Ohio State's Bonnell-Kangas wins TI competition

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Aaron and award.jpg
Aaron Bonnell-Kangas
Aaron Bonnell-Kangas from The Ohio State University was named the overall winner of the seventh annual TI Innovation Challenge by Texas Instruments Incorporated.

The contest showcases the inventive projects of today's aspiring engineers. Bonnell-Kangas' winning project was an improved battery interface module for an electric racing motorcycle.

The design -- a 36-cell-capable lithium-ion battery monitoring circuit -- was designed to be installed on the RW-2x, the second electric road racing motorcycle designed by Buckeye Current. Bonnell-Kangas used TI parts to improve the power efficiency and battery management capabilities from the previous battery management module.

"I'm thrilled at this result," said Bonnell-Kangas, "and so happy that the winning project came from Buckeye Current. Every student on the team is doing incredible things, and my time on the team and at the Center for Automotive Research has defined my experience at Ohio State."

The winning design featured seven TI components in its construction, including a battery pack protector, a performance microcontroller, a controller area network transceiver, a step-down voltage regulator, a digital isolator and two logic gates.

According to Bonnell-Kangas, the lithium battery pack in Buckeye Current's 2014 racing motorcycle, RW-2x, is composed of 110 battery cells connected together. Large lithium battery packs like these require close monitoring and fine-tuning to keep them at their maximum performance.

The Battery Interface Module monitors every individual cell in the RW-2x battery pack and transmits this data to other vehicle electronics. It also controls the charge of each cell precisely, a procedure called "balancing" the pack. This balancing allows Buckeye Current to extract the most energy out of every full charge of the pack, and makes it possible to push lap speeds higher than ever before.

In a modern competitive racing environment, data is king. The Battery Interface Module gives Buckeye Current unparalleled insight into the state of their battery pack. Even professional teams don't often build their own battery management system. And third-place finishes against top-level professional teams in 2013 and 2014 show that Buckeye Current is already benefiting from this data-driven approach.

During the 2013-14 school year, 120 accredited engineering colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada and Mexico participated in the TI Innovation Challenge, which attracted 810 participants. This year, the top three finalist teams presented their projects to Rich Templeton, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Texas Instruments, during the two-day contest finals in Dallas.

"Texas Instruments' Innovation Challenge brings together hundreds of bright minds and puts their skills to the test to tackle a real-world problem," said Steve Lyle, director, engineering workforce development and university marketing for Texas Instruments. "Aaron's project showed determination and creativity to improve upon an already impressive design. I'm thrilled to see that these young engineers aren't afraid of design challenges and I wish them well in their future endeavors."