Kalantari Featured on Fox 5 News

ECE alumnus, research scientist, and Master's in Telecommunications faculty member Dr. Mehdi Kalantari (Ph.D., '05) was featured on Fox 5 News for a device he invented to aid in monitoring the structural integrity of bridge.

Kalantari has designed a solar-powered, lightweight, self-adhesive sensor that measures load, temperature, vibration, and shifting movements. The most distinguishing feature of this device is the ability to be fully powered by the sun, and it can even run off the radio frequency that remains after cell phone calls.

The sensors function by sending data to a box, then to a server connected to the Internet, which then generates a computer graph demonstrating the health of the bridge.

The device offers the potential to prevent disaster. Kalantari believes the sensors in his device might have helped prevent the collapse on Interstate 35 in Minneapolis in 2007, causing 13 deaths.

Kalantari turned his idea into reality after finding help with starting his company, Resensys, through the University of Maryland’s Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech), directed by Dean Chang.

"Mehdi came to us about three years ago with this ingenuous idea, but he didn't know how he was going to bring it to market by himself," said Chang.

The manufacturing cost of one of Resensys’ sensors is only $25 to $30, but it could take thousands to cover a span the size of the Bay Bridge, said Kalantari. Regardless, he has been given permission to test out the sensors at a location along the beltway near New Hampshire Avenue.

The full article about Resensys' emerging technology can be viewed online at www.myfoxdc.com.

Published October 13, 2010