With enormous academic works and findings on ‘Energy Harvesting Mechanisms’ that enable the use of naturally replenishing energy sources from the immediate environment, to support smart city realization, there is need for all-embracing rapid transfer of knowledge from research activities to adaptable conventions that are practicable, and with participatory roles by the industries. Smart city is any municipality that is concerned with modernisation by using information and modern communication technologies to acquire, process, and disseminate information; manage resources and services efficiently; and improve the standard of living of the people. Several means have been explored to provide energy needed to sustain smart city implementation; some of which are considered harmful, and many practices that promote modernisation and industrialisation are often times disruptive to the ecological system. This has made many governments around the World to issue different legislations that drive consumption of green energy to enhance ecological sustainability. Meanwhile, energy harvesting schemes answer most of smart city energy challenges. In this talk, the need for application-specific green-energy harvesting in this modern time is emphasized, and the concern here is to make the subject more practicable; with more involvement of various stakeholders. Interests need be developed in the design of simple harvesting circuits for electrical energy converters; load configurations; and storage systems, from ambient sources such as wind, water, heat, sunlight, wastes, etc. This is important for various needs of homes, small groups, and the society. Increased mobilisation for green and sustainable smart city integration is an all-important task for both the academia and industry to embark upon. There is need for synergy between them; for training and re-training of the public, in the form of short courses and internships that are carried out at the Universities and research centres from time to time; which are to be funded by energy industries and governments. To this end, they will be able to continually solve real-world challenges of smart city development and sustenance.

Ajibike E. Akin-Ponnle received B.Eng and M.Eng (Control Engineering option), degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from The Federal University of Technology Akure, (FUTA), Nigeria, in 2003 and 2014 respectively. She is a Researcher with Institute of Telecommunications, University of Aveiro, where she is currently studying towards her PhD degree.

She worked briefly at Shokei Gakuin University, Yurigaoka, Miyagi, Japan as a Lecturer between 2010 and 2011. She was an Associate Researcher with Informative Nanomechanics laboratory; Kuwano Laboratory, in the department of Nanomechanics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Tohoku, Japan in 2011, where she developed interest to work on micro-energy harvesting from vibrations. This research birthed some of her publications and, her thesis on ‘Development of a Vibration Based Electret-Cantilever Micro Energy Harvester’ in 2014. She was an Invited Speaker to many Japanese social groups in Sendai, in the form of expository talks about African/ Nigerian culture.

She worked as a Research Engineer between 2012 and August 2017 with Engineering Materials Development Institute (EMDI); an arm of National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Nigeria. She was involved in many research and development activities of EMDI-NASENI; where the World Bank Centre of Excellence was situated. She had hands-on exposure to many state-of-the-art facilities for nanotechnology and renewable energy. At EMDI, she was secretary, and later became the ‘chairman’ of Research and Development, R&D (social) Group until she transferred her service to join The Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji, Ondo state, Nigeria; where she has risen to the position of Senior Lecturer.

At Federal Polytechnic, she was the first female Engineer of the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and she joined others to be fronting the successful activities of the newly established Institution in teaching; research; and community development. Due to her passion for renewable energy research, she lead the group that modelled and fabricated an electronic cabinet for cocoa beans processing to enhance the indigenous notable cocoa processing occupation of Ile-Oluji; the Polytechnic host community. In addition, as part of her activities at the Federal Polytechnic, she was among the group that developed ‘Electromagnetic Braking System of Induction Motors for Domestic and Industrial Safety’.

Engr. Akin-Ponnle is a registered Engineer with Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, and a member of Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, NIEEE. She is a member of Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE, where she has been a recipient of merit awards two times in 2015 and 2016; once as the Assistant Technical Secretary of NSE Akure branch. She is a member of Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria, APWEN; where she has been an outreach speaker and promoter of Science; Technology; Engineering; and Mathematics (STEM) to young females.  She has served in various capacities of Committees to NSE and APWEN, including organizing national conferences of COREN and NSE hosted by her branch. She is a member of ‘The Materials Science and Technology Society of Nigeria, MSN’. Her research interests include, energy harvesting; micro/nano electromechanical (MEMS/NEMS) devices/sensors; instrumentation; IoT; smart cities automation, and ecological sustainability. She has authored many journal articles on ‘Energy Harvesting’ particularly in the aspect of smart city development.