Virginia Tech’s Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems is hosting its 4th Annual Energy Harvesting Workshop Jan 28-29 in Blacksburg, VA. Energy harvesting refers to efforts to tap unused power from industrial machines, human activity, vehicles, vibrating structures and various other environment sources. Workshop organizers say the events bring together leading industries, national labs, defense agencies and NASA. This year, the meeting will focus on:
- Energy harvesting using piezoelectric, inductive, photovoltaic and thermoelectric devices
- Micro Batteries
- Structural health monitoring
What’s “structural health monitoring,” you ask, a new twist from life insurance companies? Nope. SHM is an emerging area of R&D that is centered on the development and use of sensing systems to track the health of structures such as bridges, buildings, dams, tunnels, pipelines, platforms or ships. Sounds interesting! The American Ceramics Society and its Electronics Division have endorsed the workshop. Complete information and registration is available online.