Mechanical engineer Yan Wang has developed the only practical process for recycling lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, an ideas that has spawned a promising company. His work will enter a new phase with a $1 million award from a consortium of the nation’s largest car makers.
Research at WPI tends to have a practical focus, as our faculty and student researchers tackle important problems and develop ideas and products designed to make an impact in the real world. The mission of the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) is to help protect those ideas and to realize their value in the marketplace. The office identifies, evaluates, values, protects, classifies, markets, and licenses the intellectual property assets developed by WPI researchers and other significant users of WPI resources.
Visit the Office of Technology Commercialization to learn more about how it supports scholars and entrepreneurs.
Big Three Auto Makers Fund Battery Recycling Work
Wang USABC Phase 2 Main.JPG
Yan Wang in his lab at WPI with a sample of the cathode materials he is able to produce with his process for recycling lithium-ion batteries. The focus of his work with USABC is electric and hybrid vehicle batteries, like those piled on the lab table.
Honoring a Life of Innovative Work with Metals
Diran Apelian, known worldwide for his pioneering research on metallurgy and recycling and as the founder of the largest industry-university collaboration in North America, has translated his research into five new companies. He recently became the first faculty member to be honored as WPI’s Innovator of the Year.
Apelian Innovator of Year.jpg
Diran Apelian, WPI’s 2018 Innovator of the Year, is known internationally for his research on metal processing and for founding the Metal Processing Institute at WPI. In recent years his research interests have turned to resource recycling and recovery.
A Robotic System Turns Up the Heat on Brain Tumors
WPI robotics engineer Gregory Fischer (above, left) is a pioneer in the development of surgical robots that operate inside MRI scanners, work that is being commercialized. With a colleague at Albany Medical College, he won a new $3.5 million NIH award to develop a robotic system that will destroy brain tumors.
Korkin NIH Main 1.jpg
Dmitry Korkin stands before a depiction of a network of proteins that are affected by type 2 diabetes (in pink). The lines represent protein-protein interactions that are expected to be affected by the mutations that are linked to types 2 diabetes.