Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer

Virtual Reality for Power Plants
The Virtual Engineering Process Simulation, developed by researchers from the Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications Center, along with representatives from Reaction Engineering International, combines information about process simulation—data and models about chemical, physical and biological processes—with computer-aided design drawings and fluid dynamics data to create a comprehensive real-time graphic display of next-generation power plant designs.

USDA ARS Optimizes Maize Data
Maize is the number one production crop in the world. Its unparalleled agricultural success stems from extensive basic research, which drives breeding and product development. To optimize the benefit from research investigations for maize improvement, the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB) was developed. Averaging approximately 400,000 hits per month, MaizeGDB provides informatic solutions for storing, displaying and linking comprehensive maize data. Available at MaizeGDB are diverse data that support maize research and enhancement, including maps, gene product information, loci and their various alleles, phenotypes, stocks, sequences, molecular markers, references, and contact information for maize researchers worldwide.

The USDA ARS Corn Insect and Crop Genetics Research Unit's mission is to develop strategies for genetic improvement of maize germplasm. MaizeGDB plays a unique and integral part in fulfilling this mission, and, in many ways, is at the center of the national and international maize community's efforts to enhance maize research and development. MaizeGDB is most frequently used by the maize genetics community; however, because maize is a model genetic organism for fundamental genetic study, MaizeGDB is readily accessed by geneticists around the world who study gene function and regulation a across many other organisms.