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Carol Regalbuto

Research Scientist

Tesla Motors

Thermal Runaway: Why Tesla Pays Me to Blow Up Batteries.  

Engineering

Thermal runaway can occur in lithium ion batteries for a variety of reasons. As a manufacturer that uses many, many lithium ion batteries, there is a need for Tesla to understand this phenomenon. I'll talk about thermal runaway and the math and science skills I've found useful while working on it and other projects at Tesla.

Meet the Speaker:

Carol is originally from the north suburbs of Chicago. At the age of 17, she decided she wanted to spend her career working on green energy so she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study mechanical engineering. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 2011. After 22 years in Illinois, Carol decided to move west and attend Stanford University for graduate school, where she specialized in energy systems and thermodynamics. She completed her Master's degree in mechanical engineering in 2013. After her Master's, Carol planned to get her PhD, but after 2 more years of working on her doctorate, she decided academic research wasn't for her and started looking for jobs. She now works at Tesla in the Battery Safety and R&D group. When she's not intentionally making batteries misbehave, you can find Carol dancing bachata, snowboarding, or planning her next backpacking adventure.

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