Sravan PannalaBattery degradation & sensing

Commercialization

Taking low-cost expansion sensing out of the lab and toward the manufacturing line.

Democratizing battery expansion measurements

2025–2026

MTRAC Advanced Transportation · Michigan Economic Development Corporation / Michigan Strategic Fund

Technical lead and proposal co-author · PI Prof. Jason B. Siegel

Translating low-cost inductive expansion sensing out of the lab and toward manufacturing use. Formation is where the SEI first grows, and it shows up as the cell's first irreversible expansion; measured on every cell, it can reveal defects and let formation protocols be shortened. Selected through a competitive process ending in an in-person pitch to an oversight committee of industry and venture professionals.

Cost per channel
~$50 vs ~$2,000 for the LVDT standard
Resolution
0.5 µm
Deployment
120 fixtures
Maturity
TRL 6
  • Co-wrote the funded proposal and lead the technical programme: sensor hardware revisions, calibration and temperature correction, and the formation and cycle-life measurement campaign behind it.
  • Built the market and competitive analysis, identifying research and pilot-scale labs as the beachhead where the cost gap matters most.
  • Exploring licensing and startup pathways for the technology. No entity has been formed.

Customer discovery for battery expansion measurement

2026

NSF I-Corps Great Lakes · National Science Foundation

Entrepreneurial Lead

Completed the University of Michigan Summer 2026 cohort, running 11 customer-discovery interviews across cell manufacturing and battery research to test the market hypotheses behind the expansion sensor.

    Intellectual property

    All assigned to the Regents of the University of Michigan.

    Accelerated battery lifetime simulations using adaptive inter-cycle extrapolation algorithm

    A. G. Stefanopoulou, V. Sulzer, P. Mohtat, S. Pannala, J. B. Siegel

    US App. 18/122,361pending2023

    Simulates years of battery aging in minutes by adaptively extrapolating between cycles while still resolving degradation within them.

    Detection of an internal short circuit in a battery

    A. G. Stefanopoulou, J. B. Siegel, S. Pannala, T. Cai, M. Zhang

    US 11,355,824 B2granted2022

    Detects an internal short circuit from the cell's mechanical response, catching a failure mode that electrical signatures alone can miss.

    Where it stands

    The technology is at TRL 6: validated in a laboratory environment, not yet in production. No company has been formed. I am exploring licensing and startup pathways alongside the research.