Title: Revolutionizing Battery Technology: Nidhi Maniar ‘22 [Music Playing] [00:00:05,820] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Welcome to Engineering Career Conversations. I'm Christina Downey, Director of the Engineering Career Center at Cornell University. [00:00:13,795] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: And I'm Traci Nathans-Kelly, Director of the Engineering Communications Program. We are excited to bring forum where we will host lively conversations that we hope will inspire you. [00:00:29,040] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Today we are with Nidhi Maniar, she's Cornell class of 2022 with a Chemical Engineering master's degree. Nidhi is a battery engineer. Welcome. [00:00:38,605] NIDHI MANIAR: Hi Christa thank you so much for a great introduction. [00:00:42,925] CHRISTA DOWNEY: It's great to see you. We are excited to share your story. We had a great conversation the other day and I'm excited for others to learn more about the work you do. [00:00:51,940] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Well, this is Tracy and I guess I will get us started today. Can you give us a little bit of background about what it is exactly you do at Amazon as a battery engineer, let's just start there. [00:01:05,620] NIDHI MANIAR: Sure. So, at Amazon, a battery engineer is someone who's got a deep understanding of the fundamentals of the battery chemistry and the mechanisms. They're also responsible for optimizing the performance of the batteries and making sure that we have the battery safe and reliable in our devices. [00:01:23,260] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So, let me have a follow-up question then. I always think of Amazon, right, is just this online retailer. So how is it that Amazon is deploying batteries and needs your help? [00:01:37,740] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, So Amazon has got this devices sector wherein you have lab 126, but then you have the tablets, e-readers, you have ring devices, which are the home security devices that Amazon provides. So, in all of those devices you have lithium-ion batteries are some of the other chemistry of batteries going in there. And you need to make sure that your battery is as safe and reliable for the customers to be used. So, it's more of consumer electronics right now for Amazon. [00:02:06,190] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's a great explanation. Thank you for that. You, you're a new graduate and you've been there for a little while. So, what is it that you enjoy most about this work that you're doing there? [00:02:17,320] NIDHI MANIAR: So, there are three things in here which I enjoyed the most. Firstly, I think the cross-functional collaboration spirit that we've got at Amazon, like the thermal team, the mechanical team, the formware team. I think you get to know a lot from people and trying to understand their perspective. The second thing is that the curiosity of learning new things, because I just graduated recently, I have a whole lot of things which I need to learn. And it's just so fascinating that such little battery cells can be so complicated. And thirdly, I think the feeling of making a difference in the society by being a part of this new battery revolution that's going on across the world. [00:03:01,070] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Say more about that new revolution. [00:03:03,260] NIDHI MANIAR: If you see like all of these companies are trying to get more and more greener. They're trying to focus more on electric, making batteries with higher energy density. So eventually we are definitely going to transition from oil and gas to EVs and batteries. [00:03:20,705] CHRISTA DOWNEY: So, for someone who's interested in this work, what are some resources you would recommend? [00:03:26,900] NIDHI MANIAR: So, if somebody who's interested in battery engineering, again, it depends from company to company on how battery engineers work. But some of the resources I will recommend from Cornell is to firstly reach out to the Cornell Engineering Career Services if you have not exactly figured out what you like. And I think in my career they played a very instrumental role in helping me figure out what I like and what role should I be focusing on. Secondly, I think networking is very important. So maybe you can reach out to people on CUeLINKS and LinkedIn and speak to them so that you get to know better about the role that they are currently in, if you'd like it or not. Yeah. I think there's other resources which will be definitely good. And Cornell has a lot of things to offer apart from this. [00:04:17,720] CHRISTA DOWNEY: And are there any particular courses or projects that you would recommend students try in order to prepare for this type of work? [00:04:26,645] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah. So specifically, if you're looking for somebody with a battery engineering role in future, I think It's very important for you to work on battery related projects where you're trying to work on something really fundamental on a chemistry level. And I think that a lot of courses related to energy at Cornell, which will be helpful. Apart from that, I think one thing I would like to mention is about the management writing course, which the Johnson School offers. I think that's a really great course. I think whichever industry you go into, writing skill is so important and I think it's so fundamental. [00:05:05,345] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Can you say more about that, how you use your writing skills. I know Tracy teaches courses. [00:05:10,430] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Yes, I do. Very delicious to me. [00:05:14,255] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, yeah, of course, I think writing skills here at Amazon are given a lot of importance, say for example, if you're writing an email, you don't want to dump your entire brain under that e-mail and so you need to make it like the high-level overview has to be like real quick. Somebody can just go through a couple of seconds then should get the main take-out of the e-mail and the takeaway of it. So, I think writing skills are very important that way. And I think entirely your career, you've underestimated writing skills is so much like you've never much focused on it. And now when you take this course at Cornell and you're like, Oh my God, there are so many things that have been doing wrong with my writing. [00:05:54,710] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Hopefully some things you've been doing well. That would be my perspective as well. What are the good things you're doing that you can heighten? And it is really interesting in the College of Engineering, we have that engineering communication requirement. And you were in ChemE, correct? [00:06:11,765] NIDHI MANIAR: Yes. [00:06:12,665] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: They do try to take care of that in house. And so I'm really excited to hear that you went beyond that and found a writing course that supported that extra work. The extra professionalism that you wanted to do, That's a really nice thing to hear. I wanted to also ask you a little bit about job searching and networking and all of that as part of the ecosphere, as a, as a new graduate, right? It's still very much probably fresh in your mind. Can you walk us through your experience with that? [00:06:48,575] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, sure. I think the first thing that you might want to do with the job search is to focus on the role that you are actually looking at, instead of just trying to apply a thousand and two thousand companies, you know, I think having already targeted approach, maybe just apply to ten or 15 companies, but be very targeted to them and tailor your resume according to them. That is going to be more helpful than just making random applications. I think that is very important. Secondly, I think instead of just applying directly on their websites, I think it's always better to network with people in that company and then ask for their feedback on your resume. And that is how you build a conversation with them. And then eventually asked for a reference. And I think the third thing for job search is that I think there's this need of stop comparing yourself with your peers. Like you need to have your own journey. You need to have your own goals. Instead of comparing, oh my god, somebody found a job and I haven't found a job. [00:07:45,050] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I really appreciate that perspective if you have to have your own journey and not compare yourself to too many other people. When you are networking, are you talking about using online sources like LinkedIn or GitHub profile or do you have other kinds of networking that worked for you in particular? [00:08:06,845] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, I think CUeLINKS was very helpful. I think overall in my job search, I think the Cornell Alumni Network has helped me a lot. Like you can reach out to any Cornell alum, say, hey, I'm looking for this job. Can you help me guide or just provide some constructive feedback on my resume? So, I think the online portals are really very helpful. And also, if this opportunity of attending local networking event that will be great. [00:08:34,550] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Those are really nice ideas. [00:08:36,455] CHRISTA DOWNEY: What else do you think is important for the audience to know? [00:08:40,745] NIDHI MANIAR: I think for the audience to know is to, I think most of the time what we are, what I've ended up doing as a student, as well as that, you tried to focus on really complex things when you're doing a research project or something. I think instead of just having fundamental knowledge about the work that you're doing is more important and that is more appreciated by the companies and you're trying to do really more complex in your grad school. [00:09:07,520] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Now, that answer makes my heart sing. That's really a wonderful perspective about being a whole, bringing your whole self. And not just your technical skills that it's an entire package that you bring onto the job. I like that a lot. I wanted to follow up. So let's think about your arc. I always say, Let's think we're back in a time machine and you're going back to being a sophomore. And if you wanted to tell like-minded sophomores, something that you wish you knew that earlier stage. So, sophomore, right, we're getting ready to affiliate and make some decisions about paths. What do you recommend to those folks? [00:09:51,020] NIDHI MANIAR: I think I would recommend them doing more networking, speaking to more and more people, trying to build that network amongst all Cornellians. And the second thing is to actually leverage the resources you have at Cornell. Because I think for the first two years you just ignore it, you are like, okay, I'm not doing this job search. Why do I need to go to the career center? But I think it's very important to start engaging and thinking in that direction right from the start. [00:10:19,895] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Do you think that networking also happens not only within projects and your courses, and at the Career Center of course, but other opportunities I'm thinking of like project teams or items along those lines. [00:10:35,000] NIDHI MANIAR: Yes, of course, I think networking definitely happens when you're working with students from different departments. But I think one important thing about networking is that it's not just for one particular semester that you're working with that person. You need to build a long-term relationship with that person so that in the future, if you want to approach that person, you can go ahead and say, hey, I need some help. I think that is a fundamental mistake that most of the people do with networking is that whenever they need somebody, they will just go and talk to them but otherwise, like there's no long-term communication or you're not just asking around. [00:11:08,495] CHRISTA DOWNEY: That answer makes my heart sing because we use the word networking. People know it and yet people hate it. And relationship building is really what it's about. And that curiosity that's behind the relationship-building. You didn't use that word, but what you're describing is wanting to get to know people, wanting to understand what they're doing. Showing curiosity for some aspect of work that you think you might want to explore. Talking to people, seeing if that's a good fit, continuing that relationship, perhaps developing additional skills, learning where you need to focus. I love that you mentioned writing skills, which are so crucial. People think of this work is so heavy and tech and yet you still need to have strong writing skills and strong communication skills, as you mentioned. So, this is a really good advice, I think for people who are looking to go into this field. And I know that once you're in this work, this is expected for leadership to move up, to be promoted into new positions to take the lead on projects. So, I love that you're mentioning all of these things. [00:12:22,520] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That the networking goes both ways. I think that your insight there, especially as a brand-new graduate, that you have that insight that I can't just ask people for something and then walk away. Right? I owe them, I owe them in return. So, thinking about somebody being in your early career, what can you do and return once you've networked or you've asked a mentor's advice, what is it that an early career professional can offer back to these mentors? [00:12:52,535] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, definitely. I think you I think it's a two-way thing. You can definitely. You also as a new graduate, have a lot of things to offer. For example, if they're working on a self-paced project, you can ask them that if there's some scope, of you helping them around, and that is a learning opportunity for you as well. And they have got somebody who can support. [00:13:10,940] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: It's a nice idea. Thank you for that. We also have some questions that we'd like to ask everybody quickly at the end, just like little personal interest ones. And so, I'll start off with that. So out there in California where you are, what do you do to relax or have fun or re-energize yourself after doing all this hard work? [00:13:32,675] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, definitely. There are a lot of selling points here like that. A lot of beaches, mountains around. So, what I end up doing is that on weekends, I just take my painting canvas and colors and just go to one of these points and start painting, and for sure it's so relaxing. [00:13:52,280] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's amazing, so do you have a whole bunch of paintings around your apartment? [00:13:56,465] NIDHI MANIAR: Yes, I do. [00:13:57,920] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Me too. [00:14:01,445] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Excellent. Okay. Great. So, what's one place you go for information to stay current in your work? [00:14:07,520] NIDHI MANIAR: I think maybe reading research papers will be really helpful to know like what other people are working on. Like even if something's not scalable, but at least you know that, okay, this is a potential thing that could be done with this particular battery chemistry or there's a possibility of working in this direction as well. So, I think science directories and journals or research papers are a good source. [00:14:32,120] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: What about, I'm just curious for myself. What about things like patents. Do you ever scope out what other organizations are doing in terms of like patenting new battery. [00:14:45,400] NIDHI MANIAR: Like most of the patents that I've seen so far, I think the kind of language they keep on using in there is very complicated sometimes and then even they don't reveal everything what they mean by an electrolyte or what this new particular patent is. Otherwise, somebody could just copy it. I think patents will be helpful to get a basic idea about it. But I think most of the times it's just the trade secret of that company. [00:15:11,990] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Yeah. It's like the secret for Coca-Cola, right? They're not going to show it by patenting it. Yeah, I love that. Now, if you weren't doing this work, now, what would you be doing? And does it have any relationship to what you thought you might be doing when you were a kid? [00:15:28,295] NIDHI MANIAR: Yeah, definitely when I was a kid, I always thought of being a painter. And I think definitely the long-term goal is to do paintings like probably go to some European city and just start painting. But I definitely liked the current job role which I've got because I know I'm making a difference in the society. And I think this is going to lead me somewhere for sure. [00:15:51,245] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Excellent. I love the sustainability aspect that you mentioned and the safety aspect of your work. Great. Well, thank you so much. We really enjoyed talking with you today. [00:16:01,640] NIDHI MANIAR: Thank you so much, Christa. Thank you so much Traci. [00:16:04,685] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: We wish you all the luck in the world and thank you for taking your time with us today. [00:16:11,050] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Join us for the next episode where we'll be celebrating excellence and innovation among engineers whose impact contributes to a healthier, more equitable and more sustainable world. [Music Playing]