Brady, IanEsuke, MikailaMcCarthy, LiamSamson, CatherinaSebastian, RithikWedzielewski, MarkYadav, SanjaliTeam PISO recognizes an urgent need for new niches of environmentally sustainable energy, and believes that piezoelectric materials offer a small part of a solution. With this consideration, Team PISO has focused on the process of optimizing the application of strain on a piezoelectric component by altering the dimensions of a cantilever beam. Future research in this avenue could focus on a computational model based off of the experimental data collected herein, or more focused optimization of a selected cantilever profile. In the long term, PISO’s research could be applied to energy harvesters to reclaim power from vibrations and deformations, such as sounds and footsteps, as a novel source of renewable energy for implementation in public, heavily-traveled areas. This paper investigates the relationship between the geometric shape of a piezoelectric cantilever structure and its power output from discrete impulses. To this end, Team PISO created several curved cantilevers to examine the impact of the geometry of a piezoelectric cantilever on its output. These cantilevers were tested on an apparatus that simulated the movement of a footstep and their power outputs compared. PISO concluded that convex cantilevers were the most effective, with the convex spherical geometry outputting 24% more power than the control rectangular geometry.Gemstone Team PISOAn Investigation of the Effect of Curved Cantilever Geometry on Piezoelectric Power OutputThesis