Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 2, 2008|Volume 36, Number 28|Two-Week Issue

Pizza on the piezo: A passing delivery
man tests out the students' sidewalk.

Students demonstrate
energy-harvesting designs

Three mechanical engineering students demonstrated their energy-harvesting designs outside of Becton Applied Science and Engineering Center on April 25.

David Alexander ’08 and Matt Perille ’08 created a sidewalk based on piezoelectric materials, which generates electric current from pressure of pedestrians walking by. In her project, Maribeth Martens ’08 hooked a hand crank into a motor that charged her iPod.

The inventions won’t solve the energy crisis, admits the students’ project adviser, Associate Professor Ainissa Ramirez, noting that one piezoelectric sidewalk square placed in Times Square for a day might power a light bulb and 10 minutes of cranking could produce nine minutes of tunes on the iPod.

But, she adds, “We are going to be walking anyway, so why not?’

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Findings may explain how cancer spreads

Students learning to blend economic savvy and environmental . . .

Outreach programs showing city students science is . . .

Students demonstrate energy-harvesting designs

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Alumnus Stephen Pitti named new master of Ezra Stiles College

Former Norwalk mayor Alex Knopp chosen to head Dwight Hall

Study identifies factors that predict premature babies’ survivability . . .

Center celebrates decade of shaping graduate student life

Library acquires alumnus’ images of a changing Iowa

Staff member’s Mt. McKinley climb will support cancer research

Carlotta Festival showcases work of graduating playwrights

Celebrated writers will discuss their craft in Yale Library talk

Researchers trace chlorine’s irritative effect to a specific nerve receptor

Student Research Day to feature prize-winning presentations . . .

Inaugural James Weldon Johnson Fellow to research . . .

Researcher Kenneth Pugh, a reading specialist, is appointed . . .

Conference to explore psychosocial and physical dimensions of . . .

Memorial service for Dr. Steven C. Hebert

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes