Amy Elliott
ROBOTIC & INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS LEAD, OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY
“WE ARE JUST IN the beginning of this technology,” Elliott said, in reference to 3D printing. She believes we’re going to see huge advances in part performance in the next five years because of the materials development that’s been going on. “And I would love to work on multiple materials,” she added. “How do we use the flexibility of 3D printing to put all kinds of different materials in different places throughout a part to make it function like you could have never imagined before?”
On the robotics side, Elliott is working on a project to teach robots how to disassemble electric vehicle batteries. The way we recycle electric vehicle battery packs now is wasteful, Elliott said—throwing them in the shredder. The better thing to do is break those boxes down and pull out the individual battery cells—a task too dangerous and too tedious for humans.
“I don’t want to knock NASA—space is cool—but I just wish more people would nerd out about the impact of energy research like they did space research.”
Amy Elliott
Elliott explained that the problems they are addressing at the DOE are real challenges that would have a huge impact eventually on our planet. “Everything you do uses energy. We need to make it more efficiently and use it more efficiently so that we can continue to survive.”
Elliott said that her biggest advice to new engineers is to be hands on—it’s not enough to sit in the classroom and try to get everything you need from there. She explained that the curriculum cannot evolve as fast as technology and tools are evolving—so you need to be learning on your own. “Learn skills like CAD and welding and machining that you don’t get to learn in engineering curricula,” she said.
Outside of her work, Elliott is a busy mom: She's made appearances on Discovery Channel's The Big Brain Theory and Outrageous Acts of Science, and she hosts a kids’ YouTube channel show called Amelia Gearhart. “I’m in a wig and glasses and I have this symbol on my shirt of a gear with a heart in the middle,” Elliott said. “Amelia loves to learn how things work and she loves learning about STEM and trades.”
To hear a complete discussion with Elliott, listen to her interview on this episode of ASME TechCast.
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