Shipfitting

Shipfitting is the fabrication and structural assembly trade that cuts, forms, and joins the steel sections making up a vessel's hull and internal compartments — a discipline increasingly intersecting with battery integration as shipyards install large energy-storage systems in new-build and retrofit projects. As a hard skill it requires reading ship structural drawings, operating cutting and forming equipment, fitting shell plates and frames to template, and welding structural joints to classification-society specification. Shipfitters apply these skills when constructing battery-room enclosures, reinforcing deck structures to carry heavy battery banks, and installing the foundation steelwork for battery racks inside hull compartments.

Creo

Creo is PTC's parametric 3D CAD platform, known for its powerful surface-modeling capabilities, robust assembly management, and strong integration with Windchill PLM for configuration control. As a hard skill it requires fluency in Creo Parametric part and assembly modeling, drawing and GD&T annotation, sheet-metal and framework environments, and the behavior-modeling extensions for simulation-driven design. Design engineers apply Creo in aerospace, defense, and industrial equipment programs where its heritage in complex mechanical systems and long product lifecycles makes it the incumbent platform.

PH Meter

A pH meter measures hydrogen ion activity in a solution via a glass electrode whose potential varies with pH, providing an accurate reading of acidity or alkalinity in aqueous and near-aqueous systems. As a hard skill it requires calibrating with at least two certified buffer solutions that bracket the expected sample pH, conditioning and storing the electrode correctly, and applying temperature compensation and ionic strength corrections for accurate results. Battery researchers use pH measurement to characterize aqueous electrolyte and rinse solutions, monitor cathode precursor precipitation reactions where pH determines particle morphology and stoichiometry, and assess spent electrolyte and black mass leachate in recycling process development.

3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing

3D printing in industrial battery manufacturing produces complex internal components such as cell holders, thermal management housings, and prototype fixtures from CAD models layer by layer. As a hard skill it requires fluency in slicing software, material selection across polymers and metals, and post-processing techniques like sintering and surface finishing. Engineers use it to iterate fixture designs quickly during pack assembly line setup and to fabricate non-critical end-use parts where tooling cost would otherwise be prohibitive.

Vacuum Pumps

Vacuum pumps — rotary vane, turbomolecular, scroll, cryogenic, and ion pumps — remove gas from a system to achieve the pressures required by electron microscopes, thin-film deposition equipment, and glove-box regeneration cycles. As a hard skill it requires selecting the pump type and staging for the target pressure range, performing routine maintenance such as oil changes, trap cleaning, and rotor inspection, and troubleshooting leaks with residual gas analyzers or helium leak detectors. Battery researchers rely on vacuum systems for SEM and TEM operation, ALD and sputter deposition, and electrolyte degassing, where inadequate vacuum allows residual gases to contaminate samples, degrade film quality, and generate background signals in analytical instruments.

Flotation Cell

Flotation cells separate valuable mineral particles from gangue by generating fine air bubbles in a slurry, to which hydrophobic particles selectively attach and float to the surface for collection. As a hard skill it requires understanding frother and collector reagent chemistry, adjusting impeller speed, air flow, and pH to maximize recovery and grade, and interpreting concentrate and tailings assays to diagnose process performance. Battery researchers and process engineers apply flotation to concentrate lithium minerals such as spodumene and lepidolite from ore, and to recover critical minerals from black mass in lithium-ion battery recycling.

Structural Analysis

Structural analysis determines whether battery pack enclosures, mounting systems, and cell interconnect structures can withstand the mechanical loads — vibration, shock, crush, and thermal cycling — imposed by their operating environment without yielding, fracturing, or losing fatigue life. As a hard skill it requires setting up and solving finite-element models in tools such as ANSYS or Abaqus, interpreting stress and displacement results against material allowables, and translating automotive or aerospace load cases into analysis inputs. Engineers apply these techniques during pack structural design, regulatory crash certification (UN ECE R100, FMVSS 305), and root-cause analysis of field failures where a structural member cracked or deformed in service.

INAV (or iNav) Intelligent Navigation System for Aerial Vehicles

INAV is an open-source flight controller firmware optimized for fixed-wing and multirotor GPS-navigation missions, providing autonomous waypoint following, return-to-home, and position-hold capabilities for long-range FPV and survey applications. As a hard skill it requires configuring INAV through the INAV Configurator, tuning navigation PID gains and GPS receiver integration, setting up autonomous mission profiles, and diagnosing GPS and compass interference issues. Design engineers apply INAV when building long-range fixed-wing FPV aircraft and autonomous survey platforms where the navigation feature set better fits the mission profile than racing-oriented firmware such as Betaflight.

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Annual Critical Minerals Symposium

Annual Critical Minerals Symposium The 5th Annual Critical Minerals Symposium will be held September 24-25, 2026, in Golden, Colorado, hosted by the Payne Institute for Public Policy and Colorado School of Mines. The event will address the growing importance of critical minerals in technology, energy demand, global markets, and geopolitics. It will bring together government officials, business leaders, investors, and academics to discuss opportunities and challenges shaping the future of critical minerals. In addition to keynote sessions, the symposium will feature side events and roundtable discussions for deeper engagement. Learn more here: https://payneinstitute.mines.edu/

ArduPilot

ArduPilot is the leading open-source autopilot software platform supporting fixed-wing aircraft, multirotor drones, helicopters, rovers, and boats, providing flight control, mission planning, and telemetry capabilities. As a hard skill it requires configuring the flight controller hardware (Pixhawk, Cube), tuning PID gains for the specific airframe, using Mission Planner or QGroundControl for mission design and parameter management, and understanding failsafe behavior and safety interlocks. Design engineers apply ArduPilot when building custom UAVs for industrial inspection, aerial surveying, or payload delivery applications where commercial autopilot platforms lack the flexibility or openness required.

Supply Chain, Logistics & Warehousing

Explore supply chain, logistics, and warehousing resources for the battery industry covering material sourcing, inventory management, transportation, distribution, manufacturing operations, and global supply chain strategies.

Refining & Chemical Processing

Refining & Chemical Processing

3M

3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) is an American multinational conglomerate in industry, worker safety, and consumer goods.

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measures the kinetic energy of photoemitted electrons to determine elemental composition, oxidation state, and chemical environment within the top few nanometers of a sample. R&D scientists use it to characterize surfaces and interfaces in catalysts, semiconductors, coatings, and battery materials, with depth profiling enabled by sputtering. Strong practitioners balance ultra-high-vacuum sample handling, careful peak fitting, and charge-correction discipline to produce quantitatively credible results.

2026 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Computation, Big-Data and Engineering (IEEE ICCBE 2026)

2026 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Computation, Big-Data and Engineering (IEEE ICCBE 2026) The 2026 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Computation, Big-Data and Engineering (ICCBE) will take place June 21-23 at the University of Guam. It provides a global platform for researchers, engineers, and professionals to share and discuss innovations in computation, big data, and engineering. The conference welcomes papers on emerging technologies and offers publication opportunities in prominent journals. Keynote speeches and diverse technical sessions foster collaboration and the exchange of high-quality research results. Learn more here: https://www.iccbe.asia/

Junior Minors

Junior miners are small-cap exploration and development companies that advance early-stage projects toward feasibility, often acting as the discovery engine for the majors that ultimately operate large mines. Working in this segment demands fluency in capital markets, NI 43-101 or SK-1300 reporting, and the lean technical execution that defines pre-production work. The role is high-variance: most projects never reach production, but successful discoveries can deliver outsized returns and define careers.

SAE Thermal Management Systems Symposium

The 2026 Thermal Management Systems Symposium (TMSS) will be held October 6-7 in Dearborn, MI, bringing together engineers, OEMs, suppliers, and researchers to address evolving challenges in vehicle thermal systems. Key topics include innovations in battery and electronics cooling, climate control, alternative refrigerants, and virtual design methods for electric and hybrid vehicles. The event offers expert-led sessions, networking, and opportunities to explore new technologies and industry trends. TMSS serves as a collaborative hub for advancing efficiency, sustainability, and regulatory compliance in vehicle thermal management. Learn more here: https://www.sae.org/events/thermal

Rheometers & Viscometers

Rheometers and viscometers measure the flow and deformation behavior of fluids and soft materials — viscosity, viscoelasticity, yield stress, and thixotropy — as a function of shear rate, stress, temperature, and time. As a hard skill it requires selecting the appropriate geometry (cone-and-plate, parallel plate, Couette) and measurement mode for the material, verifying that measurements are in the linear viscoelastic regime, and interpreting flow curves and oscillatory data to extract actionable process parameters. Battery researchers apply rheology to electrode slurry development, where viscosity and yield stress determine coatability and uniformity, and to solid electrolyte paste formulation and separator coating processes.

Asana

Asana is a software-as-a-service platform designed for team collaboration and work management.

Qualified/Competent Person (QP/CP)

The qualified or competent person (QP/CP) designation certifies that an individual has sufficient education, training, and experience to take professional responsibility for specific technical work — ore resource estimates under NI 43-101 or JORC, blasting operations under MSHA, or geotechnical assessments on tailings facilities. As a hard skill it requires mastering the relevant regulatory standard's definitions, disclosure obligations, and sign-off requirements, and exercising the independent professional judgment that the designation demands. The QP/CP role carries personal legal and professional liability, making it one of the most consequential credentials in the mining industry and a prerequisite for public resource disclosures, financeable feasibility studies, and certain site safety functions.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google.

Human Resources

Human resources covers the systems and practices that attract, develop, retain, and exit talent, spanning workforce planning, total rewards, employee relations, performance management, learning, DEI, and labor-law compliance. Modern HR runs on HRIS platforms and people analytics, partnering with line leaders rather than acting as a back-office function. In capital-intensive and skills-short industries, HR is often the binding constraint on growth and on operational continuity.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube.

RockWorks

RockWorks is a widely used geological data-management and visualization package that turns borehole, lithology, and assay data into logs, cross sections, fence diagrams, and 3D models. Mining geologists use it to build and communicate subsurface interpretations and to QA/QC data before it enters resource estimation workflows. Proficiency with RockWorks accelerates everyday geological work and bridges field data and the more specialized resource-modeling platforms.

American Battery Technology Company (ABTC)

American Battery Technology Company (ABTC) champions environmental and ethical sourcing of critical battery materials through lithium-ion battery recycling, battery metal extraction technologies, and primary mineral resource development for use in the batteries that power electric cars, grid storage applications, and consumer electronics and tools.

Graphing & Data Analysis Software

Graphing and data-analysis software — Origin, Igor Pro, GraphPad Prism, Matplotlib, ggplot2, Plotly — is how R&D scientists turn raw instrument output into figures, statistical analyses, and publication-quality results. Strong users combine fluency with import and cleaning workflows, curve fitting, hypothesis tests, and reproducible scripting in Python or R. The skill is increasingly foundational because data volume from modern instruments quickly outpaces manual spreadsheet workflows.

Mass & Energy Balances

Mass and energy balances are the bookkeeping fundamentals of chemical engineering: every atom in must equal every atom out, and every joule must be accounted for across each unit operation. Engineers use balances to size equipment, verify operating data, troubleshoot losses, and assess process efficiency and emissions. Mastery of balances is the prerequisite for nearly every downstream skill in refining and chemical processing, from process design to advanced control to sustainability reporting.

SAE Automated Transportation Symposium

The Automated Transportation Symposium (ATS), held July 27-30, 2026 in San Diego, is a leading global event focused on SAE Level 4-5 vehicle automation. ATS brings together industry, government, and academic leaders to address technical, safety, policy, and regulatory challenges in automated mobility. The event features keynotes, workshops, and networking opportunities, emphasizing research breakthroughs and real-world deployment data. ATS serves as a neutral platform for collaboration, shaping the future of automated vehicle standards and deployment strategies. Learn more here: https://www.sae.org/events/automated-transportation-symposium

Corrosion

Corrosion management protects battery components — current collectors, terminals, enclosures, and busbars — from electrochemical degradation that shortens cell life and compromises safety. As a hard skill it requires understanding galvanic compatibility between aluminum, copper, and steel, specifying protective coatings, and selecting electrolyte-compatible materials. Engineers apply corrosion knowledge during pack design, supplier qualification, and field-failure analysis where moisture ingress or electrolyte leaks have started attacking metal interfaces.

NASA–Glenn Research Center (NASA-GRC)

NASA Glenn Research Center advances aeronautics and space technology through research, innovation, and testing to support NASA’s mission.

Etching & Deposition

Etching and deposition processes shape and build thin-film structures in semiconductor and battery research by selectively removing or adding material with nanometer-scale precision. As a hard skill it requires understanding wet-chemical and dry plasma etch chemistry, masking and resist techniques, and the process parameters governing deposition rate, step coverage, and film stress. Battery researchers apply etching to prepare cross-sections for analysis and to pattern electrode features, and deposition to fabricate thin-film cell stacks, protective coatings, and current collector layers in next-generation solid-state and micro-battery devices.

SOLIDWORKS

SolidWorks is the Dassault Systèmes 3D mechanical CAD platform dominant in US battery manufacturing — used for pack enclosure design, fixture design for cell-tab welding, BMS PCB carriers, and the broad mechanical work of factory tooling. As a hard skill it requires fluency in parametric part and assembly modeling, drawing generation to ASME Y14.5, sheet-metal and weldment environments, and the PDM disciplines (PDM Standard or Professional) that keep revisions clean across engineering teams. Mechanical designers apply this when iterating a battery pack enclosure for a new vehicle program, when generating shop drawings for a stamped current collector, and when running interference and tolerance studies on a multi-cell module assembly.

Geological/Mining/Mineral Engineering & Engineering Geology

Geological, mining, and mineral engineering applies engineering principles to the safe, economic extraction of mineral resources and to the geomechanical behavior of the rock mass around mine workings. Practitioners design pits, stopes, drifts, and support systems; estimate reserves; and evaluate hazards from squeezing ground, rockbursts, or slope instability. Engineering geology bridges this work with site investigation, classifying rock mass quality and informing both mine design and surface infrastructure.

Material Handling

Material handling covers the systems and equipment that move, store, control, and protect materials throughout manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution — conveyors, AS/RS, AGVs, cranes, pallet jacks, and storage racks. Engineers and supervisors design layouts, throughput rates, and ergonomics to minimize touches, travel, and damage while keeping operations safe. The discipline sits at the intersection of industrial engineering, automation, and warehouse operations, and is increasingly shaped by robotics and data integration.

Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP)

Inductively coupled plasma techniques — optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) — determine elemental concentrations across a wide dynamic range by atomizing samples in a high-temperature argon plasma and measuring emission or mass-to-charge signals. As a hard skill it requires correct sample digestion to achieve complete dissolution, matrix matching of calibration standards, and selection of internal standards and interference corrections appropriate to the matrix. Battery researchers apply ICP-OES and ICP-MS to quantify cathode stoichiometry, measure metal dissolution into electrolyte during cycling, and certify incoming raw material composition.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering applies physics, chemistry, and process design to convert raw materials into fuels, chemicals, polymers, and specialty products at industrial scale. Practitioners size reactors, separation trains, and heat-transfer equipment; develop process flowsheets; and optimize plants against yield, energy, safety, and emissions constraints. It is the foundational technical discipline for refineries and chemical plants and is increasingly intertwined with process safety, sustainability, and digitalization.

Workplace Operations

Workplace Operations

Computational

Agile and Scrum frameworks coordinate cross-functional teams — embedded firmware, pack mechanicals, process engineering — through short iteration cycles when launching a new battery cell chemistry or pack platform. As a hard skill it requires running daily standups with visible blockers, writing user stories that translate to factory tooling changes, and sizing engineering work against the production line's go-live deadline. Practitioners apply it during BMS firmware sprints, when synchronizing electrode-coater changes across mechanical/electrical/controls teams, and when triaging the backlog of post-launch fixes during production ramp.

Focused Ion Beam (FIB)

Focused ion beam (FIB) instruments direct a tightly focused beam of gallium or other ions to mill, cut, and deposit material with nanometer precision, and are often combined with a scanning electron microscope in dual-beam systems. As a hard skill it requires selecting mill currents for bulk removal versus fine polishing, preparing site-specific TEM lamellae, and using gas-injection systems for platinum or carbon deposition. Battery researchers use FIB to prepare electron-transparent cross-sections of battery interfaces, remove material from specific regions of interest on cycled electrodes, and observe crack propagation and dendrite morphology at nanometer scale.

Battery Cell Assembly & Testing

Battery cell assembly and testing covers the lab- and pilot-scale work of building coin, pouch, and cylindrical cells and characterizing their performance, safety, and lifetime. The skill set spans electrode preparation, calendering, slitting, stacking or winding, electrolyte filling, formation cycling, and a battery of tests — capacity, rate capability, impedance, cycle life, thermal abuse — run on Arbin, Maccor, or BioLogic equipment. It is foundational to materials, cell, and pack R&D across EV, stationary storage, and defense applications.

SigmaPlot

SigmaPlot is the scientific-graphing package historically favored in life sciences and academic battery research — used to produce publication-grade figures of cycle life, Coulombic efficiency, and cell-aging curves. As a hard skill it requires fluency in non-linear regression model fitting, transform-based axis configuration (log-log Ragone plots, Arrhenius plots), template authoring, and the export discipline (vector formats, font embedding) that journals require. Research scientists apply it when characterizing a new electrolyte formulation's cycle stability, when fitting capacity-fade data to power-law or exponential decay models, and when generating figures for cell-development internal reports.

Battery & Electrification Summit

The 2026 Battery & Electrification Summit focused on innovations in battery technologies for mobility. Experts discussed advancements, challenges, and future trends. The event included interactive sessions and networking opportunities. All sessions were available on-demand for virtual attendees. Learn more here: https://www.sae.org/events/battery-electrification-summit

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) passes a high-energy electron beam through an electron-transparent specimen and forms images or diffraction patterns that reveal atomic-scale crystal structure, defects, interfaces, and chemical composition via coupled EELS or EDX. As a hard skill it requires preparing specimens thin enough for electron transmission via FIB lamella or ion-milling, aligning the beam and selecting correct imaging conditions (bright-field, dark-field, HRTEM, HAADF-STEM), and interpreting lattice images and diffraction patterns against reference structures. Battery researchers apply TEM to resolve atomic-scale structural changes in cycled cathode particles, characterize SEI layer thickness and composition, and identify precipitated phases at grain boundaries in solid electrolytes.

SAE Battery Manufacturing & Simulation Summit

The 2026 Battery Manufacturing & Simulation Summit focused on the latest innovations in battery production and simulation techniques. Industry leaders discussed manufacturing advancements, supply chain optimization, and modeling tools. Attendees engaged in expert sessions and networking opportunities. All sessions were made available on-demand for remote participants. Learn more here: https://www.sae.org/events/battery-manufacturing-simulation-summit

Sensors

Sensors — thermocouples, RTDs, strain gauges, load cells, Hall-effect current sensors, optical encoders, pressure transducers, humidity sensors, gas sensors — are the eyes of every control loop and BMS in battery production. As a hard skill it requires understanding the measurement physics, signal conditioning (amplification, filtering, linearization), calibration drift, and failure modes that masquerade as process problems. Engineers and technicians apply this when specifying the dewpoint sensor that governs a dry-room cascade, when troubleshooting a coating-weight gauge that's drifting, and when adding a cell-temperature thermistor to a pack design where every gram of mass matters.

SEMI Washington Fly-In

SEMI Washington Fly-In The SEMI Washington Fly-In 2026 took place in Washington, DC, bringing together semiconductor industry leaders. Participants advocated for key policy priorities and engaged in discussions with lawmakers. The event focused on the importance of semiconductor innovation and domestic manufacturing. Attendees fostered relationships to advance the industry's legislative and economic interests. Learn more here: https://www.semi.org/en/event/washington-fly-in

Contact Angle Measurements

Contact angle measurement quantifies the wettability of a solid surface by placing a liquid droplet on it and measuring the angle formed at the three-phase contact line, yielding information about surface energy and hydrophilicity. As a hard skill it requires preparing clean, representative surfaces, using a goniometer or optical tensiometer correctly, and selecting the appropriate analysis method — sessile drop, advancing/receding — for the application. Battery researchers apply contact angle measurements to evaluate electrode and separator wettability by electrolyte, where poor wetting leads to incomplete pore filling and degraded rate performance.

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Circular Economy

Circular economy practices in battery manufacturing close the loop on critical minerals — lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite — by designing for disassembly, recycling, and reuse. As a hard skill it requires understanding hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical recovery processes, second-life cell qualification, and supply chain traceability of recovered materials. Operators apply these techniques to reduce dependence on primary mining, lower production costs, and meet emerging regulatory requirements around mineral provenance.