Dr. Lei Wang, assistant professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has received a coveted National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for research aimed at enhancing the sustainability of cyber-aquatic systems used, for example, in marine ecosystem observation, pollution monitoring, coastline protection, disaster prevention, and national security surveillance.<\/p>\n
The five-year, $486,919 award is funded under NSF’s Division of Computer and Network Systems.<\/p>\n
![\"wang](\"http:\/\/www.engr.uconn.edu\/images\/ecomm04042010\/wang2.jpg\")
Dr. Wang’s CAREER research will involve several challenges relating to cyber-aquatic systems, which rely upon dedicated digital signal processors (DSP) for the real-time sensing, computing, communication and control functions. He explained that DSPs pose significant challenges for sustainable signal processing in underwater applications, due to the high communication costs and a limited supply of steady, reliable energy in the corrosive underwater environment.<\/p>\n
While most portable electronic devices are powered by batteries, static energy sources, Dr. Wang said that for certain applications — including wireless sensor networks and in-body devices — a dynamic, inexpensive and maintenance-free energy source is needed. Solar radiation, wind, vibration and thermal energy are characterized as semi-deterministic energy sources whose energy production may be accurately predicted based on existing models, according to Dr. Wang.<\/p>\n
In contrast, energy derived from biological processes and used as a feedstock in microbial fuel cells (MFCs), involves a high level of uncertainty. This uncertainty restricts the way in which MFC-produced energy may be used, he noted. Despite this limitation, MFCs are attractive energy sources for water environments due to the ready availability of biological material. “The oxygen-rich environments of oceans, lakes and rivers — rife with diverse microorganisms and nutrients — render MFCs a promising underwater energy harvesting technology,” he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Wang believes MFCs hold strong promise as energy systems in aquatic environments if the system implications for DSPs can be understood and effectively managed. Partnering with Civil & Environmental Engineering assistant professor Baikun Li, whose work involves the up-scaling of advanced MFCs, Dr. Wang intends to adapt the core technology to exploit bacterial metabolic activities associated with the redox reaction to generate electrical energy directly from biodegradable substrates.<\/p>\n
One aim is to develop core enabling techniques to power various embedded microcomputers and DSPs. Dr. Wang explained, “This research will establish the fundamental principles for energy-adaptive computing paradigms, by which a unified energy-performance framework facilitates deep coupling of energy harvesting devices, hardware platforms, and computational algorithms.” In addition to MFC-generated energy, the research team will also explore ocean wave energy harvesting.<\/p>\n
Dr. Wang joined UConn in 2004 after spending three years at the Hewlett-Packard Company, where he helped to design the first dual-core multi-threaded Itanium\u00ae Architecture Processor, a joint project between Intel and Hewlett-Packard. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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