Elham Sahraei is an Associate Professor at Department of Mechanical Engineering in Temple University, and she is the Director of Electric Vehicle Safety Lab (EVSL). Prior to Temple, Dr. Sahraei was a Research Scientist at the Impact and Crashworthiness Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-director of the MIT Battery Consortium, a multi-sponsor industrial program supported by major automotive and battery manufacturers. Her research is focused on characterization and computational modeling of advanced energy storage systems (Li-Ion batteries) for electric vehicles. She earned her PhD degree from the George Washington University in 2011.
Yihan Song joined the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a research assistant in Fall 2018. His research has been focused on development of a universal model for cylindrical cells with inclusion of failure for shell casing and jellyroll. Yihan works both with Ansys LS Dyna and Radioss software.
Shantanu joint Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a research assistant in Fall 2019. His research is focused on modeling of modules and battery packs. He uses homogenization and sub modeling techniques to allow integration of pack models in full vehicle analysis.
Huzefa joined Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a research assistant in Fall 2019. His research has been focused on developing characterization protocols for experimental study of lithium ion cells. He has developed models for 6 pouch cells and continues to add to the library of EVSL cell models.
Abhijeet joined Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a PhD student in Fall 2022. His research is focused on full vehicle analysis of electric vehicles under standard crash loadings. He integrates battery models developed at EVSL into full vehicle simulations. He brings to EVSL his many years of experience working in vehicle industry (FCA, FORD, TATA and Jaguar Land Rover).
Jiwon Hwang joined the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a graduate student in Fall 2024. His research focuses on investigating the effects of temperature on battery materials. This includes studying the thermal behavior of lithium-ion cells and understanding how temperature variations impact performance and safety.
Nima joined the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab as a Ph.D. student in Spring 2025. He previously worked in the automotive industry as a CAE engineer, specializing in structural strength analysis and crash simulations across various impact scenarios. His research centers on the multi-scale modeling of batteries, from cell-level behavior to full-vehicle integration. I work with simulation tools such as Ansys LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH, and ABAQUS.
Adel is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Temple University, researching failure mechanisms in battery cells. His work focuses on predictive models for damage evolution in energy storage systems. He earned his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tehran, where he studied fracture behavior in cracked composite materials. His interests center on material response under complex loading, with emphasis on structural integrity and damage prediction.
Vincent Chapeau is a senior undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering at Temple University and will begin his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering in Spring 2025. He serves as a teaching assistant for the Materials Lab and has been a research assistant under Dr. Sahraei in Electric Vehicle Safety Lab (EVSL) since Fall 2024. In EVSL, Vincent has contributed to projects involving material testing and characterization, dynamic battery characterization, and quasi-static battery evaluation. His technical skill set includes lab instrumentation, data acquisition, and electrochemical testing methods.
Yvette Lai completed her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and is currently pursuing her M.S. in the same field. Since Spring 2024, she has been working in the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab, where her research focuses on the material characteristics of lithium-ion batteries. Her work involves simulation modeling using LS-Dyna and experimental testing to better understand battery performance and safety.
Passionate about materials testing and battery safety, Monica Yoo is completing her final year in Mechanical Engineering. At the Electric Vehicle Safety Lab, she specializes in characterizing Lithium-Ion batteries through hands-on testing with Instron and computational simulation using LS-DYNA.
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