2025 Battery Research Summer School

Are you an advanced undergraduate or early graduate student interested in batteries, energy storage, and electrochemistry? Want to gain real-world lab skills to set yourself apart in research or industry?

Join us for an intensive four-day program that goes beyond traditional lectures. You’ll build and test real batteries, interpret electrochemical data, and develop the troubleshooting skills essential for cutting-edge battery research.

✅ Hands-on Learning – Assemble, cycle, and analyze lithium-ion batteries using safe, non-toxic materials.
✅ Build Practical Intuition – Learn how thermodynamics, transport, and kinetics shape battery performance.
✅ Solve Real-World Problems – Diagnose battery issues, optimize designs, and troubleshoot like a pro.
✅ Learn from Experts – Engage with leading battery researchers in interactive lectures and guest talks.
✅ Get Certified – Earn a certificate of completion and take home valuable learning materials.

🔹 Set up and cycle Li-ion cells safely and effectively
🔹 Measure capacity, voltage, and performance trade-offs
🔹 Troubleshoot real electrochemical problems
🔹 Explore redox flow batteries through interactive simulations
🔹 Gain hands-on experience without needing a full wet lab

This program is designed for later-stage undergraduates and early graduate students in engineering, physics, chemistry, and related fields. Whether you're looking to break into battery research or enhance your experimental skills for an internship, this experience will give you a head start in the field.

Info: Introduction to battery components, capacity, charge-discharge behavior.
Hands-on lab: Cycling Li-ion batteries – equipment, parameters, safety.
Thermodynamics: Cell voltages, electrolyte stability.
Lab: Assembling batteries with different metals/electrolytes to optimize voltage.

Info: Data analysis: Interpreting capacity and thermodynamic behavior from Day 1.
True cell voltage vs. thermodynamic voltage – transport, kinetics, iR drop.
Lab: Testing Li-ion cells under different conditions.
Introduction to redox flow batteries – interactive design simulations.

Info: Electrode preparation and manufacturing challenges.
Lab: Preparing and assembling Li-ion electrode films.
Lab: Building and testing Li-ion cells.
Data interpretation: Rate capability and transport effects.

Info: Virtual troubleshooting of redox flow battery systems.
Group review of real-world battery challenges.
Guest lecture on frontiers in battery research.
Closing reflections and wrap-up

Host or Publisher Prof. Graham Leverick