The National Science Foundation has established several university-based research centers to focus on advanced microsystem and sensing technologies, and on materials research.

The Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging at Northeastern University in Boston has won $2.6 million for its first year. It will focus on detection and imaging of objects or conditions that are underground, underwater or in the human body.

The Center for the Science and Engineering of Materials at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena will receive $9.6 million over five years to investigate biological and other approaches to producing bulk glasses, composites and polymers for electronic or optical applications.

The Center for Porous Hosts at Pennsylvania State University will receive $4.29 million over five years for research on molecular, photonic and electronic confinement in nanometer-scale porous systems.

The Center for Nanoscopic Design at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville will receive $5 million over five years to examine nanoscale structures such as quantum dots, biological templates and electrochemical reactions.