DEV Community: vintch

NREL-Backed Software Drives EDV Innovation

vintch — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 05:58:55 +0000

Could the future of Electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) lie in software programming design? The answer could be “yes.”

The Computer-Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries or CAEBAT project, put forth by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to provide software tools to make life easier for battery designers, developers, and manufacturers.

Using these models, key stakeholders can more accurately conceptualize cutting-edge lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that are both affordable and high-performing. Today, we’re delving into the foundation of the CAEBAT project and its major functions.

Ready to get started? Let’s take a look!

Limitations of Traditional Lithium-ion Development

In most cases, lithium batteries are designed via a build-assess-break cycle that’s representative of other industry measures.

While effective in its own right across myriad manufacturing subsets, this approach can be time-consuming. It can also drain participants of their resources, time and money. This is where the advanced modeling resources provided by CAEBAT tools come into play.

How to Use CAEBAT

CAEBAT tools are used for myriad applications within the NREL’s renewable energy initiatives, but a few of their most common applications include:

Designing Battery Cells and Battery Packs

Improving battery performance, timeline, and safety
Reduce development and production expenses in the battery manufacturing process
Quicken the battery prototyping and manufacturing steps

An example of the recent innovation that CAEBAT has helped to spur? Recent models depict a variety of cell performance types including alternatively stacked, wound, and large-format cylindrical formats, including pack thermal networks.

To expand this functionality, NREL-enforced CAEBAT teams have consolidated and combined their current and existing battery models into software that’s available for commercial use within the industry. This will help shorten overall design cycles and improve battery quality and performance moving forward.

To date, there are three main phases of the CAEBAT project. They include:

CAEBAT-1: Models and Design Tools: Software tools for battery pack design, based in part on the NREL multi-scale multi-domain (MSMD) model
CAEBAT-2: Speed and Safety Optimization: Optimizes the pace of MSMD and explores battery safety
CAEBAT-3: Software and Microstructures: Prioritizes software integration and microstructure applications

Key CAEBAT Tools

A few of the tools that CAEBAT developed and packaged include:

Fluent 15 (ANSYS)

This is the organization’s flagship practice. It comes complete with battery simulation tools, as well as an application programming interface (API) that connects to the NREL MSMD model within the ANSYS simulation software suite. This allows users within the industry to access all of the NREL’s most recent models.

STAR-CCM+ (CD-adapco)

This is a software program that primarily provides CAEBAT battery simulation models to help users understand how one would work in a given scenario.

AutoLion-3D (EC Power)

An important part of lithium-ion battery design is safety and security. With this specific simulation package, users can recreate various battery safety aspects to measure the integrity of the models, making sure they’re as secure as possible. It also factors in electrochemical-thermal conditions to monitor those, as well.

Practical Applications of the CAEBAT Initiative

Technical details aside, how is the CAEBAT changing the renewables industry as a whole? What can consumers expect to see moving forward and how does this program shape the future of EDVs?

In short, CAEBAT engineering resources help those involved in lithium-ion battery production create the sophisticated and advanced technologies that this sector needs to propel future growth and sustain current momentum. Moving forward, successful EDV manufacturers will be those that take into account ways to boost performance alongside consumer appeal.

Of course, the ultimate goal of EDVs is to reduce the amount of petroleum that drivers consume and emit on a regular basis. Making these batteries as affordable and accessible as possible is a major step in the right direction. To aid this initiative, the NREL partners with key personnel in the field, including university partners, laboratory specialists and industry experts, to make the computer-aided engineering process as smooth and seamless as possible.

Future-Focused Industry Growth

Though the industry has made huge strides in recent years, full-fledged adoption of EDVs will hinge on the development and distribution of top-quality lithium-ion batteries. In the race to be on the cutting edge of this industry, it’s easy for manufacturers to overlook such important internal components.

As the NREL continues to kick off new phases of its CAEBAT project, tech-savvy and future-focused leaders in this space will leverage these exciting new software tools to make their jobs easier, smarter and ultimately, more effective.

Overcoming the Inherent Challenges of Mobile App Development

vintch — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 16:35:32 +0000

A visit to any mobile app store will reveal that, although the process can be time-consuming and tedious, there are plenty of developers who have figured out how create dynamic, feature-rich mobile apps. Yet, though the marketplace may be flooded with options, there are only a select few that actually go on to be downloaded, secured on our home screens for regular daily use.

What sets those apps apart from the rest and what makes one rise in popularity over another? The key lies in a strategic, robust development process that takes into account every use case scenario and user preference. While this may be the aim of every well-intending developer, it many earnest attempts can quickly be derailed without such a roadmap in place.

To this end, today we’re talking about a few common issues that developers often run into during the app creation journey, and how they can be mitigated before they affect the project and process as a whole.

Expectations for a Quick Turnaround

If Rome wasn’t built in a day, a successful mobile app likely won’t be, either. A high-performing one combines elements of usability, navigation, speed, security and other critical elements. Put simply, ensuring that all of these key features are included in an app requires rigorous in-house testing, user trials, tweaks and redos. In other words, it takes time.

When a developer is under a tight deadline, it can be easy to rush the process and overlook some of these important aspects. If a developer has guaranteed an app company that a project will be completed in a set timeline, there is pressure to perform. While some of these expectations can be met, a realistic outlook provides enough time to spot and reverse serious technical issues. Without such a bumper built in, bugs often go unnoticed and as such, unrepaired.

As a solution, ensure that you allow plenty of leeway when it comes to development time. If you’re required to estimate your time to completion, take heed to be as flexible as possible. Consider what kinds of challenges you might face and how long it will take you to reverse them. When you can, aim to provide a general month for completion, rather than a set date, so you can work a little longer if necessary.

Ho-Hum Graphics and Other Aesthetics

An app can be the most feature-rich in the world, but if it lacks in aesthetic appeal, it will likely remain on the virtual app store shelf with few downloads. This is because, as humans, we’re primarily visual learners and science shows that we actually process visual data more clearly. As oft-repeated as the old adage “Don’t judge a book by its cover” might be, the truth is that most of us still do.

As such, your app must catch their eye from the onset and the best way to do this is to ensure your graphics are detailed, interesting and top quality.

Of course, the kind of graphics that work for one audience can turn another away. This is where it pays to perform research into your target consumer base and determine which kinds of images they’re most likely to respond to. From there, you can work directly with a designer or employ the assistance of an app maker to create layouts, images and navigational elements that look, feel and act like your audience prefers.

Throughout this process, keep in mind the aim that you want your app to achieve. Is it an app to help business leaders track their teams’ time? If so, you don’t need the kind of images and graphics that a party planning app might use. Keep it simple and focused, and don’t forget to include cohesive branding elements throughout.

The Impetus to Create Seamless Navigation

An ideal app is one that a user can download and begin using immediately, with little to no orientation or training time required. If your app is so layered, complex and complicated that it’s not user-friendly at all, it’s time to rethink its design. A simple and clean user interface is preferred over an ornate one.

Still, weaving in natural and organic elements of navigation and usability is easier said than done. It requires the integration of built-in sensors that allow the app to work as an extension of a user’s natural world. A successful design will take this into account at the onset, weaving interactive design features into the overall strategy from the beginning. Waiting until the app is almost complete to go back and test, then add, usability tools, can be time-consuming and result in a clunky solution.

Depending on the individual app, developers can also incorporate elements of gamification or other screen interactions apart from the simple swipe or click functions that most include. Examples include tilting the screen, slightly shaking it or even turning it upside down to achieve and unlock different features.

Ensuring Robust Data Security

Every time a user engages with a mobile app, there is the inherent risk for a hacker to steal that person’s information over the internet. Though data security measures have tightened in response to this threat in recent years, there is still a need for developers to include as many security tools into their apps as possible. This can also help make them less susceptible to malware attacks.

Features such as data encryption technology can help keep users’ personal information safe while they use your app. In terms of encryption, you can also encrypt your app’s internal DNA to provide a further safeguard. Moreover, by creating a backup of your app, you can send the current version to archive regularly, ensuring that if a hacking attack does occur, all data is not lost.

Creating an App That Delivers

Looking from the outside, the app development process appears to be relatively straightforward, yet a closer examination reveals it’s more complicated than it appears. As we look to the future, it stands to reason that developers will continue to be faced with the challenge of making their apps as high-performing and feature-rich as possible to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

By keeping these challenges in mind, modern developers can be well on their way toward creating apps that appeal to users, keep their data safe and make the navigation experience as seamless as possible.

Three Ways to Grow as a Developer in a Changing Industry

vintch — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 05:08:13 +0000

Whether you’re just learning to code or have been at it for years, there is a certain degree of uncertainty and hesitancy that can accompany the profession. This may be attributed to the fact that there is such a large learning curve in this industry.

Every day, the field of software development is changing, innovating and expanding, rendering a concept that was relevant today almost irrelevant by tomorrow. As such, in the effort to keep pace, coders and developers often face what’s known as imposter syndrome. In other words, we feel over our heads in complexity and are paddling at the surface, trying to stay afloat and distinguish ourselves as a professional in a space that feels increasingly wide.

Though I’m just starting out in this profession, I’ve found a few tips to prove useful in my journey thus far. They include these three main steps:

Learn from someone better than you.

This is never easy, as it implies that we still have so much to learn. Yet, connecting with a mentor was one of the best steps I took early on in my career. I was able to work side by side with her as she broke down complicated concepts and retrained my brain to code after years of following sloppy methods taught to me by hurried professors. In turn, I grew my confidence, advanced in my position and was able to take on more advanced developer roles. Now, I serve as that same mentor for another employee in our department and it’s been a learning experience for us both.

Ask as many questions as possible.

Staying curious is another key to overcoming any form of impostor syndrome and growing in your confidence as a coder. When I first started out in coding, I was actually in the wrong class at my university. I thought I had signed up for technical writing, but this was the room number on my schedule. I could have switched, but decided to stay. I didn’t know a thing about this arena, having been a literature major I was more comfortable discussing difficult texts, not writing them, but I stuck around anyway. I was seated next to a whiz who quickly showed me the ropes and kindly fielded the thousands of questions I threw his way every class.

Find a niche and excel at it.

We can’t all be experts in every field of coding. Maybe some of us excel at JavaScript. After all, research shows that 38% of developer job postings require and center on it. Others might find their place within SQL, Python, PHP or a range of languages in between. Regardless, it’s helpful to find your niche and hone in on it. Especially in the field of coding, it’s unwise and unhelpful to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Rather, find the elements of software programming and development that bring you alive and catalyze your search for more. Then, expand on that knowledge every chance you get.

Along the way, don’t forget to practice often, connect with like-minded peers who can encourage you on those long days, and research as much as possible on new developments, trends and news within the industry. As you actively pursue your craft, you’ll be surprised at the doors that open up and the horizons that expand.