Dr. Lei Zuo
Stony Brook University
Lei Zuo is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University.
His research interest includes energy harvesting, vibration, control, and mechatronic design.
Lei Zuo completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and MS degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and
Electrical Engineering from MIT. Prior to joining in Stony Brook in Fall 2008, he had worked four years
in industry where he won Scientific Innovation Award by Abbott Laboratories (IL) and Hats-Off Award by
GE Global Research Center (NY). His recent work on alternative energy has been highlighted by a few
news media including PysyOrg, New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Newsday, Discovery News,TV 10/55, etc.
He won the prestigious R&D 100 Award by the R&D Magazine in 2011, and the Best Technology Development of Energy
Harvesting by the conference of Energy Harvesting and Storage USA, Cambridge MA, November 2010. His research
is well supported by NSF, DOE, NYSERDA, UTRC, SUNY, and industry.
Energy Harvesting Shock Absorbers
Abstract: This presentation will summarize our R&D 100 award-winning technology of energy-harvesting shock absorbers
that can increase the fuel efficiency by 2-8% and achieve better suspension performance. Although transportation
accounts for 70% of oil consumption in the US, only 10-16% of the fuel energy is used to drive the car -
to overcome road resistance and air drag. One important loss is the dissipation of vibration energy by
shock absorbers in the vehicle suspension under the excitation of road irregularity and vehicle acceleration
or deceleration. In this talk, we will quantify the power potential of the vehicles on different road through
the modeling and road tests, then present two patented design of retrofit electromagnetic energy harvesting shock absorbers.
Cost and benefit will be analyzed with prediction of a market of multiple billion US dollars.
Commercialization opportunities will be further discussed.