The Agitation Squad

Mechanical Engineering students at Rice University have created a way to extract and store energy from each and every step you take.

Their PediPower shoes turn motion into juice for portable electronics and, perhaps someday, for life-preserving medical devices.

For as smart as our phones have become, the battery life and charging constraints are pretty dumb. If you’re not a classically trained ‘always prepared’ Boy Scout that brings your charger everywhere, a dead phone has been a frequent foe. The phone taps out at the most inopportune times; when you really need to talk to someone, when you run into your favorite celebrity, or when you really need to play Angry Birds. Even if you brought your charger along, where are you going to find an outlet? Most establishments guard their electricity like L.A. Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick guards the net. Lucky for us, we live in the 21st century, a magical time where outlets will soon be a thing of the past.