Menu
BIC, BrightVolt host open house
The Battery Innovation Center (BIC) and partner BrightVolt held an open house on Wednesday, which was open to the public in order to give them an idea of what is going on at the facility.
Acting President of BIC Ben Wrightsman welcomed guests and spoke of advancements in battery technologies and education efforts.
“We have a lot of exciting things going on,” Wrightsman said. “Some of our key missions today have been our advanced battery build, a lot of testing validation and the education and outreach has been huge for us this year.”
Wrightsman noted a partnership with Vincennes University has allowed several educational courses to be held at the facility, with the first class set to graduate in December.
“We’ve got one of those students already employed out of there. He works for the BIC today. He is a veteran that returned back to this area, and we have a few others that are under consideration for hire as well,” Wrightsman said.
Wrightsman also stated the BIC now has a total of 85 companies the organization works with and the batteries being worked on in the facility are equal in parity with fossil fuels.
“It’s a revolutionary, game-changing technology,” Wrightsman said.
BrightVolt Chief Executive Officer Todd Peters also addressed those in attendance about the advancements in battery chemistry his team has been working on.
“We have the world’s largest portfolio of thin-film patents,” Peters said. “We have about 55 patents today and we have 25 more pending. These are arranged from the chemistry, as well the construction, that allows our batteries have the characteristics of a solid state and the performance of a solid state battery, but they’re more thermally stable than liquid lithium.”
Peters added BrightVolt is currently working on a patch which will be able to measure glucose layers, which will eliminate the need for a blood sample for diabetics.
Following a presentation from lead polymer scientist John Dillashaw, who demonstrated how the batteries operate when being exposed to heat, submerged and cut, Peters said the purpose of the open house was to introduce the company to the public.
“We’re new members of the community, we want to meet people,” he said.
Peters noted the desire to put BrightVolt’s space in the BIC to work and be an employment opportunity for those in the area.
“Our philosophy is to hire locally,” Peters said. “Good companies participate in the community. Even though we’re small, we hope to make high paying jobs which can cover a range of education, both trained and non-trained.”
Wrightsman added anybody interested in what BIC does is welcome to make an appointment to tour the facility.