Prof. Michael Pecht, PhD, PE Distinguished Professor - University of Maryland Director: Center for Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) - University of Maryland, USA

Prof Michael Pecht (74,000+ citations, 120+ H-Index) has a BS in Physics, an MS in Electrical Engineering and an MS and PhD in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin. He is a Professional Engineer, an IEEE Fellow, a PHM Society Life Fellow, an ASME Fellow, an ASM Fellow, an SAE Fellow and an IMAPS Fellow. He served as editor-in-chief of Elsevier’s ePrime Journal for four years,  IEEE Access for six years, IEEE Transactions on Reliability for nine years, Microelectronics Reliability for sixteen years, and Circuit World. He served on three U.S. National Academy of Science studies, two US Congressional investigations in automotive safety, and as an expert to the U.S. FDA. He is the Director of CALCE (Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering) at the University of Maryland (UMd), which is funded by over 150 of the world’s leading electronics companies at more than US$6M/year. He is a Distinguished University Professor at UMd where he holds a faculty position as a Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering and a Professor in Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Computation. He has written more than thirty books on product reliability, development, use and supply chain management.  He has also written a series of books of the electronics industry in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India. He has written over 1000 technical articles and has 13 patents. In 2015 he was awarded the IEEE Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Award for visionary leadership in the development of physics-of-failure-based and prognostics-based approaches to electronics reliability. He was also awarded the Chinese Academy of Sciences President's International Fellowship. In 2010, he received the IEEE Exceptional Technical Achievement Award for his innovations in the area of prognostics and systems health management.  In 2008, he was awarded the highest reliability honor, the IEEE Reliability Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Speech Title: Why are So Many Lithium-ion Batteries Catching Fire?
The Reliability and Safety-related Challenges of Using and Re-Using Lithium-ion Batteries
 Abstract:Li-ion batteries are commercially successful power sources for a diverse range of applications, including EVs, energy storage systems, and consumer products. However, the characteristics of Li-ion batteries make them susceptible to both swelling and thermal runaway, resulting in failed products, and with surprising frequency in fires and explosions. In most cases, defects in lithium batteries are not detected prior to use. For example, GM, Chrysler, Hyundai and Stellantis had to recall their EVs due to defects in their batteries that resulted in reliability issues and, in many cases, fires. In addition, there have been numerous battery fires in e-bikes, computers, smartphones and vaping devices. In other cases, companies manufacture batteries with inadequate safety features or misrepresent the true nature of their battery by re-using, re-wrapping or counterfeiting batteries. This talk reviews the reliability and safety issues and mitigation strategies for Li-ion batteries, as well as challenges with their re-use and disposal.

 

Prof. Michael Beer, Hannover University, Germany

Michael Beer is Professor and Head of the Institute for Risk and Reliability, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. He is also part time Professor at the University of Liverpool and guest Professor at Tongji University and Beijing University of Science and Technology, China. He obtained a doctoral degree from Technical University Dresden, Germany, and worked for Rice University, National University of Singapore, and the University of Liverpool, UK. Dr. Beer’s research is focused on uncertainty quantification in engineering with emphasis on imprecise probabilities. Dr. Beer is Editor in Chief of the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A Civil Engineering and Part B Mechanical Engineering. He is also Editor in Chief (joint) of the Encyclopedia of Earthquake Engineering, Associate Editor of Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing as well as Information Sciences, and Editorial Board Member of Engineering Structures, Structural Safety, Computers and Structures, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics and several other international journals. He has won several awards including the International Academic Contribution Award of the Chinese Society for Vibration Engineering 2024 and the Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure of ASCE 2022. Dr. Beer is the past Chairman of the European Safety and Reliability Association (ESRA), President-elect of the International Safety and Reliability Association (IASSAR) for 2027-2031, and a Co-Chair of the Risk and Resilience Measurements Committee (RRMC), Infrastructure Resilience Division (IRD), ASCE. He is serving on the Executive Board of the European Association of Structural Dynamics (EASD), and on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (IAPSAM). He is a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation and a Member of ASCE (EMI), ASME, CERRA, IACM and GACM.

 

Prof. Luca Podofillini, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland

Luca Podofillini has a Nuclear Engineering degree and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan (2004). His current activities include Human Reliability Analysis research and regulatory support tasks for the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate. His research addresses the development of quantitative models of human performance in industrial systems, with focus on errors in decision-making, dynamic safety assessment, collection of data in simulated emergencies. During his Ph.D., he has worked on multi-criteria reliability optimization and Monte Carlo simulation for safety and reliability applications. He is co-author of about 30 publications on peer-reviewed international scientific journals. In September 2010 he participated to an IAEA mission as member of the International Probabilistic Safety Assessment Review Team (IPSART). He is Chair of the ESRA (European Safety and Reliability Association) Technical Committee for Human Factors in Safety and Reliability (2-year appointment for 2011-2013) and member of the Board of the Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) Society.