Purdue technology shown to extend digital device battery life advances with $750,000 NSF grant

Mobile Enerlytics, a startup based on Purdue technology, has been awarded a $750,000 federal grant to further develop the mobile app industry’s first energy management solution that could extend the battery life of smartphones. Company CEO and co-founder Y Charlie Hu is a Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering. (Purdue Research Foundation photo) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  – A Purdue technology shown to extend battery life of digital devices has received federal funding to further develop the technology that could impact billions of devices including smartphones, notebooks and smartwatches across the world.

Mobile Enerlytics LLC was awarded a National Science Foundation SBIR Phase II grant of $749,998 to develop the mobile app industry’s first energy management solution to help app developers reduce battery drain, thereby, extending smartphone battery life for users. The company is based in the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, Indiana.

According to App Annie, annual revenue in the mobile app industry is expected to more than double to $139.1 billion by 2021.

“While the number of apps is growing, digital device battery technology has barely advanced in the past decade,” said Y. Charlie Hu, CEO and co-founder of Mobile Enerlytics and professor of electrical and computer engineering in Purdue’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “It will become increasingly important to manage battery use as more and more apps become available.”

The funding will help Mobile Enerlytics develop advanced capabilities of the company’s Eagle end-to-end app energy management solution, the first technology of its kind.

“Eagle is an app energy management solution that tests, profiles and monitors apps for their energy draining properties in a continuous feedback loop from initial app development through user installation and running on their phones for each and every app release,” he said.

The technology is designed to seamlessly integrate into industry standard Continuous Integration app development workflow, which allows teams of developers to effectively build complex, feature-rich mobile apps.

Mobile Enerlytics also developed Estar, a free, no-adds app that shows users how fast different apps on their smartphones are draining their batteries. The app has more than 100,000 downloads from Google Play.

"When a smartphone user starts Estar, it provides two options: to find energy-efficient apps or to stop power-hungry apps running on the phone," Hu said.

More information about Mobile Enerlytics is available at mobileenerlytics.com

About Mobile Enerlytics LLC

Mobile Enerlytics LLC is an Indiana-based technology company with the mission of developing technologies that extend smartphone battery life by enabling energy-centric mobile app design. Mobile Enerlytics develops software that empowers app developers to detect and eliminate energy glitches in app source code before each and every app release. For more information, visit http://www.mobileenerlytics.com.

About Purdue Research Foundation

The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Established in 1930, the foundation accepts gifts; administers trusts; funds scholarships and grants; acquires property; protects Purdue's intellectual property; and promotes entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Purdue. The foundation manages the Purdue Foundry, Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, Purdue Research Park and Purdue Technology Centers. The foundation received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Curt Slyder, 765-588-3342, caslyder@prf.org

Source: Y. Charlie Hu, ychu@mobileenerlytics.com