Electric Vehicle Research Speeds Ahead with NSF CAREER Award

Electric vehicles including cars and aircraft to reduce carbon emissions, but researchers are still working toward making them safer and more energy efficient. Because such systems require lithium-ion batteries or other components that can lead to thermal runaway, they require dedicated systems in order to operate safely and efficiently under all conditions.

Dr. Justin Koeln, associate professor of mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science received a 2024 Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research to improve thermal management in electric vehicles.

Koeln received a $590,000 award to develop new modeling and control techniques to manage the temperature of components in electric vehicles and aircraft.

The increasing electrification of high-power applications such as cars and aircraft requires advanced thermal management systems to run efficiently and safely, Koeln said.

“Every aspect of this research is focused on increasing the trust we can have in thermal management systems, which play a critical, yet often overlooked, role in many systems we interact with on a daily basis,” Koeln said. “From modeling these systems in ways that put bounds on all of their possible behavior, to developing controllers that can optimize system operation while guaranteeing safety, this project will help make thermal systems a key enabler in the further electrification of society.”

Researchers in Koeln’s Energy Systems Control Laboratory will focus on developing dynamic systems modeling and advanced control to improve thermal management for electric power systems. Koeln intends to include both undergraduate and graduate researchers and incorporate the study into his courses, emphasizing that there is a critical workforce need for thermal control engineers to support increasingly electrified vehicles.

Koeln completed a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Utah State University and a master’s and a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He previously earned a Young Investigator Program award from the Office of Naval Research to study thermal management systems in aircraft.