Who are the people who study and work at TU Delft? We meet them in Humans of TU Delft where they talk about their work or other activities. For Dr Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli, his job at TU Delft offers a unique opportunity. Working in an academic setting and collaborating with industry gives him the best of both worlds.
Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli: “A lot of things happened in the last phase of my PhD.” (Photo: Heather Montague)
“If you see electric vehicles today, they are considered a clean mode of transportation as they are powered by electricity. But electricity itself is not so clean today. In the Netherlands, a large part of it still comes from fossil fuels, so if you want to make electric vehicles sustainable, you also want the electricity to be sustainable. In my project, we tried to generate electricity using solar panels and then send this energy directly to the vehicles for charging on direct current or DC. We also built a system which is two-way, which means that you can take the energy from the solar panels or from the grid to power the car, but you can also put energy back into the grid. By doing that, your car now becomes a storage for solar energy.
A lot of things happened in the last phase of my PhD. The final stretch was very exciting for several reasons. First, I was able to deliver my thesis on time to my professor. We also had a demonstration on campus where we charged a Nissan electric car from solar panels using our charger. And we were also interviewed for Dutch television. Then in March, I defended my PhD and a pleasant surprise was that I also got a cum laude, which was a nice recognition.
‘At the university, you have the flexibility of time, the ability to look at new innovations’
It was a very positive experience, especially the collaboration with our partners, namely PRE, ABB, LMS and UT Austin. I think we wouldn’t have reached this level if not for the connections we made with the companies. At the university, you have the flexibility of time, the ability to look at new innovations, better efficiency, social goodwill and things like that. At a company, you are looking at meeting standards, safety, cost and things like that, and when you bring all of these research elements together, you create a new technology which people can use.
So, now I’m working as a postdoctoral researcher, and I’ll be doing projects related to electric mobility. I have a three-year contract, but I still haven’t decided whether I will stay in academia or go to industry. I feel like I’m getting to see the best of both worlds right now because I’m here at the university, but collaborating with industry. They always say if you go alone you go faster, but together you can go farther. So let’s see how things go.”
Heather Montague / Freelance writer
Comments are closed.