Keynote Speech 1: Wireless power harvesting and transfer

Electromagnetics forms the foundation of modern electrical and electronic systems that see the technologies we enjoy and take for granted today. It has been used to transfer information and power in daily lives. In the wireless domain, however, it had not been considered and employed much for power transfer until 2008 when a MIT research team lead by Prof. Marin Soljacic successfully demonstrated the mid-range wireless power. Since then, many efforts and much progress have been made to improve power transfer efficiency, reduce system size and include more functionality; the goal is to cut the last wires in electrical and electronic devices and systems if all possible. In this talk, we will first present the principles of the wireless power harvesting and transfer and then focus on mid-range wireless power transfer and its applications and commercialization. We will present the challenges, progresses, and future directions in the areas.