Frontier Fellow 2025-2026: Ava Darbonne
Title of Research Project: “Utilizing Microbial Fuel Cells to Power Backscatter Tags for Sustainable Agriculture“
Ava Darbonne is a 3rd year undergraduate student in Electrical Engineering and minoring in Linguistics. WaDAR enhances soil moisture sensing through dual backscatter tags connected to an ultrawideband (UWB) radar, significantly reducing power consumption and cost to conventional sensors. The current prototype uses coin cell batteries, risking soil contamination when deployed. This project aims to power the backscatter tags using soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs). Integrating SMFCs with existing backscatter technologies creates a sustainable soil moisture monitoring solution, making efficient farming accessible. The advisors of this project are Dr. Colleen Josephson, Dr. Hannah Waterhouse, and Dr. Shourya Bose.