Matt Fronk
Director for the Center for Sustainable Mobility, Golisano Institute for Sustainability, RIT
Matt Fronk is the Director for the Center for Sustainable Mobility in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability at RIT where he is leading activities examining a full spectrum of emerging fuel and propulsion technologies and their applications – biodiesel, ethanol, batteries, and fuel cells.He brings over 30 years of Industrial experience from General Motors mainly in the areas of Advanced Fuel and Emission controls in both gas and diesel applications in his early years. For the last 20 years he led GM’s PEM Fuel Cell R&D program in Honeoye Falls, NY. The result of this work was a 100 vehicle fleet – the largest prototype fleet of its kind in the world.He has been active in promoting partnerships in these advanced technology areas around the globe and is Chairman of the board of Directors for NY BEST. Matt has a BSME degree from Union College.
Battery Cell Durability within a Pack
The objective of this project at RIT is a development study to support the enhanced understanding of how “new technology” batteries age and degrade as a function of temperature, discharge rates, and depth of discharge within a pack. A connection needs to be made between physical electrode changes and the actual performance of the cell within the pack and how this evolves over time and number of cycles.Much work is being done today at button cell sizes, but at this size it is difficult to make real correlations to product applications and cycling abuses. The study is looking at small “packs” of 5 – 10 cells to develop an improved understanding of the system-level stressors on the chemistries involved as well as working with our research partners to begin to explain the electrochemical cause of the degradation when used in “packs”.