Speaker

Aline Eid, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Abstract

The notion of intelligent and sustainable infrastructures has ignited growing interest among technologists, policymakers, and urban communities. However, achieving this vision demands computerized systems capable of gathering data on an unprecedented scale and autonomous systems equipped with heightened situational awareness and minimal latency. While the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to deploy 50 billion devices by 2030, realizing this objective would necessitate several trillion wireless devices—an endeavor complicated by the cost, performance limitations, and environmentally harmful battery requirements of current IoT devices. A transformative paradigm is required: one that can spawn expansive, responsive environments capable of dynamically responding to distant electromagnetic signals, thereby enabling remote sensing and imaging—a paradigm we refer to as the "responsive surface."

During this presentation, I will elucidate how we can construct systems facilitating ubiquitous wireless power delivery to responsive surfaces and enabling their ultra-low-power data communication using planar-lens-based antenna systems, harnessed by the millimeter-wave beams of 5G networks. Specifically, I will expound upon the groundbreaking concept we've introduced, "5G as a wireless power grid," a solution that defies conventional paradigms at millimeter-wave frequencies, transcending the usual trade-off between rectenna angular coverage and activation sensitivity. Additionally, I will showcase how our mmID technology has the potential to serve as a catalyst for zero-power long-range sensing and localization for digital twins. Lastly, I will touch on one of my latest research endeavors focused on fusing augmented reality (AR) with radio frequencies to enable non line-of-sight human perception.

Biography

Aline Eid is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Prior to that, she was a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab. She received her Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, in 2017, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, in 2021. In 2020, she did a six-month internship with the Google wearable/AR/VR and advanced technology & projects (ATAP) groups. Aline is an inventor of 7 patents, and author/coauthor of more than 60 conference papers and journal articles and book chapters. She is also the recipient of more than 20 awards, fellowships and grants, including best paper awards at IEEE RFID, and IEEE APS. Her vision is to build a responsive and sustainable infrastructure through the development of innovative wireless systems. Her research interests are in mm-wave wireless power transfer, ultra-low power communications, and wireless sensing.