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Location: Huntsville, Ala.
Amount of grant: $600,000 (October 2007)
From: NASA
Employees: 90
For the past decade CFD Research Corp. has been working with the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, and other government agencies to develop computer models for advanced reconnaissance satellites. CFDRC's latest project, which is sponsored by a $600,000 SBIR grant, is a simulation model that aims to predict radiation effects and the threat of cosmic rays on electronics in space.
Dr. Marek Turowski, the scientist who heads a team of five researchers working on the new model, calls this project an "ongoing process" that doesn't really have a set release date. "With every new generation, new problems come up," he says. "But we have already simulated some electronic circuits."
CFDRC was started in 1987 by engineer Ashok Singhal, who initially focused on simulations of aerodynamics in automobiles and research on space-shuttle rocket combustion. Aside from briefly working with Chrysler, CFDC has focused all of its time working with various government agencies on contracts in a number of fields, such as simulation, combustion, propulsion, and biomedical research. - Konstantin Shishkin
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