BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Igor Paprotny is a Research Scientist with Prof. Richard White at the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC) at U.C. Berkeley where he is involved in applying MEMS technologies to distributed self-powered microsensors for the Smart Grid, microrobotics, and pollution monitoring using air microfluidics. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College while part time in-residence at the Department of Computer Science at Duke University. He holds an Engineering Diploma in Mechatronics from the NKI College of Engineering in Oslo, Norway, as well as BS and MS degrees in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. He has over 3 years of professional experience in the semiconductor industry where he was involved in designing automated material handling systems for semiconductor factories. His research interests include MEMS Smart Grid sensors and energy scavengers, MEMS micro- and nano-robotic systems, air microfluidics, as well as applications of MEMS to alternative computing paradigms.

AC Energy Scavenging for Smart Grid Sensing [BPN562]
The goal of this project is to devise small inexpensive modules for indoor or outdoor deployment, that sense electrical variables on and scavenge energy from energized conductors, such as appliance cords and the conductors on high-voltage power transmission lines and equipment. In addition to an energy scavenging element, the modules will contain sensors, their associated signal conditioning circuitry, power conditioning and storage elements, and a wireless radio chip and antenna. We have recently demonstrated the ability to scavenge 2 mW from a nearby conductor carrying 20 A_rms, which is 10-100x more than can be extracted using comparable coil- based approaches.