Apparently energy haversting is starting to get real. My July issue of Automation World has an article titled, “Wireless Energy Harvesting Gets Real.” They see a possibility to replace batteries in wireless sensor networks. The web site Energy Harvesting Forum states,

“Energy Harvesting is the process of capturing minute amounts of energy from one or more of these naturally-occurring energy sources, accumulating them and storing them for later use. Energy-harvesting devices efficiently and effectively capture, accumulate, store, condition and manage this energy and supply it in a form that can be used to perform a helpful task. Similarly, an Energy Harvesting Module is an electronic device that can perform all these functions to power a variety of sensor and control circuitry for intermittent duty applications.”

This University of Waterloo press release announces some third year student projects. It is conceivable that you could assign this topic as one of your student projects in the second year for an electronics, wireless, or sensors classes.

Mike Lesiecki