Phase II of our I/UCRC Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS) started on August 1st 2017 and will continue till July 31st 2022. In addition to funding CEHMS Phase-II at Virginia Tech, NSF has approved funding for a second CEHMS site at Columbia University. CEHMS current industry and potential members include companies interested in new technologies that involve energy harvesting for implementation in wireless sensor networks, transportation vehicles including automobiles, aircraft and trains, smart infrastructures, portable devices, and self-powered control systems.
The Phase-II effort over the next five years aims at growing both technologies used for energy harvesting and application platforms with the support of the CEHMS Industry Advisory Board (IAB). This will be achieved by continuing CEHMS successful efforts from Phase-I in developing new materials and configuring new systems for energy harvesting that would power a broad range of wireless sensors, devices and systems, and growing CEHMS portfolio by developing new technologies for harvesting energy from building envelopes and transportation infrastructure surfaces using the novel harvesting materials, structures and systems developed by CEHMS faculty.
CEHMS industry-directed projects are complemented with ongoing research efforts by CEHMS core faculty in addition to the CEHMS funding. Through this tight academic-industry collaborative effort, we will continue to reap the benefits of this highly-leveraged funding, give our industry members the opportunity to guide the research at CEHMS, make use of our facilities and provide them with access to our technologies, publications and research results.
CEHMS faculty and students at Virginia Tech and Columbia University are thrilled by the opportunity to contribute to research in the fields of energy harvesting through unmatched research and education programs, technology transfer, and to graduate well-trained scientists and engineers at both MS and PhD levels for another five years. A big thank you is due to the National Science Foundation and our industry members for supporting us for five more years.