Allen School Distinguished Lecture: Josiah Hester (Northwestern University)

Batteries Not Included: Reimagining Computing for the Next Trillion Devices
Josiah Hester (Northwestern University)
Distinguished Lecture Series
Thursday, January 20, 2022, 3:30 pm

In this talk, I'd like to upend the notion that a computing system needs reliable power to support useful computation, sensing, and interaction. For decades, typical computing systems have generally assumed stable, reliable power, either from a battery or wall outlet. All our smart devices (i.e., wireless sensing and computing systems), from FitBits to Game Boys, have been powered by batteries. This is a problem: batteries are bulky, expensive, high-maintenance, and not sustainable for the next trillion devices. Instead of relying on energy stored in a battery, emerging devices now harvest energy from their surrounding environment; this unstable energy supply means that these devices compute intermittently through many power failures. This new paradigm has required a rethinking of hardware, software design, and tool creation -– yet it has also opened up incredible new applications and domains for sustainable computing. I will discuss the broad implications of what a battery-free, trillion device IoT means, and what the next decade of research in the area looks like: devices that are user-facing and interactive, devices that novices can easily program, and devices that can perform practical inference. I'll describe these advances in the context of motivating applications our lab has worked on: including late-breaking work on soil-powered sensors and smart face masks, a system that enables novices to program intermittently powered devices with Python or Block-based languages, and the world's first battery-free Nintendo Game Boy.

Bio
I am the Breed Chair of Design, Segal Faculty Fellow, and Assistant Professor of Computer Engineering at Northwestern University. I design and deploy tiny computers that last for decades, supporting applications in sustainability and healthcare.

My research is broadly in mobile and pervasive computing, wireless sensor networks, and embedded systems. Specifically, I study battery-free smart devices and intermittent computing, where I design computer systems resilient to frequent and unpredictable power failures. I work towards a sustainable future for computing informed by my Native Hawaiian (Kanaka maoli) heritage. I often apply my work to mobile healthcare, infrastructure monitoring, and conservation.

I was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10, the AISES Most Promising Scientist/Engineer, and won the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award in 2021. My work has received three Best Paper type Awards and five Best Presentation type Awards. My research has featured in the Wall Street Journal, BBC, CNET, Mashable, Seeker, Popular Science, Communications of the ACM, the Guinness Book of World Records, and others.

This video is closed captioned.

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