Principal, Strategist
856 Hope ST#3
Providence, RI 02906-3743
(401) 861-5219
sriffle@cox.net
PGP public key
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Samuel E. RIFFLE Principal, Strategist 856 Hope ST#3 |
SSRG's research is associated with the systems level engineering issues involved in identifying emergent molecular level science and interdisciplinary technology advances which, when suitably incorporated into micro to meso-system levels of integration, will enable further coupling into highly flexible massively distributed analysis systems. Those systems will enable new unique business opportunities for application spaces within the aquatic domains.
Typically the work involves applications appropriate specification of flexible system entities. This requires review of current state of practice, then attempts to extend the state of the art via evaluation and design considerations of analytical and technology compatibilities and limitations, cost effective fabrication considerations, systems energy budgets and data fusion. Our goal is to understand overall limitations, then provide a systems level coherency to the acquisition and ingestion process, replacing disjoint instruments and sometimes uncorrelated sampling with a more systems oriented approach. This approach is enabled by the rapid advances in fundamental science and technology realms.
Indeed there will be some cases when the systems interconnectivity will yield unprecedented capabilities, from distributed molecular event recognition to knowledge based controls adjustment, based on the overall time scale, context and mission of the measurement experiment or business objective.
Creative systems level organization of select features and advanced fabrication technology combinations enable a very high functional analytical behaviour level in small volumes at very low cost per capability, not only in capital, but also in fielded operational resources.
This enables the potential for constructing truly disruptive classes of businesses based on distributed instrumentation for both quantitative and qualitative applications. Information streams derived from such systems will bring more timely information of the environment, both economic and academic in nature. Control streams will allow fine tuning of system operational parameters, which will allow unprecedented ability to experiment and extend the laboratory into the physical environment locale of interest.
These systems will allow the verification, through direct observation, of classical model systems as well as open the opportunity for unprecedented discovery based investigation. There will be opportunities to formulate new methods and models of both biological and physical phenomena, across many dimensional scales, from sub-cellular to oceanic. These new systems will be used to characterize the "state" of new models and allow new knowledge based insights by allowing dynamic measurement and control via multiple principal investigators, agencies or government entities. The potential exist to match and exceed many of the more traditional the single purpose systems which are strongly ingrained in the many somewhat isolated disciplines which observe the aquatic domains. This new class of monitoring and control capabilities will allow a more rapid convergence and intermingling of traditional disciplines, present new dimensions for both synoptic and very localized measures.
On one end of the spatial scale we foresee enhanced methods for 'ground' truthing calculations and models of structural and transport properties, of interactions (stimulus and response) of a variety of biological and inorganic materials systems, as well as for providing complimentary information to that observable by satellite, and more traditional aquatic instrumentation.
Qualitative changes in protein expression, signal transduction and cellular level micro biological entities, viruses, parasites, bacteria, and environmental factors which influence them should be possible to observe and interact with in -sitsu , thus enabling platforms for discovery of vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutics, which represent the other end of the scale of applicable systems.
Between those two scales are the immense ecological scale niches. It should be possible to learn about the influences on the environment on the life form and vice versa. The distribution and type of sensory probes will enable more qual and quant identification of entities and their interactions.
Identifying major impediments in traditional aquatic systems and creating systems which will attempt to ameliorate those limitations are of particular interest. This interest area encompasses signaling, power resources appropriate to phenomenological scale and integration with higher levels of information processing ultimately based upon classical microelectronics. The ability to perform sensitive, reproducible reference measurements wrt traditional sensors is crucial. Methods and new platform capabilities which address that need and extend it with new conceptual approaches are being addressed, by examining advanced chemical concepts, physical chemical interactions and use of unique material properties. At very small scales biologically inspired mechanisms, structures and synergisms will provide new avenues which can provide fundamental information on specific interactions, as well as, provide us with new methods of signal acquisition and processing.