Though electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering play significant roles in the behavior of many engineered systems – either through their fundamental operation (i.e. batteries) or secondary effects (i.e. corrosion) – engineering undergraduates typically do not graduate with appreciable fundamental knowledge in these area. It is important for our community to reach out to these students and develop coursework modules that build both fundamental and applied knowledge related to electrochemical systems. In this talk, integration of electrochemical science and engineering principles into a Junior Laboratory course will be discussed. The battery module in this course was offered for over a two-year period.

In this laboratory, teams of four students are provided with a problem statement: Design a battery pack that can seamlessly REPLACE the AA batteries in a child’s toy. Students are allowed to choose their own platform. They must determine the power requirements for the toy under various operational conditions. Of course, on day 1, undergraduates do not know almost anything about how to design a battery. Therefore, the students systematically step them through a series of tasks and lectures to build their knowledge and competency – covering thermodynamics, polarization (kinetics and mass transfer), cell design, etc. These lectures and iteration of their battery design occurs over the course of an entire semester. The details around these will be discussed in the talk.

The lab culminates with a demonstration day where teams show off their home-made batteries, operating a wide range of toys.