Yingyi Huang holds an Honours degree in Engineering in Material Science from Monash University. “After high-school, I enrolled in the Central South University (CSU) in China and majored in material science and engineering. During that time, I joined the China Linkage Engineering Program to gain the opportunity to complete the last two years of my undergraduate study at Monash University, with Engineering International Undergraduate Scholarship. I got my bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Material Science (Honours) with a first-class degree in 2018”.

Her interest in the energy sector started in the last year of her undergraduate studies. “The topic of my final year project was about Lithium-ion battery (Li-ion) supervised by Prof Jacek Jasieniak, Associate Dean Research, Engineering. I chose the topic because I am excited about the future of renewable energy storage, and I want to be part of it”.

She started a PhD at Monash University with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2019 under the supervision of Prof Mainak Majumder, Dr Mahdokht Shaibani (Monash Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Prof Matthew Hill (Monash and CSIRO). Her PhD research was funded by a scholarship from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources - Automotive Engineering Graduate Program (AEGP000004) to work on the project titled “Next-Generation Powertrain Systems for Electric Vehicles”.

Her PhD 'Exploring binder systems for energy devices' focuses on improving batteries-performance, and more specifically produce more efficient lithium-sulphur batteries. “The research about batteries is fascinating. I'm working on stabilising several next-generation energy storage devices via binder systems. I have learned that energy storage materials/ devices holding high energy are not long lasting. This is the place where we need to put effort into. I am working on Lithium-sulphur battery, which is the right successor of current Lithium-ion battery, because theoretically Li-S battery stores as much as five times the energy of the Li-ion battery. So, Li-S battery has better performance but is also more affordable and has less environmental impact than current lithium-ion products as it doesn’t require rare or heavy metals.”

In the next few years, Yingyi would like to see some improvements in large-size battery prototypes and make it ready for industrial manufacturing.

Dr Mahdokht Shaibani consider Yingyi as one of the brightest and most dedicated students in Monash Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She says that “Yingyi’s research success story, as a Mechanical Engineer, could create awareness amongst high school girls who are keen to know about the prospects of engineering jobs for females. While 35% of European engineers are women, this number is as low as 12% in Australia! We live in an engineering world and if we fail to encourage our girls to take up mathematics and physics in high school and pursue careers in engineering, we cannot keep up with a world that is changing behind our eyes”

For further information:

• LinkedIn profile

Scientific Paper:

• Key impact articles: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25612-5