The global landscape has been reshaped by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring the critical importance of pandemic preparedness and effective modeling. This talk will delve into the essential steps required to enhance our predictive models and overall readiness for future pandemics. We will explore the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis, emphasizing the need to act now in order to mitigate future threats. Topics covered include data-driven modeling approaches, real-time surveillance, and collaborative efforts in research and response. Join us in this discussion to discover how we can better equip ourselves to face the challenges of the next pandemic! Speaker(s): Jing Huang Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/382553

With the rapid development of Internet of Things, a vast number of small, low-cost, and low-power mobile electronic devices, such as radio frequency identification tags and wireless sensors, will become integral parts of our society. Supplying electrical power to these devices wirelessly would eliminate/relieve their battery life limitation. Since wireless power delivery must be dedicated to the designated receivers in space, it is inevitable to employ one narrow electromagnetic beam as the carrier of wireless power toward each mobile device. The retro-reflective beamforming technique has excellent potential to accomplish efficient wireless power transmission in the context of Internet of Things and can track multiple mobile devices, generating wireless power to the devices accordingly. The primary merit of retro-reflective beamforming technique is that wireless power transmission is augmented by radar tracking. Specifically, wireless power transmission is initiated by pilot signals broadcasted from wireless power receiver(s); and in response to the pilot signals, a wireless power transmitter delivers directional microwave power beams to the receiver(s). Results collected in our research demonstrate that the retro-reflective beamforming scheme enables microwave power beams to follow the location of mobile wireless power receiver(s) dynamically when the receiver(s) broadcast pilot signals periodically. Speaker(s): Dr. Mingyu Lu Room: Library, Bldg: Leonard C. Nelson College of Engineering and Sciences, 512 South Kanawha Street, Beckley, West Virginia, United States, WV 25801, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/387479