News

Our research has been broadly featured in public media, articles and videos featuring our work have reached over 25 million people around the world and more than 210 media outlets.

Highlights: Popular Science, Scientific American, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Independent, The Wall Street Journal, CNET, Communications of the ACM, BBC Newsday, Smithsonian, Guinness Book of World Records, Seeker, ACM Tech News.

Latest News

(12/2023) We had the honor of hosting Georgia Tech’s President Angel Cabrera in our lab! (10/2023) NSF Grant ($2 million) on carbon nutrition labels for IoT devices with Cornell and Harvard.
(09/2023) Our lab is part of a $45 million ARPA-H effort to cut cancer deaths in half! Led by Rice University, with MD Anderson Cancer Center, CMU, Northwestern, and others on the project.

(09/2023) John presented our award winning paper on Interaction Harvesting at ACM UbiComp!
(07/2023) Tingyu presented on challenges for transient devices at HotCarbon.
(06/2023) Panelist for a plenary panel on equitable evaluation at ACM RESPECT.
(06/2023) Rishabh presented our work on Batteryless flying things at DroNet.
(05/2023) Keynote for the staff of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine DEI Speaker Series.
(05/2023) Stefany presented our EquityWare work, on inclusive design of wearables at ACM CHI.
(03/2023) Protean named a SIGMOBILE Research Highlight, printed in GetMobile Magazine.
(11/2022) We won Best Position Paper Award at ENSsys for approaches to circularity in computing!
(11/2022) Protean is presented at ACM SenSys 2022, major result from my NSF CAREER award!
(10/2022) I was awarded a VMware Early Career Faculty Award!
(09/2022) Prof. Hester gave a Keynote Address at Tapia Conference!
(09/2022) After five amazing years at Northwestern, the lab has moved to Georgia Tech!
(08/2022) NSF has funded our $5 million Coastlines and People regional Hub on sustainability! Focusing on Manoomin (wild rice) as a lynchpin of the ecosystem and indigenous led conservation!
(05/2022) Prof. Hester wrote on sustainable computing for United Nations DESA in the SDG blog.
(04/2022) ACM Tech News covers our work on battery-free MakeCode.
(02/2022) Prof. Hester won his NSF CAREER Award on Intermittent Computing.
(02/2022) Prof. Hester named a Sloan Fellow in Computer Science!
(02/2022) National Science Foundation News covers our FaceBit project!.
(01/2022) Quoted in the Washington Post about FaceBit and the future of excercise.
(01/2022) Live interview with Sylvia Perez on Good Day Chicago (FOX32) about FaceBit!
(01/2022) FaceBit, our smart face mask, covered by Scientific American, TechCrunch, and Gizmodo!
(11/2021) Prof. Hester featured in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for sustainable computing!
(11/2021) NSF CISE funds our BPC proposal on culturally relevant CSEd for Native Hawaiian’s.
(10/2021) Prof. Hester named Outstanding Young Alumni by Clemson University Engineering!
(09/2021) Prof. Hester in Brilliant 10 by Popular Science for powering electronics without batteries!
(09/2021) Battery-free Game Boy wins a Distinguished Paper Award at IMWUT/UbiComp 2021!
(08/2021) Prof. Hester is the 2021 Most Promising Scientist awarded by AISES!
(08/2021) NSF CISE funds our CNS Small proposal on timekeeping for intermittent computing.
(07/2021) NSF CISE funds our CNS Medium proposal on battery-free body networks with UMass.
(07/2021) Communications of the ACM covers our work on “A Battery-Free Internet of Things”.
(06/2021) Prof. Hester is an Expert panelist for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
(06/2021) Prof. Hester wins the Allen Taflove Best Teacher Award this year in ECE.
(06/2021) Prof. Hester is named to the Breed Chair of Design in the McCormick School.
(05/2021) We kick off our DARPA project building a Living Implantable Pharmacy.
(04/2021) Northwestern Magazine featured Prof. Hester’s op-ed, on Native Science.
(03/2021) Prof. Hester won the highly competitive 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award!
(02/2021) We begin our NSF funded CIVIC project collaborating with Ojibwe nations.
(02/2021) Our work on automated N95 decontamination is featured on ACM Tech News.
(12/2020) Seeker’s Focal Point Series, highlights the Battery-free Game Boy!
(11/2020) Northwestern Now and Seeker covered Prof. Hester for Native American Heritage Month.
(11/2020) Best Poster Award Runner up for our N95 Decontamination work at ACM SenSys 2020!
(10/2020) The Wall Street Journal covered perpetual computing and the Battery-free Game Boy!
(09/2020) Interviewed on BBC’s Newsday on the Game Boy! (segment starts at 18:40)
(09/2020) Major press coverage for Battery-free Game Boy on CNET, BBC, The Verge, Hackaday.
(09/2020) Battery-free Game Boy won Best Presentation Award at ACM UbiComp 2020!
(09/2020) NSF CISE funds our CPS Medium proposal on building smart green infrastructure!
(08/2020) Battery-free Game Boy accepted to IMWUT/ACM UbiComp 2020, you can learn more here!
(06/2020) Wrote a viewpoint article for Communications of the ACM on IoT security and privacy.
(05/2020) NSF CISE funds Prof. Hester’s RAPID proposal on smart personal protective equipment!
(04/2020) Paper on wearable automated eating detection accepted to ACM IMWUT/UbiComp 2020!
(11/2019) Two full papers on intermittent computing accepted to ACM ASPLOS 2020!
(09/2019) Wrote a feature for ACM XRDS Magazine on battery-free mobile computing.
(08/2019) Two full papers accepted to ACM UbiComp’19 and ACM MobiCom’19!
(07/2019) Prof Hester gives keynote lecture at WearSys in Seoul on future wearables.
(06/2019) NSF CISE funds Prof. Hester’s proposal on privacy enhanced egocentric cameras!
(05/2019) NSF ECCS funds Prof. Hester’s proposal for durable, conformable, touch surfaces!
(02/2019) NSF CISE funds Prof. Hester’s CRII proposal for Adaptive Intermittent Computing!