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Prof. W.H. Liao and his former PhD student Dr. M.J. Guan of the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Best Paper Award in Structures for their paper “On the Efficiencies of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Circuits Towards Storage Device Voltages” published inSmart Materials and Structures. This makes CUHK the first academic institution from Asia to win this prestigious prize since it was established in 1993.

Prof. Liao said, “We are excited that the significance and contribution of our research to energy have been recognized internationally. Our paper investigated energy harvested from vibration using piezoelectric materials as an alternative to renewable energy. Piezoelectric power generators were used to transform the mechanical energy from vibration into electrical energy, which can replace batteries to supply power to mobile and wireless microsystems. Without using batteries, the self-powered systems will be more environmentally friendly since they are using otherwise wasted mechanical energy from the vibration sources.”