Milan Hintjens

I graduated in Engineering Technology (Sustainable Energy) from the VUB in 2026. During my studies, I spent most of my time in the FabLab, designing, prototyping and testing for the electric race car of VUB Racing, a Formula Student team. Within the team, I focused on aerodynamics and composites, and I led the AERO subteam during the last two years of my studies. My master’s thesis with EVERGi took me in a different direction: I developed an Energy Management System for electric vehicle charging parks, using stochastic model predictive control.

Within the Battery Innovation Centre, I will focus on establishing an experimental and modelling framework for the characterisation, diagnosis and lifetime prediction of sodium-ion batteries. My research aims to improve the mechanistic understanding of sodium-ion battery ageing and to provide robust tools for performance forecasting, system optimisation and reliability assessment in stationary energy storage applications.