4 ms·

If the battery industry is so secretive, how do you find out where jobs are?

by cordite 10y ago

gedrap 10y ago
Jobs find you, probably.
- dhruvmittal 10y ago
  Can confirm. My MA research was on an EMD Li-ion cathode material and I get approached by recruiters for companies I haven't even heard of every so often.
owenversteeg 10y ago
I'm not actually working with batteries right now, but as I posted on an earlier HN thread [0] I'm a generalist, and typically when a company hires me one of the first things I do is help them with batteries. Pretty much any company that uses batteries these days can really benefit from my help (for example, reducing the battery cost from $20/battery to $6/battery, or bringing the capacity, given the same space and weight, from 2800mAh to 7000mAh.) Regarding how people specifically hire me, I've been lucky enough to never really need to search for work; it just finds me. Either through HN, or from people I've worked for before. By the way, my email's in my profile; anyone in this thread feel free to contact me. You should especially contact me if you're involved in any project that uses batteries, I always love to hear what people are making. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410359 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410359
- john_k 10y ago
  Do you have any details or examples of your battery work? Those battery numbers almost sound like switching someone from older battery chemistry to a lithium based formula.
  - owenversteeg 10y ago
    Although sometimes it is that simple, the two examples I quoted above (battery cost from $20/battery to $6/battery, and bringing the capacity, given the same space and weight, from 2800mAh to 7000mAh) were both examples where I swapped out existing lithium ion batteries to custom lithium ion battery packs (I build packs myself.) Another example is when a company needed a 10kW output for just a few seconds. I was able to reduce their already-optimized battery pack (the largest weight part of the system) to one twentieth of its original weight. Given a random company that hired me, I could probably accomplish one or two of the below: - Increase battery capacity by 20-120% (average maybe 50% improvement or 1.5x original, for example 900mAh -> 1400mAh) - Increase battery max output power by up to 70x (for example output power 15W -> output power 1000W) - Decrease battery weight by 20-100% (average maybe 40% improvement or 1.4x original, example 500g -> 350g) - Increase cycle lifetimes by 10x (example 300 cycles to 3000 cycles) - Increase or decrease operating voltage of battery - Make a lithium-ion battery extremely safe (not dangerous after extreme drops, heat, cold, short circuits or punctures) - Change battery form factor into something much more convenient That list is of course assuming that they're already using semi-decent lithium-ion batteries. If they're not using li-ion or using bad li-ions, the improvements are (usually) much more drastic than above. If anyone reading this is working on any project requiring batteries, shoot me an email (it's in my profile.) I can reduce cost/weight/charge time and increase power/capacity/durability (whatever you choose) - and the worst case is that I tell you your batteries are already optimal.

If the battery industry is so secretive, how do you find out where jobs are?

by cordite 10y ago

If the battery industry is so secretive, how do you find out where jobs are?

gedrap 10y ago

Jobs find you, probably.

dhruvmittal 10y ago
Can confirm. My MA research was on an EMD Li-ion cathode material and I get approached by recruiters for companies I haven't even heard of every so often.

owenversteeg 10y ago

I'm not actually working with batteries right now, but as I posted on an earlier HN thread [0] I'm a generalist, and typically when a company hires me one of the first things I do is help them with batteries. Pretty much any company that uses batteries these days can really benefit from my help (for example, reducing the battery cost from $20/battery to $6/battery, or bringing the capacity, given the same space and weight, from 2800mAh to 7000mAh.) Regarding how people specifically hire me, I've been lucky enough to never really need to search for work; it just finds me. Either through HN, or from people I've worked for before. By the way, my email's in my profile; anyone in this thread feel free to contact me. You should especially contact me if you're involved in any project that uses batteries, I always love to hear what people are making. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410359 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13410359

john_k 10y ago
Do you have any details or examples of your battery work? Those battery numbers almost sound like switching someone from older battery chemistry to a lithium based formula.
- owenversteeg 10y ago
  Although sometimes it is that simple, the two examples I quoted above (battery cost from $20/battery to $6/battery, and bringing the capacity, given the same space and weight, from 2800mAh to 7000mAh) were both examples where I swapped out existing lithium ion batteries to custom lithium ion battery packs (I build packs myself.) Another example is when a company needed a 10kW output for just a few seconds. I was able to reduce their already-optimized battery pack (the largest weight part of the system) to one twentieth of its original weight. Given a random company that hired me, I could probably accomplish one or two of the below: - Increase battery capacity by 20-120% (average maybe 50% improvement or 1.5x original, for example 900mAh -> 1400mAh) - Increase battery max output power by up to 70x (for example output power 15W -> output power 1000W) - Decrease battery weight by 20-100% (average maybe 40% improvement or 1.4x original, example 500g -> 350g) - Increase cycle lifetimes by 10x (example 300 cycles to 3000 cycles) - Increase or decrease operating voltage of battery - Make a lithium-ion battery extremely safe (not dangerous after extreme drops, heat, cold, short circuits or punctures) - Change battery form factor into something much more convenient That list is of course assuming that they're already using semi-decent lithium-ion batteries. If they're not using li-ion or using bad li-ions, the improvements are (usually) much more drastic than above. If anyone reading this is working on any project requiring batteries, shoot me an email (it's in my profile.) I can reduce cost/weight/charge time and increase power/capacity/durability (whatever you choose) - and the worst case is that I tell you your batteries are already optimal.