TE Student Talks Wearable Wireless Power Transmission at ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference

Tyler Henson, a senior in Textile Engineering at the Wilson College of Textiles was one of six students selected to represent NC State University at the 2017 ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference held at Duke University March 31 through April 2.

The annual conference focuses on undergraduate research and scholarship at the 15 ACC member schools and represents the power and synergy that can exist between athletics and academics. Undergraduate students across all 15 schools are involved in a variety of projects that provide unique contributions to research and creativity across a broad spectrum of fields.

Henson’s research focuses on wearable wireless power transmission.

“With society moving toward a more wireless lifestyle, the demand for new innovative wireless technology increases. One way to approach the increase in demand is through wearable wireless power transmission,” he said.

But wireless power transmission has not been widely accepted due to its low power efficiency and high costs. So Henson is designing and creating a comfortable, physically appealing and efficient knitted tank-top with a helical conductive coil embedded directly into its knitted structure. The knitted coil will act as a wireless power bus for charging mobile devices and will be powered from a transmitter coil that is embedded in any stationary source, such as a seat cushion or a hospital bed’s foot board.

“Through inductive coupling using capacitors and inductors I will achieve about 30 percent power transfer efficiency. Traditionally stainless steel is a non-elastic material, but because of its high conductibility and corrosion resistance to water it makes an excellent conductive fiber for textile applications. Through different knitted designs the stainless steel fiber will be able to be given the ability to elongate from its static state within the textile,” he said.

Henson currently has a working prototype that functions and easily demonstrates the wearable power transfer applications. He plans to spend the remainder of the academic year designing new prototypes and improving the power transfer efficiency.

“I was very excited about representing NC State at this conference. I really like what I am doing with my research and love to share my work with others,” said Henson. “I also like to learn about other research topics that students are working on and at the ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference all of the presentations were extremely diverse. I was able to get some good experience presenting my work in front of a varied and professional audience while at the same time I was able to learn about several topics unrelated to my field of study.”