A device that harvests ambient emissions from smartphones and converts them into power to run smart contact lenses has earned a team of Waterloo Engineering students a third-place finish and a $4,500 US prize in an international design competition.
Fifty student teams vied for honours at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium in Puerto Rico after being challenged to design and build power-harvesting devices capable of turning radio-frequency emissions into useful DC power.
