Events Featuring ORNL

9 a.m.–noon Wednesday, Jan. 10
John Lee, co-founder and chief executive officer, Safire

Safire Group is a venture-backed company developing advanced lithium-ion battery technologies. The company’s core technology, SAFe Impact Resistant Electrolyte (SAFIRE), is the world’s only patented and proprietary drop-in additive for Li-ion batteries that prevents fire and explosion through an instantaneous liquid-to-solid transformation upon kinetic impacts, such as ballistic events or electric vehicle crashes. SAFIRE was invented by ORNL scientist Gabriel Veith and was licensed to Safire Group in 2022.

9–10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10
Wireless Power Transfer for Electrified Transportation
Veda Galigekere, Electric Drives Research Group, ORNL

In addition to passenger electric vehicles, the electrification of transportation will soon include freight transportation, autonomous electric vehicle fleets, and advanced air mobility. Convenient, fast, and automatic charging solutions are critical to accelerate the transformation to fully electric transportation. Wireless charging offers a potential solution, but current-state conventional single-phase wireless power transfer systems are hampered by magnetic field emissions and suboptimal power density. ORNL’s novel polyphase wireless power transfer technology aims to enable efficient, compact, and controlled high-power wireless recharging from 50 kilowatts to more than 600 kilowatts, offering a solution to several recharging needs for electrified transportation.

10:15 a.m.–noon Wednesday, Jan. 10
Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program: Supporting Hard-Tech Startups

New innovations, derived from investments in basic and applied energy research at universities and national labs, are critical to building a clean energy economy. The Department of Energy’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program enables promising clean tech entrepreneurs to develop game-changing technologies for a clean energy future.

Program nodes at Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and ORNL recruit clean energy’s best and brightest minds through a national call for a two-year funded fellowship that will help move their emerging technology into the market.

Presenters include John Harvey, ANL Commercialization Programs Manager; Todd Pray, LBNL Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer; Don DeRosa, Eonix, ORNL Innovation Crossroads; GJ la'O, Tyfast Energy, LBNL Cyclotron Road; and Rajan Kumar, Ateios Systems, ORNL Innovation Crossroads.

Noon–1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11
Fireside Chat with Vanessa Z. Chan and Susan S. Hubbard

Join Vanessa Z. Chan, chief commercialization officer and director of the DOE's Office of Technology Transitions, and Susan S. Hubbard, deputy for science and technology at ORNL, for a wide-ranging discussion about DOE and the national laboratory system; OTT's Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports; the exascale era of high performance computing and artificial intelligence; advanced mobility; and the DOE complex's support of startups and regional innovation.

3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11
Deep Tech Climate Innovations Challenge

The winner of the Deep Tech Climate Innovations Challenge presented by Cadence Foundation by Cadence Design Systems will be announced at the Eureka Park stage. Innovation Crossroads fellow Manas Pathak of EarthEn is one of eight finalists for this challenge.