Ohio State, Columbus State team up in national student EV battery engineering competition
Participating students will receive firsthand, experiential learning and work with industry experts
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The Ohio State University |
A team of students from The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College has been chosen to participate in the inaugural Battery Workforce Challenge Competition, a public-private sector national initiative to prepare a diverse workforce for future engineering and manufacturing careers.
Organized by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Stellantis and Argonne National Laboratory, the competition tasks 12 selected universities, along with their vocational partners, to design, build, test and integrate an advanced electric vehicle (EV) battery into a future Stellantis vehicle, which will be announced in early 2024.
The Battery Workforce Challenge Program aims to inspire a robust workforce within the EV battery sector through multiple educational platforms that will help the DOE achieve net-zero emissions across industries by 2050 and advance the Stellantis goal of becoming a carbon net-zero corporation by 2038.
The three-year competition will culminate in 2026, with the winning teams receiving dozens of annual engineering and sponsor-related category awards, $100,000 in industry-provided prize money, and invaluable employment, collaboration and networking opportunities with industry leaders.
“Ohio State has a long history in R&D programs related to energy storage,” said Assistant Professor Matilde D’Arpino, the team’s faculty adviser. “The Battery Workforce Challenge is the perfect way to expose more students to the technical challenges of lithium-ion batteries and generate innovative solutions. The team has access to state-of-the-art facilities for battery testing and system development at the Center for Automotive Research to test their prototype.”
Each team will design a custom battery pack utilizing production battery cells and complete a professional battery design review with the competition’s subject matter experts. This hands-on experience will include functions such as wiring, battery management, structural integrity, thermal management, power interfacing, cell balancing algorithms, fusing, power busing and enclosure. Students will learn valuable skills and gain unparalleled educational experience that will ready them for future careers throughout the battery industry.
“The Battery Workforce Challenge promotes an environment of technical achievement, coupled with a strong sense of community,” said the team’s project manager, David DeLisle, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student. “I am excited to advance my technical and leadership expertise and build lasting relationships with students and experts from diverse fields. Together, we are shaping the future workforce and driving progress in the electrification of vehicles.”
The 12 teams participated in a competitive process to secure a spot in the elite competition. The participating students will receive firsthand, experiential learning and will work in close partnership with industry experts to tackle one of the most relevant real-world engineering challenges facing the automotive industry today.
“As new EV battery technician jobs come to central Ohio through unprecedented investment in brand-new industry in our region, two-year community colleges like Columbus State and our K12 career education partners will play a critical role in workforce preparedness to meet the full potential of our growing high-tech manufacturing support sector,” said Steve Levin, professor and coordinator of Automotive Technology. “Partnership throughout the K12 and higher education spectrum will meet the challenge and opportunity these thousands of incoming jobs represent. This is a great opportunity to further our collaboration with Ohio State as we build out new industry-aligned curriculum at our college.”
- The universities and vocational partners selected for the Battery Workforce Challenge are:
- California State University, Los Angeles and Cerritos College
- Clemson University and Greenville Technical College
- Colorado School of Mines and Arapahoe Community College
- Jackson State University and Hinds Community College
- McMaster University and Mohawk College
- The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Ivy Tech Community College
- University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College
- University of California, Merced and Merced College
- University of Michigan-Dearborn and Henry Ford College
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas and College of Southern Nevada
- University of Waterloo and Lambton College: Lambton Energy Research Centre
“Initiatives like the Battery Workforce Challenge Program are created from a compelling need for heightened American ingenuity and an increased workforce in the EV sector,” said Michael Berube, deputy assistant secretary for sustainable transportation and fuels in the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “This competition will immerse students in hands-on, real-world experiences crucial to building skills needed to support a cleaner, more sustainable energy economy.”
The Ohio State-Columbus State team currently includes seven students and welcomes additional members from both institutions.
