Our 2020-2021 ThinkEnergy fellows are outstanding students who are working diligently to advance innovation in the Energy field. This year we have 15 students from various majors and schools working on three amazing entrepreneurial projects. We hope these student profiles will help you to get to know more about these students, their passions, and their amazing work. See all the profiles here.

Here is our interview with Erol Balkovic, a third-year from Bosnia and Herzegovina majoring in Engineering Physics:

1- Over your college journey, which class impacted you the most?

PHYS 317 Engineering Physics Lab. A class which was quite difficult but has enabled me to learn many skills important to doing science, and also to tackle problems which come up when doing any kind of technical project.

2- If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life what would it be?

Pasta. There are just about gazillion ways of making pasta.

3- How did you hear about the ThinkEnergy Fellowship and why did you apply?

Heard about it from a presentation Mark gave a few semesters ago.

4- What energy problem is your entrepreneurial team working to solve with a product?

We are trying to solve the problem of Li-Ion battery degradation and non-invasive prediction of their state of health.

5- What is your role(s) on your entrepreneurial team?

I am focused mostly on the technical side, working on the overall system, and developing processes that can be used to measure the state of health of a battery, cheaply, quickly, and without having to put the system offline.

6- What is your favorite part of the program so far this year?

Interacting with other fellows, all of whom are interesting people and have unique backgrounds and personalities.

7- What is one thing you find challenging in the program so far?

I find it challenging to work on the business side of our idea since this is something I have never really done.

8 - What is one thing you hope to get out of the experience?

Grow connections for the future and gain a general overview of the energy field."