Welcome to the EnHANTs Project!
In this project we are developing Energy-Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs). EnHANTs are small, flexible, and energetically self-reliant devices that can be attached to objects that are traditionally not networked (e.g., books, furniture, walls, doors, toys, keys, clothing, and produce), thereby providing the infrastructure for various novel tracking applications. Examples of these applications include locating misplaced items, continuous monitoring of objects (items in a store, boxes in transit), and determining locations of disaster survivors.
Recent advances in ultra-low-power wireless communications, ultra-wideband (UWB) circuit design, and organic electronic harvesting techniques will enable the realization of EnHANTs in the near future. In order for EnHANTs to rely on harvested energy, they have to spend significantly less energy than Bluetooth, Zigbee, and IEEE 802.15.4a devices. Moreover, the harvesting components and the ultra-low-power physical layer have special characteristics whose implications on the higher layers have yet to be studied (e.g., when using ultra-low-power circuits, the energy required to receive a bit is significantly higher than the energy required to transmit a bit).
The objective of the project is to design hardware, algorithms, and software to enable the realization of EnHANTs. This interdisciplinary project includes 5 PIs in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Columbia University with expertise in energy-harvesting devices and techniques, ultra-low power integrated circuits, and energy efficient communications and networking protocols.
The project is supported in part by:
Maria Gorlatova receives the Jury Award
Maria Gorlatova received the Jury Award, an award granted for outstanding achievement by a graduate student in the areas of system communication or signal processing. It was established in 1991 and is granted yearly by the Electrical Engineering department at Columbia University. It is the highest award granted to Ph.D. students in the department and is only given to one or two students each year.
Jury Award presented by Electrical Engineering Department Chair Professor Keren Bergman.
Congratulations to PhD Graduates Maria Gorlatova and John Sarik!
It is with our great pleasure to announce the successful thesis defense of Maria Gorlatova and John Sarik!
Maria Gorlatova, advised by Professor Gil Zussman, presented her thesis titled "Energy Harvesting Networked Nodes: Measurements, Algorithms, and Prototyping". John Sarik, advised by Professor John Kymissis, presented his thesis titled "Systems for Pervasive Electronics and Interfaces". John and Maria have been working on the EnHANTs project since its inception and have made numerous critical contributions.
We thank them for all their hard work and dedication and wish them the best of luck on all future endeavors!
Demo at IEEE INFOCOM 2013
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An EnHANTs demo titled An Adaptive Testbed of Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs) Prototypes was presented by Maria Gorlatova, Robert Margolies, and Gil Zussman in the demo session of IEEE INFOCOM 2013 on April 17th, 2013 in Turn, Italy. In this demo, we presented a small testbed of 4 EnHANTs prototypes. The prototypes communicated wirelessly using ultra-wide-band impulse radio (UWB-IR) transceivers. They formed a multihop network and adapted the topology and communication patterns to the light energy harvested by the solar cells. The testbed included a unique software-based light control system which enabled controlled experiments. This demonstration accompanied a paper titled Prototyping Energy Harvesting Active Networking Tags. We also acknowledge
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for their significant contributions to the EnHANTs project in preparation for this demonstration.
-- EnHANTs INFOCOM 2013 Demo Abstract
-- Accompanying Poster
-- Related: Video of the EnHANTs demonstration filmed in December 2011 | ACM SenSys'11 Best Student Demo Award
Seven Recent Publications and Presentations
Seven different publications and presentations have been recently contributed by different members of the EnHANTs project:
- Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering (IDSE) Inaugural Symposium: John Sarik presented a poster titled "EnHANTs: A New Approach to Pervasive Tagging and Sensing" at the newly created Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering at Columbia University. [Accompanying Poster]
- Microsoft Research: Maria Gorlatova presented the EnHANTs project and the associated research contributions to the overall space of networking ultra-low-power energy harvesting nodes: environmental energy characterizations, energy harvesting adaptive algorithms, and testbed design and development. [Accompanying Video]
- Centre Tecnològic de TElecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC): Robert Margolies presented work on the design and experimental evaluation of Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags testbed. The presentation followed the paper presented at the INFOCOM 2013 mini-conference.
- ACM ITiCSE'13: A paper titled "Project-based Learning within a Large-scale Interdisciplinary Research Effort" has been accepted to ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ACM ITiCSE'13). This paper by Maria Gorlatova and John Sarik describes the EnHANTs project experience in engaging over 50 students in over 115 interdisciplinary research projects, and summarizes lessons learned.
- IEEE ITA'13: Professor Gil Zussman presented the work on performance evaluations of energy harvesting adaptive algorithms at IEEE Information Theory and Applications Workshop (IEEE ITA'13) in San Diego, CA.
- IEEE INFOCOM'13 mini-conference: A paper describing the EnHANTs testbed, titled "Prototyping Energy Harvesting Active Networked Tags (EnHANTs)", was presented at the IEEE INFOCOM'13 mini-conference in Turin, Italy.
- CUSJ 2013 Spring Symposium: Mina Cong gave a poster and an oral presentation at the 2013 Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium. She presented her contributions on the kinetic energy availability studies, speaking about motion patterns and energy availability for common human activities. Out of over 40 posters accepted to the Symposium, Mina's was one of only 4 chosen for an oral presentation.
Ultra low power receiver developed for the EnHANTs project is covered by Columbia News and by IEEE Spectrum Nanocast blog
An ultra low power receiver developed for the EnHANTs project has been recently featured in Columbia News and in IEEE Spectrum Nanocast blog. This work was recently presented by Baradwaj Vigraham at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, CA. The developed receiver prototype presents a 5-fold improvement in power over state of the art receivers and a fully synchronized UWB receiver link. This enables achieving a raw data rate of 2 Mbps while drawing only 0.75 mW from the supply.
- Columbia News: Engineer Designs Self-Powered Nanoscale Devices That Never Need New Batteries
- IEEE Spectrum Nanocast blog : Nanoscale Chip Design Enables Future 'Internet of Things'