University of South Carolina

The program examines North American advanced battery markets and technologies across grid-connected storage, electric vehicles, heavy-duty transportation, data centers, robotics, defense, and aerospace. Market briefings address light- and heavy-duty EVs, data centers and the grid, robotics, aerospace and defense applications, energy materials, and battery recycling and second-life markets. Plenary sessions cover data-center energy storage, foreign battery manufacturers in the U.S., and EV manufacturers navigating battery supply-chain gaps. Impact Sessions address non-lithium and emerging chemistries; defense batteries and domestic supply-chain security; truck, rail, and transit electrification; battery materials and the missing pCAM/CAM/AAM midstream; battery-technology financing; U.S. battery-materials mining; robotics and aerospace; domestic battery-manufacturing equipment supply chains; next-generation batteries; Chinese battery and technology supply relationships; and digitalization and AI in battery manufacturing. Other program elements include Community Action Labs, member company and research-institution presentations, and a closing roundtable on the future of battery technology. Featured program speakers include Bob Galyen, NAATBatt International’s Chief Technology Officer; M. Stanley Whittingham, NAATBatt’s Chief Science Officer and Nobel laureate; and David Hochschild, Chair of the California Energy Commission.

The technical symposia span ceramic and glass science, engineering, processing, and applications. Topics include ceramic interfaces and grain boundaries; oxide quantum materials; superconductivity, magnetism, and correlated phases; functional ceramics; extreme-environment and microelectronics materials; two-dimensional materials; high-entropy materials; bioceramics; glass surfaces and the glassy state; and computational modeling, data science, and AI/ML for materials discovery and manufacturing. Energy-related subjects include materials for energy storage and conversion, nuclear energy applications, protonic ceramic cells, and materials for a sustainable and resilient energy future. Manufacturing topics include advanced ceramic processing, additive manufacturing, glass manufacturing scale-up, and intelligent manufacturing. The additive-manufacturing symposium covers feedstock design, printing and post-processing, modeling, characterization, process-structure-property relationships, qualification, certification, scale-up, cost, reliability, and industrial implementation. The raw-materials symposium addresses material quality and variability, alternative and recycled feedstocks, sustainable sourcing, circularity, supply-chain resilience, resource security, and decarbonization.