Title: Large Scale Vibration Energy Harvesting from Vehicles and Oceans

Biography: Lei Zuo completed his PhD in mechanical engineering (2005) and MS degrees in both mechanical engineering and electrical engineering from MIT. He is currently a full professor at Virginia Tech and serves as the Director of NSF Industry-University Collaborative Research Center (I/UCRC) for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems. Lei Zuo’s research interests include energy harvesting, mechatronics design, vibration control, and advanced manufacturing. He authored over 100 papers in academic journals and over 160 papers in technical conferences, including 5 with best paper and 2 with best student paper awards. He has secured over 13 million US dollars of research funding (over $11M as the PI) from NSF, DOE, ONR, EPA federal funding agencies, NY and VA states, and various industry companies. He has advised 10 PhD and over 40 MS students to completion and is currently advising 11 PhD and 6 MS students. The ASME recognized him as “a pioneering researcher in energy harvesting, especially at larger energy scale” with its 2015 Thar Energy Design Award. Zuo is also the sole recipient of the 2017 ASME Leonardo da Vinci Award. He won R&D100 Awards twice (2015 and 2011) from R&D Magazine, which recognizes the top 100 technology innovations in the word of the year. Lei Zuo is an elected Fellow of ASME. He is a general co-chair of the ASME 2019 IDETC/CIE conference.