As battery technologies expand into new applications and system designs become increasingly complex, engineers face growing challenges in optimizing performance, improving safety, and accelerating development. How can modeling and simulation help turn these challenges into opportunities?
At the COMSOL Conference, Volta Foundation sat down with Niloofar Kamyab, Ph.D., Product Management Lead at COMSOL, Inc., to discuss the role of simulation in advancing battery innovation, the challenges facing engineers and researchers, and the importance of staying connected to the broader battery community through Volta Foundation.
Here’s what Niloofar had to say.
What is the primary purpose of the COMSOL Conference?
The COMSOL Conference brings together engineers, researchers and industry leaders to discuss the innovations and advancements they’ve made using modeling and simulation to tackle their challenges, across different engineering problems and different disciplines.
It’s all about learning together, exchanging ideas and discussing where innovation is headed.
What are the biggest trends or challenges you’re hearing about from battery engineers and researchers?
As you may know, batteries are expanding quite rapidly into different applications, and each application has its own requirements and its own nuances. Batteries also don’t work in isolation. They need to be integrated within a system and coupled with other applications and other physics.
So what we hear from our users is that there are so many unknowns. No matter how promising an idea is, the very first step in turning a concept into a viable solution is understanding it. Then across the development process there’s a lot of iteration and trial and error.
That’s where simulation comes into play. You get a better understanding of what that solution or innovation is, and you can minimize the iterations along the way, if not eliminate them. With chemistries and designs diversifying, people have lots of different ideas, and simulation helps them optimize the path from idea to solution and commercialization.
What motivated COMSOL to become a Volta Foundation member?
We joined Volta Foundation because we wanted to get closer to the community and stay connected. One thing everyone knows about the battery industry is that it’s evolving quite rapidly, so it’s very important to stay in touch and know the trends and the challenges the industry is facing, across different areas and across the supply chain.
I think Volta Foundation does a great job informing the community and sharing news and updates. The Battery Report is one of them.
From a modeling and simulation perspective, it’s very important for us to be aware of those challenges. What we’re after is equipping ourselves with solutions, so that the people using modeling and simulation are equipped to tackle the challenges in the field too.
How has COMSOL benefited from its Volta Foundation membership so far?
Volta Foundation does a great job bringing the community together by hosting online and in-person events, whether that’s webinars or forums. We’ve done multiple webinars and taken part in the battery forums. It was a great opportunity for us to get the message across about what modeling and simulation can offer the battery industry and how people can benefit from it.
But we also got engagement. We got to know what the challenges are, and what the point of view is from people active in manufacturing and across different areas. So it’s been quite substantial for us, both for the exposure and for staying informed and up to date within the battery industry.
In terms of in-person events, I attended Women in Batteries last year, which was an amazing event, and I also went to the social event Volta Foundation hosted at the International Battery Seminar. These days, at any major battery conference you go to, Volta Foundation has become an integral part of it. It’s almost impossible to imagine the battery industry without Volta Foundation.
What would you say to someone considering joining Volta Foundation?
For anyone who’s part of the battery industry, being part of Volta Foundation isn’t optional anymore. It’s a must.
