From high school intern to doctoral Fellow at CAR

For Polina Brodsky, the last two summers of her high school career, those she spent as an intern with Ohio State’s Buckeye Current electric motorcycle, profoundly impacted her life’s work. Five years later, she’s headed to graduate school to earn her doctorate degree in mechanical engineering.

After her time as an intern on the Buckeye Current team, based out of the Center for Automotive Research, she began her undergraduate career at Ohio State, dedicating hours per week and many sleepless nights to the championship team. Never one to back down from a challenge, Brodsky has filled many roles during her time with the Buckeye Current team while she earned her bachelor degree in mechanical engineering. From leading the entire mechanical build of the vehicle and being the team’s powertrain lead to designing the team’s battery packs, and everything in between, Brodsky has a pension for electric mobility.

This same passion is what has driven her to begin graduate school at Ohio State in autumn 2016, where she has the prestigious designation of being a Graduate Fellow, among many other impressive accomplishments and awards. Advised by Marcello Canova, her doctoral research in mechanical engineering will focus on the core of electric vehicles: batteries. She aims to push the barriers of technology currently powering electric and hybrid vehicles, which will help to advance the growing field of green technology, as well as to lower vehicle emissions.

Brodsky’s career goals encompass her desire for expanding knowledge and the benefits of green technology. She hopes to spend significant time in industry developing battery technology, then move into academia to help train the next generation of problem-solvers. Likely these goals are well within range for the high achiever—she’s already spent time interning at Honda Research of America, Tesla and Ford Motor Company.

“Buckeye Current and the Center for Automotive Research have given me the unique opportunity of working with industry in my undergraduate career to give insight into the automotive field,” says Brodsky. “The hands-on engineering experience, connections to industry and leadership opportunities I have received at CAR have given me a platform to propel my future endeavors as I pursue a career in the automotive industry.”