Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs) for Ubiquitous Object Networking

Columbia University Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs) Project involves 5 faculty members and over 50 students in the Columbia University Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departments. In this project we design and develop the EnHANTs that will be small, flexible, and energetically self-reliant tags. EnHANTs will be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked (books, furniture, walls, doors, toys, keys, clothing, and produce), thereby providing the infrastructure for novel tracking applications, such as locating misplaced objects and continuous peer-based object monitoring. More information about the EnHANTs Project is available at enhants.ee.columbia.edu.

Recent advances in ultra-low-power circuit design, ultra-wideband impulse-radio (UWB-IR) wireless communications, and organic energy harvesting technologies will enable the realization of the EnHANTs in the near future. In this talk I will describe the important paradigm shifts associated with the underlying technologies enabling the EnHANTs. I will describe our efforts in designing and developing the EnHANT prototypes and the prototype testbed, and will present the results of the indoor light energy measurement study we have been conducting to characterize the EnHANT energy availability. I will also describe the energy-harvesting-adaptive communication and networking algorithms we have been designing and developing for the EnHANTs. This talk is based on publications that appeared in the ACM MobiCom’09, IEEE WiOpt’11, and IEEE INFOCOM’11. EnHANTs Project recognitions include the 1st place in the Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Competition, the IEEE ComSoc Award for Advances in Communications, and the ACM SenSys’11 Best Student Demo Award.

Speaker Details

Maria Gorlatova received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Ottawa in 2004 and 2006 respectively. In 2006-2008 she worked as a research scientist, specializing in security of wireless networks, at Defence R&D Canada and at Telcordia Technologies Advanced Research. Since 2008 Maria has been a Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. Maria’s Ph.D. research is focused on designing, developing, analyzing, and evaluating communication, networking, and resource allocation algorithms for energy-harvesting nodes. She is a recipient of the Columbia University Presidential Fellowship, Canadian Graduate Scholar (CGS) NSERC Fellowships, and the 2012 Google Anita Borg USA Fellowship. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 IEEE Communications Society Award for Advances in Communications and the 2011 ACM SenSys Best Student Demo Award.

Date:
Speakers:
Maria Gorlatova
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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