News
(02/2026) Huge batch of paper acceptances! Two papers on Indigeneity and HCI in ACM CHI, two papers around carbon-aware computing in ACM MobiSys, a paper on puncture recovery for soft-robots in ICRA, a paper on low power depth cameras in CVPR, and finally a paper on soil powered computing at ACM SenSys! The most productive quarter in lab history!
(10/2025) Our paper on Conservation Technologies in Madagascar wins a Honorable Mention at CSCW!
(10/2025) Another successful Summit on Responsible Computing, AI, and Society in Atlanta!
(09/2025) Collaborative work with UMD on a Solderless, Soluble Circuit Board wins a Best Paper Award at UIST 2025!
(8/2025) KumuConnect is selected by MIT Solve for the 2025 Indigenous Communities Fellowship!
(04/2025) Build4ʻĀina Hackathon with Purple Maiʻa Foundation! and Nation of Hawaii!
(01/2025) Prof. Hester selected for a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
(11/2024) TerraCell won first-place in the 2024 Prototypes for Humanity competition in the Energy category!
(10/2024) Leading the bioelectronics effort for a $35 million ARPA-H effort fighting diabetes.
(10/2024) We presented Kaona, a Hawaiian Futurism tabletop RPG game at CHI Play!
(07/2024) A successful season complete of manoomin sensor check-ins with Wisconsin tribes.
(06/2024) Former postdoc Nivedita Arora wins the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award!
(05/2024) Our work on manoomin conservation and tribal sovereignty discussed in the NYTimes and Mongabay!
(05/2024) Our JMIR article on equity and wearables featured in Crain’s Business, and on CBS News!
(04/2024) Prof. Hester is a speaker for NSF CISE CAREER Workshop. See the slide deck, overleaf template, and the proposal!
(03/2024) We led a Communications of the ACM review paper on intermittent computing!
(01/2024) Dirt powered computing paper published in IMWUT and in the press.
(12/2023) We had the honor of hosting Georgia Tech’s President Angel Cabrera in our lab!
(10/2023) New Large 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 materials and computer systems 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 the Best Position Paper Award at ENSsys for envisioning approaches to circularity in computing!
(11/2022) Protean is presented at ACM SenSys 2022, the first major result from Prof. Hester’s NSF CAREER award!
(10/2022) I was awarded a VMware Early Career Faculty Award!
(09/2022) I gave a Keynote Address at the annual Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference!
(09/2022) After five formative years at Northwestern, I have joined Georgia Tech as an Associate Professor!
(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) I wrote about inclusive, sustainable computing for United Nations DESA in the monthly SDG blog.
(04/2022) ACM Tech News covers our work on enabling students to program batteryless devices with MakeCode.
(02/2022) Prof. Hester was named a Sloan Fellow in Computer Science!
(02/2022) Prof. Hester wins his NSF CAREER Award on Intermittent Computing.
(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 platform is covered by Scientific American, TechCrunch, and Gizmodo!
(11/2021) Featured in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for sustainable computing!
(10/2021) Named one of two Outstanding Young Alumni by Clemson University’s School of Engineering!
(09/2021) Named to the 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) I am the 2021 Most Promising Engineer or 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 collaborators.
(07/2021) Communications of the ACM covers our work on “A Battery-Free Internet of Things” in the July Issue.
(06/2021) Expert panelist for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs global policy dialogues.
(06/2021) Honored to win the Allen Taflove Best Teacher Award this year in ECE.
(06/2021) Named to the Breed Chair of Design and one of eleven Segal Faculty Fellows in the McCormick School.
(05/2021) We kick off our DARPA project building a Living Implantable Pharmacy with wearable controller.
(04/2021) Northwestern Magazine’s spring issue featured Prof. Hester’s op-ed, “The World Needs Native Scientists Now”.
(03/2021) Prof Hester won the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award! Supporting outstanding early career faculty in STEM.
(02/2021) We begin our NSF funded CIVIC project collaborating with Ojibwe nations to strengthen resilience.
(02/2021) Our work on automated N95 decontamination is featured on ACM Tech News.
(12/2020) Intermittent computing featured on Seeker’s Focal Point Series , highlighting the Battery-free Game Boy!
(10/2020) The Wall Street Journal covered perpetual computing and highlighted 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’s Newsday Radio, The Verge, and others!
(09/2020) Battery-free Game Boy won the Best Presentation Award – Audience Choice at ACM UbiComp 2020!
(09/2020) NSF CISE funds our CPS Medium proposal on building smart green infrastructure! Batteries not included.
(08/2020) Battery-free Game Boy accepted to IMWUT/ACM UbiComp 2020, you can learn more here!
(05/2020) Wrote a viewpoint article for Communications of the ACM on IoT security and privacy.
(05/2020) NSF CISE funds our RAPID proposal developing smart, batteryless masks for COVID-19
(04/2020) Paper on eating detection accepted to IMWUT/ACM 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, preprint here.
(09/2019) Serving on HotMobile and IoTDI program committees this year. Submit your best work!
(08/2019) Paper on the experience of the Amulet health wearables project accepted to ACM MobiCom 2019.
(08/2019) Paper on privacy vs. utility for activity oriented cameras accepted to IMWUT/ACM UbiComp 2019.
(06/2019) Delivered a keynote lecture titled Why Wear a battery? at WearSys, colocated with MobiSys in Seoul.
(06/2019) NSF CISE funds our proposal exploring how privacy concerns effect eating behavior modeling!
(05/2019) NSF ECCS funds our proposal on conformable and durable synthetic skin!
(02/2019) NSF CISE funds our CRII proposal on Adaptive Intermittent Computing!