Principal Investigator Jessica Trancik
Project Website http://trancik.scripts.mit.edu/home/
Research in the Trancik Lab focuses on evaluating the costs and environmental impacts of energy technologies to inform their design and accelerate their improvement. Through data analysis and modeling, we study the changing performance of technologies over time due to innovation and evolving operational contexts. This insight is then used to determine design targets, with the goal of accelerating the development of technologies in the laboratory and informing technology policy.
Energy Performance Index - We are developing a framework to compare the dynamics of innovation, performance, and scalability of low-carbon energy technologies. This work involves analyzing large data-sets, modeling the impact of engineering design characteristics on the rate of improvement, assessing materials and energy resource sizes, and characterizing performance limits.
Materials Optimization Map - We are working on an optimization method to accelerate materials discovery for nanostructured low-carbon energy conversion technologies. This framework aims to speed up the rate of search for desirable materials architectures, and links nanoscale features to the cost and scalability of devices.
Research funding for the Lab is from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy's Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, the Santa Fe Institute, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.