Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Shad Roundy recently achieved the prestigious merit of becoming an ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Fellow. A Fellow, one who has attained a membership grade of distinction at the time of advancement, shall be a corporate member of the Society, shall have been responsible for significant engineering achievements, and shall not have less than 10 years of active practice and 10 years of corporate membership in ASME.
Roundy’s research interests are in the area of microsystems, transducers (sensors and actuators), energy harvesting, and wireless power transfer. He directs the Integrated Self-Powered Sensing Lab where his current research focuses on electromechanical energy harvesting for applications such as wearable sensors, and wireless power transfer using ultrasound and low-frequency magnetic fields for applications such as powering biomedical implants. More generally he and his lab work on anything that combines electromechanical transduction coupled with interesting dynamics.
His research on vibration and motion based energy harvesting has generated wide interest. His articles and book on the topic remain some of the most highly cited works in the field. His scholarly output has generated over 13,000 citations to date. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, Intel Noyce Fellowship, and DoE Integrated Manufacturing Fellowship, and was named by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the world’s top 100 young innovators.
Prior to joining the University of Utah, Roundy spent several years working in the MEMS industry at both startup and semiconductor companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. In those roles, he helped develop a wireless tire pressure monitoring system, an energy harvester for tire pressure monitoring systems, and a 6-axis MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). He found the time spent developing products from scratch to be both interesting and rewarding, but somehow couldn’t get academia out of his blood. So, after several years in industry he returned to academia and re-started his research career.
Roundy received his B.S. degree from Brigham Young University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley all in mechanical engineering. After completing his Ph.D. he was a senior lecturer for two years at the Australian National University in the Department of Systems Engineering. Returning to the U.S. in 2005, he spent the next several years in startup and semiconductor companies. He has been at the University of Utah since 2012.
To learn more about Dr. Roundy and his current research projects please visit the Integrated Self-Powered Sensing Lab.