When Amin Karami and Daniel Inman, aerospace engineering researchers at the University of Michigan, began to work with materials which generate power from physical stress, they weren’t looking for a medical breakthrough. They were, in an endeavor more directly appropriate to their profession, looking to design a light unmanned aircraft which could be powered by the vibrations of its own wings. But as they looked at the properties of certain power-generating piezoelectric materials, they determined that they might also have an application for powering pacemakers using the human heart’s own vibrations. If their research proves successful, this could eradicate the need for costly, stressful pacemaker battery replacement surgeries which must typically be conducted every five to ten years.

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Post tags: aerospace engineering, amin karazi, daniel inman, energy harvest, heart powered pacemaker, national institute for standards technology, pacemaker battery, pacemaker technology, piezoelectric materials, university of michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan are currently working on a line of cyborg insects that would use the energy generated from their own wing motion to power sensors installed in tiny insect backpacks. The researchers see the insects being used in future first responder situations where they would investigate hazardous environments that could potentially be dangerous for humans to enter into. These little flying insecto-robots could be the first ones to scope out future nuclear disasters, areas where chemical warfare has been deployed, or even to survey land masses after natural disasters like volcanic eruptions or tsunamis.

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Post tags: "clean energy", "sustainable energy", biomimicry, cyborg, energy generation, insect cyborg, insect research, insect robot, insects, motion energy capture, renewable energy, robot technology, robotic insect, robotic technology, self generating energy, tiny robots, university of michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a clever way to make our smartphones up to 44% more energy efficient without changing how we interact with them. They found that when your smartphone goes into “power saving mode” it isn’t actually saving much power – it’s really just shutting its screen off. That’s because a smartphone is coded to constantly search for a clear signal to make sure that you receive messages as quickly as possible. The University of Michigan team found that they were able to recode this “idle mode” to slow down to 1/16 the speed normally needed to receive messages without compromising data sync times. They call their new smartphone hardware E-MiLi — short for Energy-Minimizing Idle Listening — and it promises to make your smartphone’s battery last a whole lot longer.

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", i-mili, idle technology, iphone battery life, phone battery life, renewable energy, smartphone battery, smartphone battery life, smartphone battery technology, smartphone energy technology, university of michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Company have just released a study stating that there is enough lithium in existence to power electric vehicles at least until the year 2100. The study assessed the global availability of lithium contained in 103 known deposits and compared it to the projected demand for the substance in applications such as lubricating grease, air conditioning, portable electronics batteries, and batteries for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. How can the researchers accurately predict demand for lithium that far into the future? We’re not so sure about that part, but as lithium ion batteries are currently the best option for green vehicle batteries we are encouraged to hear that the global supply of lithium is currently estimated at 39 million tons.

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Post tags: alternative transportation, electric cars, electric vehicles, ford, green transportation, lithium availability study, lithium supply study, lithium-ion batteries, Pablo Medina, Paul Gruber, university of michigan

Researchers at the University of Michigan have made a discovery about the behavior of light that could change solar technology forever. Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics and William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics, discovered that light, when traveling at the right intensity through a material such as glass that does not conduct electricity, can create magnetic fields that are 100 million times stronger than previously thought possible. In these conditions, the resulting magnetic field is strong enough to rival a strong electric effect. The result is an “optical battery, which could lead to “a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation”, according to Rand.

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Post tags: alternative energy, eco design, green design, optical battery, solar breakthrough, solar technology, university of michigan

The American automotive industry may no longer be centralized in the Detroit area, but Michigan is still the place to turn for innovative car design. Case in point: the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, which just won the American Solar Challenge for the sixth time (and the third consecutive time). The team, which won its first Solar Challenge in 1990 with the Sunrunner vehicle, finished two hours ahead of its closest competitor in the most recent 1,100 mile race.

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Post tags: "solar energy", american solar challenge, infinium, solar car, Solar Power, university of michigan

University of Michigan researchers are turning up the heat in their quest to produce better algae-based biofuels. A team of scientists recently discovered that heating microalgae in a pressure cooker decreases the amount of time and money needed to turn the slimy substance into biofuels. Once perfected, the process could finally bring low-cost, low-emission, algae-based fuels to the market.

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Post tags: algae biofuels, algae-based biofuel, Alternative Fuel, biofuel from algae, green fuel, microalgae, pressure cooker, pressure cooking algae, university of michigan

Talk about good vibrations. Researchers at the University of Michigan are developing tiny generators that harvest the kinetic energy going on around us on a daily basis. The Parametric Frequency Increased Generators, or PFIGs, scavenge tiny vibrations created by traffic on streets or bridges, people walking up and down stairs or even machinery operating in factories. The teensy power providers could eventually provide electricity for devices like watches, pacemakers and wireless sensors that monitor infrastructure.

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Post tags: electromagnetic induction, energy scavenging, energy-harvesting devices, Engineering Research Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems, parametric frequency increased generators, pfigs, piezoelectric energy, piezoelectric generators, tiny generators, university of michigan

It’s not easy walking on a prosthetic foot. Aside from the obvious difficulty of adjusting to an artificial limb, dragging around the weight of the foot exerts a lot of energy — 23% more than walking on a natural foot, to be exact. But a prototype foot developed by researchers at the University of Michigan makes it easier for amputees to move around normally by recycling kinetic energy generated while walking.

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Post tags: Ann Arbor, artificial limb, eco design, green design, power, prosthetic foot, renewable energy, university of michigan

It’s easy enough to find a solar-powered charger for iPods, cell phones, and other gadgets, but this ultra-tiny solar-powered sensor system is smaller than anything else on the market — 1,000 times smaller than standard systems, in fact. Developed at the University of Michigan, the 2.5 x 3.5 x 1 millimeter system is the smallest in the world, and it can harvest energy from its surroundings almost perpetually.

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Post tags: alternative energy, eco design, energy harvesting, green design, renewable energy, Solar Power, solar sensor, sustainable design, university of michigan

We’ll admit it: We’ve never totally understood Nascar’s appeal. I mean, come on, it’s just a bunch of cars going round and round a track like a zillion times! But the World Solar Challenge? Now that is one car race we can really get behind. The event, which started way back in 1987, features solar-powered vehicles created by some of the world’s top engineering colleges. Using the power of the sun instead of polluting fossil fuels, the cars race across thousands of miles in order to advance solar and electric vehicle technology — and to achieve the satisfaction of winning, of course.

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Post tags: chevy volt, delft university, Global Green Challenge, Nascar, solar vehicles, Tokai Challenger, tokai university, university of michigan, world solar challenge

In a converted warehouse on the outskirts of Ann Arbor (Michigan’s other city), swarms of brilliant students harness conceptual, terrestrial and solar power for unusually racy, million-dollar road trips. Enter the Infinium 2009 solar car. Strips of photovoltaic panels (the space-age, gallium-arsenide kind) absorb the sun’s energy along a sleek and light carbon-fiber shell, and a 16-hp electric motor in one of its three wheels propels the 600-lb coupe up to 90 miles per hour and 98 percent efficiency. Awesome aerodynamics and innovative innards apparently allow the Infinium a driving range of 200 to 300 miles without any sunlight at all.

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Post tags: ford, general motors, green design, infinium solar car, sustainable design, university of michigan