Self-powered Piezoelectric and Piezoresistive Microsensors for Future Vehicles (Future of Electric Vehicles USA 2010)

Shashank Priya is associate professor in department of materials science and engineering and department of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. He is also serving as associate director of center for intelligent material systems and structures (CIMMS) and center for energy harvesting materials and systems (CEHMS). Prior to joining VT, he was assistant professor in department of Materials Science and Engineering at The University of Texas Arlington. He completed his PhD at Penn State University in materials engineering. Dr. Priya has worked at several prestigious companies including APC International, and Murata Manufacturing Ltd., Shiga, Japan. His research interests include magnetoelectric hetrostructures, relaxor-based piezoelectric single crystals, lead-free piezoelectrics, energy harvesting, artificial muscles, micro-windmills, and "Jellyfish"-unmanned underwater vehicles.

Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems (CEHMS) in an Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). CEHMS aims to lead the global research and development in the area of energy harvesting at both small and large energy scales, by providing comprehensive expertise in all the related aspects including materials, components, system design, analysis, characterization and prototyping. We will discover new methods to create electricity and invent technologies that allow transitioning the prototypes to society. CEHMS has the mission of providing integrated power solutions to microelectronics, sensor networks, portable devices, and wireless communications through modeling, analysis, fabrication and demonstration of intelligent systems. The devices developed at CEHMS will provide the architecture for "self-powered sensing and actuation" and open the pathway for distributed power sources. The research at CEHMS covers development of harvesters utilizing single and multimodal conversion mechanisms, adaptive energy harvesting circuits, intelligent energy management system, and conformal storage media. Our access to cutting-edge facilities at multiple campuses allows us to explore various challenging industrial problems in a timely and efficient manner.