Evolving Passive RFID Beyond the Supply Chain with the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (Energy Harvesting and Storage Europe 2011)

Alanson Sample is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington and is expected to graduate in June of 2011. He received his M.S. in 2008 and B.S. in 2005, both from the University of Washington. Throughout his graduate studies, Alanson has worked as a full time employee at Intel Labs Seattle (either by internship or by multi-year contract). Intel's Seattle lab focuses on exploring context aware and sensor driven computing systems that are integrated seamlessly into daily life.

 

His research projects include: the Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP), which enhances passive (battery free) RFID tag technology with sensors and computing capability; the Wireless Resonant Energy Link (WREL) project, which uses magnetically coupled resonators as a means of wirelessly powering consumer electronics; and the Wireless Ambient Radio Power (WARP) project, that harvests TV signals and ambient RF energy to power wireless sensor nodes.

 

Alanson has authored several articles on RFID, wireless power, energy harvesting, and robotics. His research interests lie broadly in the areas of RF engineering and integrated circuit design, including: antenna theory and design, energy harvesting, wirelessly powered systems, transceiver design, and design of novel sensing systems.

Founded in 1861, the University of Washington (UW) is one of the oldest state-supported institutions of higher education on the west coast of the United States and is one of the preeminent research universities in the world. The UW has 47,000 students (34,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate) and 3,900 full-time faculty, divided into 16 schools and colleges. UW's research budget consistently ranks among the top 5 in both public and private universities in the United States. The UW is also the largest recipient of federal research funding among public universities and second among all public and private universities in the country, a position that the UW has held each year since 1974. The UW faculty includes more than 120 members of the National Academies, thirteen MacArthur Fellows, five winners of the National Medal of Science, and six Nobel Prize winners. Programs from across the campus are ranked among the best in their fields.