, modern ground-based technological systems, satellite operations and observations, communications, navigation, airline operations and more, which results in significant societal, economic, national security and health impacts. CU Boulder already houses many leading researchers, educators and technology developers in space weather. The state of Colorado is a national hub for space weather activities, including partners at the High Altitude Observatory (NCAR), the Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA), the National Solar Observatory (NSF) and a number of industry partners, such as Ball Aerospace and Lockheed Martin.

Magnetic Cubist Constellation for Advanced Navigational Models

A project-level selection, “Magnetic Cubist Constellation for Advanced Navigational Models,” will be directed by Robert Marshall (Aerospace Engineering Sciences).

This project leverages the combined expertise of CU Boulder’s Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department, CIRES Geomagnetism Team and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) for the development, construction, testing and flight of the first ever CubeSat dedicated to the efficient and economical collection of high-resolution magnetic field data.

Strong Competition

According to Director of Strategic Projects Dr. Emily CoBabe-Ammann, the response to the call for proposals was “fantastic,” resulting in the submission of six initiative-level proposals and 18 project-level proposals. Proposals were evaluated by the Grand Challenge Review Panel comprised of both internal and external members, including academic, industry and government perspectives. The evaluation was based on the following criteria: innovation, transforming our campus, sustainability and impact. Recommendations were then submitted to Grand Challenge and university leadership for final endorsement.

The Grand Challenge website has more information about the competition and the third award, which was won by faculty in the College of Media, Communication and Information.

Off

Traditional

White