Project Goals & Deliverables

As a Battery Test Engineer within Apple SPG, I was resposible for owning a transient thermal model that would help the team design and iterate the battery architecture faster (a well-correlated model can save valuable testing resources).

I developed the model in ANSYS Thermal, and worked closely with the ANSYS Applications Engineering team to write custom scripts to more tightly align model boundary conditions and results with what we were seeing in abuse tests. In additional to the modeling work, I also developed new test plans and fixtures for the abuse tests.

A couple of small side projects included troubleshooting pressure sensor accuracy and implementing a new calibration method that improved accuracy from +/- 20% to +/- 5%.

Key Learnings

Through this experience, I learned a lot about battery abuse testing. I learned:

• What the test engineering process looks like: gathering test requirements (what are we trying to learn?), design test fixtures, writing pre-/during-/and post-test procedures
• To always do a pre-build for a test setup and make sure all your sensors work as setup with the DAQs!
• All the different methods to conduct battery abuse testing and why you might choose one over another

Project Goals & Deliverables

As a Product Design Engineer within Apple SPG, my primary focus was to prove out a first of a kind, proof-of-concept for a subsystem in the SPG project. The subsystem ended up becoming a belt-driven mechanism that could rotate an arm 90°.

To make the project happen, I started off by gathering cross-functional requirements for the subsystem from different engineering leads. Once I gathered the requirements, I went through the full design process: ideation, hand calcs, down-selection of ideas through a design matrix, CAD in NX, structural + modal analysis in ANSYS, and going through two iterations of prototype parts. With a built prototype, I was able to verify that all the requirements were met, and showcase the proof-of-concept to the wider team for design evaluation!

Outside of my main project, I worked on a number of design projects including lighting fixtures, assembly and manufacturing fixtures, and prototyping other design concepts.

Key Learnings

Through this design engineering role, I was able to learn a couple of main lessons:

• Having clear requirements is important in order to down-select ideas effectively
• The faster you can CAD as a design engineer, the more you get to spend your time on the more fun aspects of testing your design and iterating on it :)
• Simulations for modal analysis are relatively fast, but you need to understand what frequencies you care about and why