Davide Brunelli

Davide Brunelli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Trento, Italy. His research focuses on energy harvesting, ultra-low-power embedded systems, and wireless sensor networks, with applications in IoT, environmental monitoring, and smart infrastructure. He has led numerous EU-funded and industrial research projects and maintains active collaborations with institutions such as ETH Zurich and the University of Bologna.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications and Computer Science, University of Bologna (2007)
• M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering (summa cum laude), University of Bologna (2002)

His research interests include energy scavenging for embedded systems, low-power wireless sensor networks, energy-aware communication protocols, battery-less systems, indoor positioning, and IoT applications in agriculture, structural health, and smart buildings. His work bridges hardware and software optimization for sustainable, self-powered sensing systems.

The most recent publications reflect a strong trend toward self-powered and transiently-operated systems, energy-neutral architectures, and intelligent sensing with applications in environmental monitoring, industrial IoT, and localization. Key themes include energy harvesting integration, ultra-low power communication, and real-time adaptive algorithms.

Scientific Awards:

• Best Paper Awards at IEEE/ACM conferences (2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021)
• Research.com Computer Science in Italy Leader Award (2024, 2025)
• Research.com Electronics and Electrical Engineering in Italy Leader Award (2025)

Brunelli has supervised numerous research projects and advised EU and national funding agencies as an independent expert. He has led key initiatives such as IoT Proto Lab, GreenDataNet, and EnerViS, and has secured significant industrial partnerships with Telecom Italia, STMicroelectronics, and Hewlett-Packard. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Sensors and has organized major conferences including IEEE Metrology for Industry 4.0 and ACM ENSSys.

He is actively involved in technology transfer, co-founding WISPES srl and transferring energy harvesting innovations to Telecom Italia. His lab supports a testbed for CPS and WSN applications, including deployments in tunnels and smart buildings.