A group of Georgia Tech faculty and students from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) won the Student Best Paper Award at the 8th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring. The workshop was held September 13-15, 2011 in Stanford, Calif.

The award winning paper entitled, "Sensing Resolution and Measurement Range of a Passive Wireless Strain Sensor," was written by ECE Professor Emmanouil M. (Manos) Tentzeris,  his current Ph.D. student James Cooper, his former Ph.D. student Terence Wu who now works at DirecTV, CEE Ph.D. students Chunhee Cho and Xiaohua Yi who are both co-advised by Dr. Tentzeris, visiting M.S.C.E. student Gabriel Lantz, CEE Assistant Professor Yang Wang, and CEE Professor Roberto Leon.

The team's paper introduces a new generation of inkjet-printed wireless passive strain sensors. This technology could find numerous applications in conformal wireless "smart skins" by monitoring the structural health of bridges, large buildings, and aircraft and by allowing for a 24/7 evaluation of structural integrity in a completely passive/zero-power way. This approach could have tremendous impact in the prevention of structure collapses, detection and early prevention of cracks, and status evaluations of  earthquake- or hurricane-struck areas.