More than 3.5 million miles of rivers snake though countryside and cities alike in the United States. Worldwide, half the population lives within a few miles of a river, while less than 10% live more than 10 miles away from one. These statistics underlie the historical dependency humans have had on rivers, continuing to this day. With so much access to flowing water, University of Virginia School of Engineering professor Hilary Bart-Smith recently wondered if it could be possible to convert river currents into electrical currents using her research in bio-inspired hydrofoils—also known as robotic fish fins—found on her lab's famous Tunabot. The system she envisions would allow for low-cost devices, with minimal environmental impact on ecosystems, to be placed in rivers to covert flowing water into energy. The devices would connect to local power grids, providing electricity to consumers. This new renewable energy device could be especially useful in areas where there is already limited access to electricity—like very rural communities located near rivers in Alaska or farming communities on the African Continent. As climate change continues to affect weather, and by extension energy usage, the strain on aging power grids will continue to grow—as it has recently during the recent cold snap in Texas and other states where over a million people experienced power outages. Over the next three years, Bart-Smith, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, will lead a multi-institutional team of researchers from UVA Engineering, Virginia Tech, Lehigh University and Sandia National Laboratories in the development of the bio-inspired, renewable energy device after receivinga $3.5 million grantfrom the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E).