Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Ubiquitous Wireless Power for a Healthy World (POWERHEALTH)

工程研究中心规划拨款竞赛是ERC项目的试点征集。规划补助金不需要作为ERC竞赛的一部分，但它旨在在团队之间建立能力，以规划聚合的、中心规模的工程研究。该奖项支持一个工程研究中心（ERC）的规划拨款，通过为广泛的应用提供无处不在的无线电源技术来创建一个“健康世界”，这些应用涉及监测和改善从人类到动物、植物和基础设施的健康。这种潜在的ERC将为植入式/可穿戴医疗设备和其他互联网连接设备提供无线电力传输所需的基础技术。尽管电子设计和制造在这些领域取得了令人难以置信的进步，但为这些设备供电的方法却没有取得类似的进展。该中心将通过提供变革性的技术进步，为开发这些技术创造环境。规划团队由宾夕法尼亚州立大学、密歇根大学、佛罗里达大学、科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和波多黎各大学马亚圭斯分校这五所大学的教师组成，他们在材料、健康和工程方面具有必要的专业知识。宾夕法尼亚州立大学将领导规划团队，领导开发技术路线图和测试平台。拟建工程研究中心的计划拨款将支持研究和教育团队建设，以应对挑战和发现机遇。规划活动的最终目标将是确定与健康相关的无线电力传输领域的工业基础、技术路线图、技术壁垒、法规和标准、商业化伙伴和知识产权。将组建一个多学科工程团队，以解决已知的技术障碍，例如可调谐组件（电感器、电容器）和解决可变性的电路、波束聚焦、对人在环无线电力传输的理解、健康安全和影响技术采用的人类行为，以及在规划研讨会和工业访问期间确定的其他问题。该团队将实施一种三层方法，以满足广泛无线电力传输实施的必要转换要求，包括效率、功率密度、安全性、功能和距离。在整个项目中，重点将放在理解当前的障碍，以开发具有变革性影响的基本解决方案。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research. This award supports a planning grant for an Engineering Research Center (ERC) to create a "Healthy World" by providing ubiquitous wireless power technologies for a wide range of applications that involve monitoring and improving health from humans to animals, plants and infrastructure. This potential ERC would provide foundational technologies required for wireless power transfer to implantable/wearable medical devices and other internet-connected devices. Although electronic design and manufacturing have enabled incredible advances across these fields, the methods for powering such devices have not seen similar progress. The center would create the environment for developing these technologies by providing transformative technical advancements. The planning team consists of faculty with the necessary expertise in materials, health, and engineering across five institutions-Penn State, University of Michigan, University of Florida, University of Colorado Boulder, and University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. Penn State will lead the planning team providing leadership in developing the technology roadmap and testbeds. This planning grant for the proposed Engineering Research Center will support the research and education team building necessary to address challenges and identify opportunities. The ultimate goal of the planning activities will be to identify the industrial base, technology roadmap, technology barriers, regulations and standards, commercialization partners, and intellectual property for the targeted health-relevant wireless power transfer space. A multidisciplinary engineering team will be formed to address known technology barriers, such as tunable components (inductors, capacitors) and circuits that address variability, beam focusing, understanding of human-in-the-loop wireless power transfer, health safety, and human-behavior affecting technology adoption, as well as others identified during the planning workshop and industrial visits. The team will implement a 3-tier approach to meet the necessary translational requirements for widespread wireless power transfer implementation, including efficiency, power density, safety, function and distance. Throughout the program, emphasis will be on understanding the current barriers to develop fundamental solutions that provide transformative impact.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.