Light up

Note to self: Take picture of pouch cell.

Tuesday 5/19/09

            It feels like I’m in school again. I’ve been given a lot of reading material about impedance to go over. We briefly touched upon this subject in EE 202, which I just took last semester. Albert and my boss Mohit have both taken some time and gone over with me the basic principles of impedance of different circuit elements, and gave me some literature that I have to read. It’s not too bad. I understand it for the most part. Another coworker, Dan talked to me about basic electrical concepts such as voltage, current, and capacitors, which was good review. So mostly I’m reviewing some information that I’ve learned from school, and when I get a firm grasp on it I should be able to grasp how they all relate to what I will be doing here. I’ve been asking a lot of questions to clarify and make sure that I understand everything as well as I can. My main concern at this point is that a lot of my project will go over my head, seeing as how I’m only a college sophomore and have taken only introductory courses so far. We’ll see how that goes. I got the opportunity to get my hands dirty today, when Dan showed me how to build a pouch cell. It was really cool to see how they actually built the batteries, especially a pouch cell, which looks like a more conventional battery compared to the other types of cells they make here. It didn’t take very long, and afterwards we were able to see that it works by taking a voltage measurement and connecting it to a LED light which was able to light up by being powered by the battery. Neat stuff. So yeah, more reading and questioning.