As part of its ongoing commitment to fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange, BRIDGES organized a joint online lecture series in collaboration with partner academic institutions. Hosted by Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI) under the International Lecture Series on Electric Mobility, these sessions brought together researchers, students, and industry professionals from Germany, Brazil, and beyond.
Promoted through the BRIDGES social media platform and university communication channels, the lecture series served as an accessible platform for sharing innovative research and strengthening connections across the network. The sessions covered a wide range of topics central to the energy transition, with a particular focus on battery technologies, electromobility, and intelligent energy systems.
The series opened with a lecture by Daniel Koch (M. Eng.) who presented key findings from the EU Horizon 2020 MARBEL project on next-generation battery packs for the automotive industry. His talk highlighted the development of modular, lightweight, and reusable battery systems, offering insights into battery architecture, thermal management, and real-world performance validation. The session emphasized the importance of innovative battery design in improving efficiency, sustainability, and lifecycle performance in electric vehicles.
This was followed by a presentation from Charlotte Wierling (CARISSMA), who addressed the critical issue of electric vehicle safety through her work on the BALSAM research project. Her lecture eexplored the complex phenomenon of EV battery fires, examining how thermal events originate at the cell level and propagate through battery systems. She also discussed the environmental and health impacts of emitted pollutants, as well as the implication for first responders and emergency managmenet strategies.
In the subsequent session, Dr. Carlos Rufino Jr. introduced an advanced embedded system designed to enhance grid stability and enable Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications. By combining Model Predictive control (MPC) and Reinforcement Learning (RL), the system demonstrated improved performance in managing real-world challenges such as voltage fluctuations, frequency deviations, and communication delays. The hybrid control approach showed particular promise in achieving more stable energy managmenet while reducing battery degradation and increasing system resilience.
The series concluded with a lecture by Basit Jimoh (CARISSMA), who examined the safety characteristics of large-format semi-solid state batteries under extreme conditions. His research focused on thermal runaway, one of the most critical challenges in battery safety, and compared the behavior of semi-solid state cells with conventional lithium-ion batteries. The findings revealed that while semi-solid cells can delay the onset of thermal runaway under certain stress conditions, they remain vulnerable under mechanical abuse, accentuating the need for continued innovation in battery safety design.
Together, these lectures provided valuable insights into the techonological advancements and challenges shaping the future of sustainable mobility and energy systems. By facilitating dialogue across disciplines and borders, the BRIDGES lecture series ccontinues to strengthen the international research network and promote collaboration in key areas such as battery innovation, electromobility, and energy system integration.
BRIDGES remains committed to expanding these knowledge-sharing activites and looks forward to continuing the lecture series with new topics and contributors in the future.