Utah Governor Gary Herbert and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch have awarded the energy technology innovation of the year award to Utah State University’s wireless power transfer team for their wirelessly-charged Aggie Bus.
The Aggie Bus is charged using a pad mounted underneath the vehicle. When the bus stops to load and unload passengers, another pad at the stop location transfers energy to the bus. This constant wireless recharging of the battery keeps the bus on route all day.
Hunter Wu, director of USU’s Commercial Product Development, says it’s a great honor to win the award because he says it validates the relevancy of the technology they’re working on.
The Aggie Bus will make its debut to the public when it starts to run on the University of Utah campus later this year.
Eric is from Las Vegas, Nevada and studies broadcast journalism at Utah State. In joining the Utah Public Radio family, he has now delved into each of the "Big Three" of journalism: print, television and radio. His dream is to someday live and report the news in Chicago, Illinois (or wherever his career takes him.) In addition to reporting for UPR, Eric is the copy editor at the Utah Statesman and contributes to Aggie TV News.