Announcements

All papers published in 2023 in Batteries (ISSN: 2313-0105) were considered for the Batteries 2023 Best Paper Award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, as well as their citations and downloads, the winner was selected:

“Battery State of Health Estimate Strategies: From Data Analysis to End-Cloud Collaborative Framework”
by Kaiyi Yang, Lisheng Zhang, Zhengjie Zhang, Hanqing Yu, Wentao Wang, Mengzheng Ouyang, Cheng Zhang, Qi Sun, Xiaoyu Yan, Shichun Yang and Xinhua Liu
Batteries 2023, 9(7), 351; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9070351
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2313-0105/9/7/351

The winners will receive CHF 200 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Batteries in 2025.

Authors’ information:
Affiliations: Beihang University, China; Imperial College London, UK; Coventry University, UK; China First Automobile Group Corporation, China
Research Interests: energy material design; battery microstructure modeling; cloud-based battery system management

The following is an interview with Prof. Shichun Yang:

Background and Inspiration
1. Could you introduce yourself or your research group?
I am Shichun Yang from Beihang university, and I currently work in the School of Transportation Science and Engineering. The research topics of our team include fireproof vehicular battery systems, safety brains for intelligent connected vehicles, flying cars, and wireless charging systems. I have been selected as a National Leading Talent, Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, and Fellow of IET and awarded 12 scientific and technological awards.
I established the team in 2009, which focuses on smart management and control for intelligent connected electric vehicles. Currently, the team has 12 professors, 17 assistant professors, and over 100 students. Most of them are national young talents and contribute significantly to the industry.
In our study on fireproof vehicular battery systems, we proposed an integrated vehicle–cloud framework for battery management named Cyber Hierarchy and Interactional Network (CHAIN) and jointly released the world’s first vehicle–cloud battery management system with Huawei. The products have been promoted to the owners of more than 12 million electric vehicles, accounting for more than 60% of the inventory in China. The project “Key Technologies and Applications for Vehicle Battery End-Cloud Integrated Control and Supervision” received the 2024 Highest Prize for Technological Invention in Tianjin province and the 2022 Special Prize for Technological Invention from the Society of Automotive Engineers of China (SAE-China).
In our research on safety brains for intelligent connected vehicles, we proposed an innovative architecture for safer intelligent connected vehicles named the safety brain, which fuses functional safety, safety of the intended functionality (SOTIF), and cybersecurity. We designed self-developed software tolls and full-V-process test platforms, including software-in-loop (SIL), hardware-in-loop (HIL), and vehicle-in-loop (VIL). We have developed two generations of hardware, as well as an original software platform. The associated applications include L4 autonomous vehicles, sweeping vehicles, and intelligent driving vehicles, and this project won the 2022 First Prize for Science and Technology Progress from the Ministry of Education.
In our research on flying cars, we developed the original configuration of a flying car by coupling the tilting rotor and folding wings, which has the advantages of high-speed flying and a limited width of the folding wings. It has the ability to travel through narrow roads, achieving the integration of road driving and flying. We have developed four generations of flying car prototypes, including splitting flying cars, tilting-culvert flying cars, composite-wing flying cars, and folding-wing flying cars
In our research on wireless charging systems, we developed a high-efficiency wireless charging system, whose maximum efficiency can reach 98%. Based on this equipment, we have promoted it for rocket, satellite, lunar rover, and underwater systems.

2. Please share what inspired your research?
For the conventional battery management system, the estimation of the SOH has strong relevance to the online board and is also restricted by the problem of limited calculation and data storage ability. The complex algorithms and models have few possibilities for real applications in vehicular BMSs. Thanks to the implementation of T-BOX, the data and information of vehicular batteries can be uploaded to the cloud platform, and with the large-scale calulcation and parallel analysis ability, a precise and long-term prediction of a battery’s SOH is realizable. From 2019 to now, our team has conducted research on a cloud management system for batteries and established the vehicular–cloud collabratative system for Goxion high Tech., BYD, and other cooperations. Due to our research and experience, we drafted this manuscript to share and review the progress of SOH estimation.

Publishing Experience
3. Why did you choose to publish with Batteries, and how was your experience?
Batteries is a great publication with fast peer review and high-quality published articles. Considering its consistent publication of papers on topics relating to battery SOH, we chose to submit the article to Batteries. The submission system is easy to use, with limited delay. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of reviewers and editors in the timely publication of our paper.

Research Process and Challenges
4. What was the biggest challenge you faced while writing this paper, and how did you overcome it?
The mismatch between cloud monitoring conditions and the real conditions is one of the major challenges for battery SOH estimation. For various kinds of electric vehicles, the batteries would have noticeable deviations in their performances, and from the monotoring data, it is hard to distinguish and achieve a targeted model for each battery. Thus, an AI-driven deep-layered model would be helpful for finding out the variation in batteries. Moreover, theory-inspired methods, such as the reduced-order model, are helpful in this area.

5. How did feedback during your research influence your direction?
Feedback fundamentally steered my research by reshaping its core trajectory. It critically influenced the topic selection—peer insights revealed gaps in practical relevance, prompting a pivot toward urgent real-world challenges rather than purely theoretical explorations. Throughout the process, constructive criticism consistently adjusted my direction, such as shifting methodologies to address validity concerns when blind spots emerged. Most crucially, feedback acted as a corrective lens, exposing unconscious biases or flawed assumptions that risked producing misleading conclusions. This external perspective forced a deeper scrutiny of my approach, transforming potential errors into opportunities for rigor. Ultimately, embracing feedback became a dynamic calibration tool—continuously refining the intellectual compass to maintain both academic integrity and impact.

6. What are the current challenges in the battery research field, and how can they be addressed?
Current battery research faces critical challenges, including energy density limitations for demanding applications such as aviation, the resource scarcity of materials such as cobalt, with ethical mining concerns, and persistent safety–reliability trade-offs in high-energy systems. Solutions demand integrated innovation: replacing liquid electrolytes with solid-state alternatives could simultaneously boost the energy density and thermal stability, while shifting toward cobalt-free chemistries such as sodium-ion or advanced lithium iron phosphate would alleviate supply chain strains—especially when combined with robust recycling ecosystems. Simultaneously, deploying AI-powered battery management systems that predict degradation patterns through adaptive algorithms can optimize performance while curtailing failure risks. Crucially, these technical advances must be accelerated by policy frameworks standardizing second-life applications and fostering industry–academia consortia to bridge lab discoveries to commercial scaling. Holistically addressing material constraints, circularity gaps, and intelligent controls remains pivotal for sustainable electrification.

Teamwork and Collaboration
7. What role did you play in your research team, and how did teamwork affect the paper’s outcome?
As the principal investigator, my core role was orchestrating the team’s expertise and resources toward high-impact outcomes. By aligning cross-disciplinary insights with evolving industry imperatives, I guided the research focus toward critical gaps in energy storage scalability and safety—steering theoretical explorations into practical solution frameworks. I actively fostered an environment where diverse perspectives could interrogate each phase, transforming fragmented findings into a cohesive, rigorous narrative. This collaborative ethos ensured that we avoided isolated academic pursuits, instead co-developing adaptable models with tangible relevance to manufacturing and deployment challenges. Ultimately, by integrating specialized skills within a unified vision focusing on real-world needs, our collective effort achieved the density, efficiency, and safety breakthroughs recognized by this award—demonstrating how purpose-driven collaboration bridges innovation and application.

Future Insights
8. What trends and technologies do you see shaping the future of battery technology?
First, the innovation in solid-state battery technology will achieve the leap from laboratory research to mass production.​​ Currently, some kinds of solid-state batteries have achieved commercialization. For example, the battery that was equipped in the IM L6 Lightyear Edition by SAIC boasts an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, while all solid-state batteries are expected to achieve mass production between 2027 and 2030. ​Second, low-cost sodium-ion battery technology​ leverages abundant sodium resources, lower costs, and superior low-temperature performance, complementing lithium-ion batteries. It holds significant potential in cost-sensitive energy storage scenarios and short-distance transportation. ​Third, battery recycling technology​ faces an urgent demand, as EVs produced between 2010 and 2015 are now reaching retirement. The booming battery industry in recent years will inevitably drive the growth of battery recycling. However, the current recycling methods remain immature and highly polluting, necessitating further exploration of low-cost, low-emission, and pollution-free solutions. ​Fourth, intelligent battery management systems utilize AI-driven precise control and machine learning models to advance fault warnings from minute-level to day-level predictions. They also optimize charging/discharging strategies to extend batteries’ lifespan.

Advice and Impact
9. What impact do you hope your research will have, and what key innovation do you see in your paper?
My research ultimately aims to accelerate the electrification of society by addressing a critical barrier: unpredictable battery degradation. The core innovation centers on transforming how battery health is estimated. While traditional methods rely on isolated data analyses with limited adaptability, our paper pioneers an end-cloud collaborative framework. This approach dynamically fuses real-time edge-device measurements with cloud-based AI analytics to achieve unprecedented SOH prediction accuracy across diverse operating conditions—spanning consumer electronics to EV batteries.
Beyond technical novelty, its significance lies in solving real-world scalability. The framework enables continuous learning from distributed devices while preserving user privacy and minimizing data transmission costs. This directly supports cost-effective battery lifespan extension, safer operations, and optimized second-life use—key hurdles in mass electrification. By providing a versatile, industry-ready methodology rather than incremental algorithm tweaks, we hope to catalyze the wider adoption of reliable energy storage systems and accelerate our sustainable mobility future.