Paulos lab creates wireless, biodegradable heater from a leaf

A pair of hands in blue nitrile gloves hold the white skeleton of a fig leaf over a petri dish.

As highlighted by IEEE, researchers in CITRIS researcher Eric Paulos’ Hybrid Ecologies Lab have created a biodegradable heating envelope from paper, chitosan gel made from shellfish, silver nanowires and the skeleton of a fig leaf. The device degrades fully in about a year when composted.

The team’s paper received an honorable mention at the 2022 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

Paulos is faculty director of the CITRIS Invention Lab.