UC student aims to improve electric vehicles
Graduate student’s research optimizes vehicle design
Through his research in the Integrated Vehicle Design Lab at the University of Cincinnati, Mohammad Behtash merges his interests in green energy and automotive technology to optimize the design process that could be used by the electric vehicle industry to build less costly and more efficient cars. Behtash, a mechanical engineering doctoral student, was selected by UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science as the Graduate Student Engineer of the Month.
What drew you to UC for your master's and Ph.D. studies?
The University of Cincinnati is home to one of the research labs that I wanted to join after finishing my undergraduate studies. The research that was being conducted at the Integrated Vehicle Design Laboratory was well aligned with my research interests and that was the main motivation for me to apply to the graduate school here at UC.
Describe your research work. What problems do you hope to solve?
Mohammad Behtash. Photo/provided.
Most design practices in industry, specifically in the automotive sector, follow the legacy design strategy. That means when developing a new product, engineers mostly follow the existing design patterns. Even though this strategy is time efficient, it does not guarantee new systems’ optimality because it carries over the same design from previous generations that may not have been the best option in the first place.
Designing an optimal system — such as an electric vehicle that has the most desirable efficiency, reliability, and cost — is not an easy task. It requires numerous expensive iterations over costly prototypes. However, thanks to the emergence of powerful computing machines, prototypes no longer need to be physical; they can be modeled with mathematical equations and tested in simulation environments at a fraction of the time and cost. Even though this iterative numerical simulation is getting a lot of attention in the industry and is currently being used, finding that optimal design is still a challenging task. The number of possible designs for a given real-world system is just too large, even when using a modern computer.
The end goal of our research would be to pave the way towards a fully electrified cost-effective clean transportation system.
Mohammad Behtash mechanical engineering doctoral student
Our research addresses this issue by proposing a set of design optimization algorithms that can help engineers find the optimal design for such systems. By utilizing effective mathematical optimization schemes, our algorithms would allow engineers to optimize their systems for any desired objectives without iterating over all the possible designs.
We hope to attract the electric vehicle industry to use our formulations when designing new vehicles. Our proposed algorithms’ impact in this industry can potentially be significant. For instance, our formulations can help electric vehicle design engineers overcome the challenges that they usually face, such as cost effectiveness and efficiency. The end goal of our research would be to pave the way towards a fully electrified cost-effective clean transportation system that many countries aim at building.
What are a few of your accomplishments of which you are most proud?
Every researcher will feel accomplished if they see their work presented, published and, most importantly, recognized. Due to the importance and impact of our ongoing research, my colleagues and I have been honored to present our research in several well-known conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Though we have not limited ourselves to conference presentations, we have also been actively publishing our works in several famous journals such as the Journal of Mechanical Design. After publishing the work, seeing it recognized by other renowned researchers in our field is what makes me proud every day.
What are some of the most impactful experiences during your time at UC?
In my third year of graduate school, I was given the opportunity to teach the Applied Computational Methods Lab as an instructor in the spring and summer of 2019. After realizing the importance and impact of student involvement, I took the initiative to implement an anonymous electronic feedback system in the class, via which my students could submit their feedback for each session by scanning a QR code with their phones. This was implemented in the summer semester and resulted in significant improvements in the students’ performance and satisfaction compared to the previous semester. I was able to adjust the class and the teaching materials according to my students’ needs. Due to its effectiveness and impact on student learning, this strategy was later adopted by another instructor who taught the same class after I did.
What inspires you to work hard every day in your field of study?
When you work in your favorite area — design and optimization of vehicles, in my case — you really do not need any external motivations to work. The job itself is the motivation! As they say, “find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Featured image at top: Electric vehicle being charged. Photo/Ernest Ojeh/Unsplash.
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