2024-2025 Topic: Parasitic Energy Harvesting

Parasitic energy harvesting is the generation of electricity or capturing of energy from sources that would normally be lost to the environment.  These sources can be from a systems motion, vibration, heat, RF emissions or other phenomenon that are by-products to the functioning of the main, designed system and are usually not recovered.  There is a tremendous amount of unused, waste energy in the operation of a system that, if recovered, could increase the overall efficiency of the system, or provide for auxiliary capabilities and functions, i.e. energy or storage for another function (recharge batteries, power sensors, etc.).  The applications vary widely from micro-electronics, to wearables, to components to complete systems.  This Innovation Bowl topic is looking for innovative means of recovering this energy into a useful form to provide usable capability.  In system design, Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWAP-C) is often used to assess alternatives.  In this effort, we will evaluate the Size, Weight, and Cost of the proposed approach with the Power that will be generated/collected.  There are many examples of parasitic energy harvesting in the literature and we do not want to constrain your imagination or applications for this topic.  We look forward to your Innovative ideas.