Technical Advisory Board

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Michael Kepros

B.S. Chemistry – St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN
Supplemental engineering courses at Ill. Institute of Technology (Chicago)
Supplemental courses in electrochemistry, statistics, Taguchi Design-Of-Experiments
Personnel management, project management, and Kepner-Tregoe methods.

Mr. Kepros brings over 40 years of experience in research and development of electrochemical energy storage systems. Battery expertise covers non-rechargeable (i.e., primary) aqueous systems including carbon-zinc, alkaline-manganese, zinc-air, zinc-oxygen, and magnesium-manganese dioxide. In addition expertise covers rechargeable lead-acid batteries including both flooded and valve-regulated lead-acid cell designs. Further, work on other rechargeable battery technologies includes nickel-cadmium, nickel-zinc, nickel-hydrogen, zinc-bromine, zinc-chlorine, and molten salt lithium-iron disulfide cells. Major contributions have included new products, product and process improvements, methods development, and personnel training and development. Key contributions have also been provided to customers, sales, marketing, legal, quality assurance, quality control, and manufacturing plant operations.

Work history includes management positions, principal scientist, and many research and engineering positions across Gould Inc., RAYOVAC, The Gates Corporation, Gates Energy Products, GNB Technologies, Exide, and PowerGenix Systems Inc.. Responsibilities have included technical oversight of research and engineering staff and their projects (including guidance and training), liaison with national laboratories and overseas research institutes, and strategic impact assessments of battery energy technologies for forward business planning.

Holds memberships in The Electrochemical Society, International Society of Electrochemistry, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Dr. Arvind Parthsarthy

B. Tech (Mechanical Engineering), Indian Institute of technology, Madras
M.S. (Analytical Chemistry), Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Ph.D. (Electrochemistry), Texas A & M University, Texas
M.D., Sigma-Pi Power Sources Pvt. Ltd., Chennai

Dr. Arvind holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the IIT Chennai, India. His interest in energy conversion devices led him to pursue Chemistry. He earned his Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry from Bowling Green State University, Ohio and a Ph.D. in Electrochemistry from Texas A&M University in the year 1991.His research work was focused on the development of the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell and was carried out at the Center for Electrochemical Systems and Hydrogen Research in Texas and was funded and directed by NASA and DARPA.

He has published several papers on fuel cells in journals such as Journal of Electrochemical Society and Journal of Power Sources, and has also co-authored a textbook on Fuel Cell Systems. His postdoctoral research on membrane selectivity involved team-working with the Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

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Arvind returned to India in 1993 to start his own Company, Sigma-Pi Power Sources, to focus on specialty seawater-activated batteries. The batteries that the Company produces today are used extensively by the Indian Navy. The Company was awarded the National Award for Indigenization in 2000. Since 2007, the Company has worked with a major supplier of marine survivor location devices in the UK to develop and produce specialty batteries for the Coast Guard as well as the aviation industry. Simultaneously, the Company started development work for the US Navy on high-performance batteries used in underwater devices.

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Dr. B. Hariprakash

Dr. B. Hariprakash received his Doctoral Degree in Electrochemistry from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He has also done an MBA from Anna University, Chennai, India. He has 4 patents to his credit and published more than 20research papers in peer-reviewed International Journals.He is one of the recipients of the Young Inventors Award (Asia-Pacific), 2000. He is the Lead Editor of the book ‘Essentialsof Lead-Acid Batteries’ published by SAEST in 2006. He has contributed 7 chapters to ‘Encyclopedia of Electrochemical Power Sources’ published by Elsevier in 2009. He has about 20 years of experience in Rechargeable Batteries Science and Technology. His research interests are in Advanced Batteries’ technology with special emphasis onEnergy Storage Solutions forClean & Green Transportation and MW-scale Solar Projects.Apart from working with technology innovators in various countries, he is also a Director at Indocel Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India, and Hulikkal Electro (India) Pvt. Ltd., Coimbatore, India.He is currently working as a Technical Advisor at Firefly Batteries Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad, India. He has a very good understanding of Lead-AcidBatteries in UPS, Telecom, Solar and Electric Vehicle Applications.