GM Initiative To Be Incubator for Battery-Engineering Education
January 13, 2009

By Bill Visnic

      DETROIT -- In announcing a plan to assemble in Michigan the lithium-ion battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, General Motors Corp. also is forming an education cooperative that aims to train a new breed of engineer that can commingle electrical and automotive knowledge.

Part of GM's multi-faceted approach to build a foundation for the domestic development and supply of advanced batteries for the auto   industry is a $5-million, five-year program that establishes at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor the GM/U-M Advanced Battery Coalition for Drivetrains (ABCD).

Ann Marie Sastry, the University of Michigan's Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical, Biomedical and Materials Science and Engineering -- and U-M's co-director of the ABCD -- said at the Detroit auto show here the program also incorporates a new Master's degree called Energy Systems Engineering. About 25 U-of-M students and 50 GM engineers last week began the one-year Energy Systems Engineering track, Sastry said.

The course is available online and focuses on three competencies that interrelate for vehicle battery development, she said: portable electronics, vehicle technology and electricity-grid infrastructure.

Sastry said portable electronics are an area of concentration because many battery developments currently are driven by the personal-electronics industry. And understanding of the energy-grid infrastructure is vital because it will be important to optimize the connection between advanced hybrid and electric vehicles and the grid.

"Michigan is going to become a hotbed for this kind of activity," said Jim Queen, GM's group vice president of global engineering. "This is a larger societal problem we're addressing together."

The 75 or so students enrolled in the initial Energy Systems Engineering track are just a start, however: "We need thousands of engineers in this space," said Sastry.

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