CAR Internship Program

“This experience is the perfect example of life beyond college. It's very different to work from assignment to assignment or exam to exam as opposed to focusing on a couple longer-term projects.”
-Anne Terez, student intern

2023 Summer Internship Positions

Applications for 2023 Summer Internships will be accepted through March 31.

• If you are an Ohio State student, please apply through Handshake.
• If you are not an Ohio State student, please send the title of the position you are interested in as well as your resume and cover letter to herr.40@osu.edu.   
• Please contact Colleen Herr at herr.40@osu.edu with questions

Testing and Modeling of Lithium-ion Batteries for Mobility
Support activity in the battery laboratory for designing and performing testing of lithium-ion batteries. Development of electrical and thermal models; perform safety assessment; analysis on battery management systems. Several battery technologies will be considered. Learn more and apply

Lifecycle Tradespace Analysis of Emerging Urban Air Mobility Battery Technologies
The goal of this activity is to study the impact of battery technology on the performance of novel Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle concepts, with emphasis on the selection of the chemistries and sizing of battery pack over product lifecycles considering vehicle mission profiles, electrical/thermal duty cycles, and battery degradation, while providing insights about possible reuse/recyclability of the pack in a second life applications. Learn more and apply

Small Scale Advanced Manufacturing Plant with Autonomous Mobile Robots
Conventional manufacturing relies on highly automated fixed assembly lines. In the automotive industry, these assembly lines are model specific and are not changed until the production is completed. The next generation of manufacturing plants will include increased autonomy, which will enable increased flexibility, throughput (cost reduction) and safety. In this context, reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems are the new paradigm. For the Automotive sector, robots will be used to carry a chassis to the different workstations. 

The increased adaptability of process controls and operations coming from this reconfigurable manufacturing system allow to quickly scale and diversify production in manufacturing plants. In this context, the key enablers are autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). These autonomous robots are used to distribute parts and components and can quickly adapt to changes in manufacturing schedule.

The objective of the project is to build a small-scale representation of a manufacturing plant that uses autonomous mobile robots for the delivery of the parts and the movements of components through the manufacturing plant. This representation will be used to visualize the optimal path and task assignments that result from a large-scale optimization problem.   

The final result will be similar to what has been done for reproducing smart cities and connected vehicle behaviors. Learn more and apply

Preventive Maintenance Techniques for ADS Vehicle Safety
Identify and evaluate “state of the art” techniques to help address ADS durability and wear and rear-related failures and safety risks. Learn more and apply

Electric School Bus Travel Range
Characterize the thermal loads for the electric school buses to extend the travel range. Learn more and apply

Planning Tool for Assessing OSU Options for a Sustainable and Responsible Energy Usage
With the launch of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant and the increase in controllable loads, OSU is quickly becoming an advanced microgrid and living energy laboratory. The proposed project encompasses the development of a tool to perform a cost-benefit analysis of a wide variety of operational and financial decisions as well as their effect on carbon emissions in the energy domain, including purchase of commodities and grid services. Learn more and apply

Thermal characterization and modelling of lithium-ion batteries
Over the course of this internship, the student will have the opportunity to be involved in development of models for capturing the thermal response of lithium-ion batteries. Will involve experimental characterization of the cells utilizing the battery lab at CAR. Previously developed simulation tools at CAR will be utilized and further developed to improve accuracy. Learn more and apply

Software development for control, data acquisition and data analysis for battery testing
Battery testing is crucial for aiding in the advancement of electrified vehicles with a deeper understanding limitations and capabilities of different battery chemistries and technologies. The energy storage lab at CAR utilizes power cycling equipment to test battery samples and additional software tools are required for precision control of equipment, data acquisition and safety monitoring. The student would have the opportunity to work with CAR’s research staff on software development and integration with hardware in the lab. Learn more and apply

Virtual Optimization of Design of Experiments for Lithium-ion Batteries
Over the course of this internship, the student will have learn and utilize CAE tools to assist in the creation of experimental testing procedures for lithium-ion batteries. The intern will be part of a vibrant and diverse research team that focuses on predicting and improving the fast-charging ability, safety and durability of lithium-ion batteries for sustainable transportation, and will have the opportunity to work on a project in close collaboration with a major automotive company. Learn more and apply