Posted on 12/11/2015
Not all design engineering ideas begin as sketches on a restaurant napkin. Some designs start in the labs at the most prestigious engineering schools around the world, such is the story of Jung-Chih (J.C.) Chiao and Smitha Rao’s micro-windmill that generates wind energy
More than 11 years ago, Chiao, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Texas in Arlington, was focusing his research on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), when he and Rao had the idea of putting something moveable, like a windmill, on silicon chips.
“There were obvious reasons to do this,” says Chiao. “One was energy harvesting, because in most ...