Participants of the inaugural Battery Student Slam at the 231st ECS Meeting, from left to right: Sunhyung Jurng (session chair), University of Rhode Island; Mickdy Milien (session chair), University of Rhode Island; Robert Masse, University of Washington; Jeffrey Smith, University of Michigan; Jennifer Hoffmann (session chair), BASF Corporation; Vaclav Knap, Aalborg University; and Edward Thai, California State University, Long Beach.
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The first ever ECS Battery Student Slam symposium took place at 231st ECS Meeting in New Orleans, providing young researchers a new experience in presenting oral presentations at ECS meetings. After the success of the inaugural symposium, the Battery Student Slam is set to make its second appearance at the upcoming 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor, MD, October 1-5.
“We’re trying to create a symposium format that’s student-friendly,” says Brett Lucht, lead organizer of the symposium at the 231st ECS Meeting.
The symposium is open to students pursing undergraduate or graduate degrees geared toward battery-related research, ranging from battery materials and design to fuel cells and supercapacitors. Each student participating in the symposium delivers a 10 minute presentation about their work followed by two minutes of questions and discussion from the audience. The top three presentations in the symposium are then recognized with cash prizes and awards as judged by the symposium organizers.
“By putting students in their own symposium and giving them shorter periods of time for their presentations, we felt it would create less stress for the students,” Lucht says.
During the inaugural symposium at the 231st ECS Meeting, Wenhao Li from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst took home the first place prize with his talk, “Nanoimprinting of Woodpile Electrodes for 3D Lithium-Ion Microbatteries with Both High Capacity and Power.”
“It was a great experience participating in the slam. It’s always exciting to hear other students who work in related fields sharing their researches,” Li says. “To me, what made this symposium special was the helping dynamics. The presenters came to share and learn, and the audience was willing to raise questions as well as to provide valuable suggestions.”
Another winning presentation belonged to Dejuante Walker from California State University, Long Beach, with the talk, “Study to Improve Electrolytes in Sodium Batteries.”
“My experience at the slam was one that I’ll never forget. Being able to present my work to many other scientists in my field for the first time gave me a huge sense of accomplishment and confidence in my abilities,” Walker says. “This symposium is an excellent opportunity for students who are interested in research both as attendees and as presenters. As a presenter, I was able to talk about my work with peers and professionals in my field, which I felt furthered my technical communication skills. As an attendee, I was also able look at some of the new and exciting discoveries being made in my field, and gave me some ideas for my own project.”
The next battery slam will take place at the 232nd ECS Meeting in National Harbor, MD, October 1-5. Early bird registration for the 232nd ECS Meeting ends September 1. Register today!
