Planning: Energy-harvesting Concrete Batteries for Smart Buildings and Cities

随着世界人口不断城市化，建筑密集的大都市地区将日益成为环境保护、节能和温室气体减排政策的重点。在美国，建筑消耗了大约49%的总能源，贡献了大约47%的温室气体排放。智能建筑和城市不仅需要为传统的供暖、通风和暖通空调系统供电，还需要为传感器网络和连接的数字技术供电，以实现实时数据收集、通信和控制，从而提高效率，增强可靠性和安全性。能源供应问题已经成为阻碍智慧建筑和智慧城市发展和实施的突出问题。建筑物周围和内部有大量不同形式的能量，比如人类行走产生的动能、风和热能。收集这种能量可以成为电池的可持续替代电源，实现连续和免维护的物联网运行，而不会对环境造成影响。因此，本规划项目将为智能建筑结构探索一种新的可持续能源生产和存储解决方案。这项提议的合作将为HBCUs的本科生和研究生提供丰富的主题和学习机会，特别是对弱势群体和少数民族。该项目的实施将加强hbcu的科学和工程教育，并扩大代表性不足群体的参与。面向K-12学生的国家夏季交通学院（NSTI）也将在他们的活动中涉及这些概念，以帮助年轻人在早期意识到智能建筑和城市的重要性和好处。该规划项目的目标是建立一个融合的研究团队，并利用教师的互补专业知识，通过探索能量收集和可充电混凝土电池来解决智能建筑和城市中的能源挑战。提出了各种策划活动，包括1)小组会议；2)研讨会：将举行为期两天的研讨会，以确定智能建筑和城市的能源收集和可充电混凝土电池的知识差距和研究问题；3) nsf资助的智能建筑项目访问：团队成员和来自TSU， JSU和PSB的选定学生将前往阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校（UAB）的可持续智能城市研究中心（SSCRC）。团队成员和学生通过参观不仅填补了智慧城市知识的空白，还帮助团队成员学习了零能耗智慧城市研究的成功经验；4)外展活动：通过NSTI夏令营和项目网站提供一个课程模块来教育公众。这项合作工作的发展将推动能源收集和储存技术、先进建筑材料以及智能建筑和城市能源解决方案的最新研究。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。

As the world’s population continues to urbanize, metropolitan areas with intensive buildings will increasingly be the focal point of environmental protection, energy conservation, and greenhouse gas reduction policies. Buildings consume around 49% of the total energy and contribute around 47% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Smart buildings and cities not only need to power traditional heating, ventilation, and HVAC systems, but also require energy to power sensor networks and connected digital technology for real-time data collection, communication, and control to improve efficiency and enhance reliability and safety. The energy supply has become a prominent issue that hinders the development and implementation of smart buildings and cities. There is plenty of energy around and inside a building in different forms, such as kinetic energy from human walking, wind, and thermal. Harvesting this energy can be a sustainable alternative power source to batteries, enabling continuous and maintenance-free Internet of Things operations without environmental impact. Therefore, this planning project will explore a new sustainable energy generation and storage solution for intelligent building structures. This proposed collaborative effort will provide abundant topics and learning opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students in HBCUs, especially for the underrepresented and minorities. The implementation of this project will enhance Science and Engineering education at HBCUs and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups. The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) for K-12 students will also involve these concepts in their activities to help young people realize the importance and benefits of smart buildings and cities at an early age.The objective of this planning project is to establish a convergent research team and leverage the complementary expertise of faculty members for addressing energy challenges in smart buildings and cities by exploring the energy harvesting and rechargeable concrete batteries. Various planning activities are proposed, including 1) group meetings; 2) workshops: A two-day workshop will be held to identify the knowledge gap and research questions in energy harvesting and rechargeable concrete batteries for smart buildings and cities; 3) NSF-funded smart building project visit: Team members and selected students from TSU, JSU and PSB will travel to the Sustainable Smart Cities Research Center (SSCRC) in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The team members and students cannot only fill the gaps in the knowledge of smart cities from the visit, but also help the team members to learn the successful experience of research on zero-energy smart cities; and 4) outreach activities: A course module will be provided to educate the general public through the NSTI summer camp and project website. The development of this collaborative work will advance the state-of-the-art in the research of energy harvesting and storage technology, advanced construction materials, and energy solutions for smart buildings and cities.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.