About Personal Power Systems Research Center

The goal of the Personal Power Systems Research Center (PPSRC) is to provide the revolutionary new power sources necessary for augmenting human endeavor and autonomy. Untethered communication and computation, as is created with cellular telephones and portable computers, and enhanced mobility and reconnaissance, using systems such as personal robots, micro air vehicles, and assistive manipulators, require substantial power at a personal scale. Current power sources cannot provide the sustained autonomous energy demanded by these devices. To meet this challenge, the PPSRC brings together physicists, chemists, biologists, biomedical, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineers, and material scientists to conceive and develop new power production strategies, solve systems design and integration issues, and overcome manufacturing obstacles, thereby establishing the technology of personal power systems. 

The Center is guided by two major application areas in need of personal power -- Telecommunications, which includes computation and information technology, and Mobility, which includes propulsion, robotics, and medical devices. The technologies appropriate for these applications may involve new approaches to thermochemical, biochemical, and electrochemical energy extraction, as well as hybrid designs that optimize these approaches in concert. If the web site does not provide you with the answers you seek, please feel free to contact the Center for additional information. Again, welcome to Personal Power Systems. 

For more imformation on PPSRC visit:
Vision/Mission
Thrust Areas
Organization Structure