What’s a Battery Slam?

Battery Slam

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.
(Click to enlarge.)

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.”

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Job Hunting: A Student’s View

By: Josh Billy, The Ohio State University

The 232nd ECS Meeting will be featuring several new events, including the ECS Career Expo. As a PhD candidate moving ever-closer to defending my thesis, I couldn’t be more excited for this new addition.

I have been to three ECS biannual meetings and several local chapter events as a graduate student. I’ve used meetings to share my work, learn about a lot of interesting research from other groups, and perhaps most importantly, network. Meeting fellow electrochemists, especially those working on projects related to mine, is difficult to do anywhere other than ECS meetings. In a similar way, I’ve struggled to come across electrochemistry positions during my job search.

Because it’s always important to think ahead, I used the sponsor exhibits at previous meetings as a makeshift career fair. In Hawaii last year, I made my way around the booths and spoke to exhibitors while trying to get a feel for what types of jobs they might have available. The problem with the sponsor exhibit, however, is that the job types are limited; companies with sponsor exhibits are mostly (this is not always the case) making products that researchers use rather than for general consumers. The truth is that there are many more companies with electrochemistry positions available not previously represented at ECS meetings. The new ECS Career Expo will hopefully change that.

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Posted in Students

Student Volunteers Wanted!

ECS Student MembersVolunteer for six hours at the 231st ECS Meeting and receive a FREE meeting registration!

As a student volunteer, you will work closely with the ECS staff and gain first-hand experience in what it takes to execute an ECS biannual meeting.

Take advantage of the opportunity to network and engage with meeting attendees, symposium organizers, and ECS staff while learning how registration operates, technical sessions run, and how major meeting programs are facilitated. In addition to hands-on experience, volunteers will also receive a meeting t-shirt, a complimentary ticket to the student mixer and a certificate of participation.

Multilingual speakers are highly encouraged to apply!

Deadline for application submissions: Friday, April 21
Candidates notified: Tuesday, April 25

SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

NOTE: If you do not complete the six hours of work on-site, you will be invoiced for the full registration fee. We will do our best to accommodate the hours you have listed as being available but this is not a guarantee. Each volunteer position will require interaction with the attendees, long periods of standing, and foot-traffic flow management. If you are unwilling or unable to complete these tasks please make us aware upon submitting your application.

Support Students and Young Scientists

ECS at 115

As we reflect on the 115th anniversary of ECS, it is also important to look towards the future and strengthen opportunities for the next generation of scientists.

In 2016, ECS provided support for student and early career scientists through:

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Board RoomAt its most recent board of directors meeting during PRiME 2016, ECS leadership approved the addition of students who are ECS members as voting members of the Individual Membership Committee and Education Committee. This governance change is many years in the making with the understanding that if the student member voice is most warranted, it is within these two committees. The timing is perfect as ECS student membership is burgeoning with 64 student chapters around the world and more to come. Our student population takes full advantage of our biannual meetings to network, share, and learn so volunteer leadership within our governance structure is an appropriate next step.

About the Committees

The Individual Membership Committee is charged with retaining and recruiting our organization’s membership on a Society, student and institutional level. The Education Committee has the responsibility of providing educational and career development opportunities to that group. The scope of the work of the two committees are broad with the potential for further growth that parallels the growth of our constituency, its needs and external forces such as new technology and shifts in best practices.

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Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
Dec. 16, 2016
Submit today!

ECS StudentsTopic Close-up #1

Symposium A06: Battery Student Slam 1

Symposium Focus on the first ever Battery Student Slam is meant to provide lively and engaging presentations by students early in their research careers. The symposium is only open to submissions from students pursuing degrees at the undergraduate or graduate levels. Students will give 10 minute presentations about their research followed by 2 minutes of questions and discussion from the audience. All topics of relevance to battery research and in areas previously sponsored by the Battery Division are welcome.

Featuring the top three presentations will be recognized with cash prizes and awards as judged by the symposium organizers!

Learn about all the New Orleans topics!

ECS Munich Student Chapter

Attendees of the 1st ECS Student Chapter Munich Symposium at the entrance of the TUM IAS building. TUM is the top academic institution by student ECS membership!

Student membership is fundamental to ECS. Without student members—its inquisitive, innovative minds—the ECS would not be the thriving organization it is today.

The ECS has put down roots in academic institutions around the world that grow each and every day. ECS staff recently analyzed membership data to determine which academic institutions had the greatest presence based upon student ECS membership.

The chart below lists the top 40 academic institutions based upon student ECS membership.

Note: This analysis recognizes only student ECS members in good standing. Expired members were not taken into account.

Check out the chart to find out if your institution made the list!

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Wanted: Student Volunteers

ECS is excited to announce a volunteer program for ECS student members at the 229th ECS Meeting in San Diego, CA, May 29-June 2, 2016. This program was first piloted in the fall at the ECS meeting in Phoenix, AZ.Student Volunteer Photo

As a student aide, you will work closely with the ECS staff and gain first-hand experience in what it takes to execute an ECS biannual meeting. Take advantage of the opportunity to network and engage with meeting attendees, symposium organizers and ECS staff while learning how registration operates, technical sessions run and how major meeting programs are facilitated.

Interested in participating within this program? Click here to fill out your application today!

Please note, the deadline to apply is March 11th. The selected candidates will be notified the week of March 14th.

Benefits include a unique behind the scenes experience, networking opportunities, a FREE San Diego meeting registration, an ECS shirt, and a certificate of participation! For more information or questions regarding the application process, please contact membership services intern, Abby Hosonitz, at abigail.hosonitz@electrochem.org.

We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

Top row (l to r): Mark Sivak, Samantha Brain, Zachary Widel Middle row: Middle Row: Jeromy Rech, Dr. Jason Keleher, Richard Wiencek Third row: Julianne Truffa, Lisa Janes, Jacob MurrayBottom row: Amy Mlynarski

Top row (l to r): Mark Sivak, Samantha Brain, Zachary Widel Middle row: Jeromy Rech, Dr. Jason Keleher, Richard Wiencek Third row: Julianne Truffa, Lisa Janes, Jacob Murray Bottom row: Amy Mlynarski

From outreach to knowledge acquisition, the newly established Lewis University student chapter is paving a path to instill a new-found enthusiasm in electrochemical science and technology.

“We will be able to help foster a sense of excitement for electrochemistry and begin to inspire others, in the same way that we were inspired,” says Jeromy Rech, chair of the Lewis University student chapter.

The inspiration behind starting the student chapter began in the late spring of this year, when a group of students from Lewis University’s Keleher Research Group presented at the 227th ECS Meeting in Chicago, IL. Upon meeting other ECS student members that initiated student chapters of their own, Rech and his group knew that forming a chapter at Lewis University was in the cards.

“We saw this as a great opportunity to begin to network and cultivate an academic relationship with other students who share similar passions,” Rech says.

Once the chapter was approved at the 228th ECS Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, the group immediately put the ball in motion. From volunteering as judges in an annual science fair to hosting the capstone presentations for chemistry majors, the chapter is on track with its goals of outreach and knowledge acquisition.

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Discussion during poster session. From left to right: Maximilian Bernt, Lukas Seidl, Thomas Mittermeier, Ludwig Asen, Benedikt Brandes (hidden).

Discussion during poster session. From left to right: Maximilian Bernt, Lukas Seidl, Thomas Mittermeier, Ludwig Asen, Benedikt Brandes (hidden).

Networking and knowledge exchange are at the heart of the newly established Munich student chapter.

“We wanted to establish an easy way to find people you could talk to when you encounter problems, want to vent your ideas about your experiments, or get some help,” says Thomas Mittermeier, chair of the student chapter and PhD student at Technische Universität München.

The student chapter, which pulls students from multiple universities across Munich, is working to assist in connecting themes and ideas happening in electrochemical research across the city. For Mittermeier and the rest of the students, it provides an avenue to transfer knowledge and bring more depth to research with ease.

“Since we’re from different individual research groups that all relate in some way to electrochemistry, the initial idea to start a student chapter was sparked from that,” Mittermeier says.

Establishing the Chapter

From ideas to research tools, the Munich student chapter is using an organized flow between universities and research groups to make research easier, producing better results. While the idea for this collaboration was sparked from the diversity and depth in research happening in Munich, the ideal platform was not always as apparent.

As a student member, Mittermeier regularly received ECS’s student newsletter. After seeing a list ranking universities by their number of student members, Mittermeier thought it was strange that his own university— Technische Universität München—was so high on the list but did not have a student chapter. With this, the ball started rolling for what would be the Munich student chapter.

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