Empowering the future: Battery Workforce Challenge Wraps Up
Three-year competition equipped approximately 1,100 students with skills necessary for developing the next generation of advanced power train technology
The Battery Workforce Challenge recently wrapped up its three-year competition challenging North American universities and their vocational school partners to design, test and integrate an advanced electric vehicle (EV) battery pack into a 2024 Ram ProMaster EV. The competition was co-headline sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Stellantis and managed by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.
This competition sought to meet our nation’s need for a talent pipeline that delivered a competitive workforce for advanced mobility technologies. During each year of the BattChallenge, students were tasked with a unique set of objectives that built off work produced in the year prior.
In May, teams put the final touches on their battery packs and had them inspected at Prime Energy in Troy, Michigan before integrating them into their vans at the Chrysler Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Teams included:
- California State, Los Angeles and Cerritos College
- Clemson University and Greenville Technical College
- Colorado School of Mines and Arapaho Community College
- McMaster University and Mohawk College
- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Ivy Tech Community College
- The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College
- The 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
During its three-year run, the BattChallenge engaged nearly 1,100 university and vocational students in hands-on engineering projects focused on battery systems and advanced vehicle power train technologies. Below are highlights of accomplishments from each year of the program.
Year one
Year one focused on the cell-level aspects of batteries, including cell characterization, safety and general parameters of how lithium-ion batteries operate. Students learned about voltage, current, temperature and metrics to evaluate the performance capability of the technology as well as the fundamental principles for electrical, mechanical, thermal and software and systems engineering.
Students were exposed to computer-aided design development of their battery packs as well as electrochemical analysis of lithium-ion technology.
Year two
In the second year of the competition, teams turned their attention to sub-assembly components of batteries. First they had to decide how they were going to group and package their lithium-ion cells together in what’s known as module design.
They also had to learn how to design a way to quickly disconnect the battery should it overheat or malfunction, which is more commonly referred to as a battery disconnect unit design. Lastly, crews had to develop how the machine would transfer heat to maintain optimal temperatures in what is known as thermal system design.
This included learning the industry’s best practices such as design failure mode and effect analysis, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, creepage and clearance and software and project management approaches. Students also learned about circular economy principles and leveraged Argonne modeling tools, such as BatPAC, GREET and EverBatt.
Year three
The final year of the challenge was a gated approach. Like how you have to conquer a level in a video game to get to the next one, the gated approach required each team complete a specific gate before moving on to the next one. Design reviews helped teams progress through hardware, battery disconnect and software gates to safely progress from the module and other subsystem refinements of their year two designs to a full system-level integration and build.
Safety was a core focus with students receiving hands-on training with Mopar safety trainers on actual battery packs and vehicles. Mopar is Stellantis’ official parts service and customer care division for its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat vehicles
Teams underwent inspections from subject-matter experts on sub-systems installed in their battery packs, including leak testing, end-of-line testing and performance testing in a Stellantis hybrid vehicle battery rework lab and integration. Teams who cleared all gates integrated their battery pack into their provided Ram ProMaster EV.
The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College team officially got their Ram ProMaster EV to spin its wheels once they integrated their student-designed advanced battery pack into the van.
Preparing the next generation of engineers
Students gained skills not traditionally developed in a classroom setting. They were exposed to industry gate reviews, engineering practical applications of the fundamentals they learn in class, and battery system-specific insider knowledge and exposure.
They worked in a multidisciplinary environment that led them through industry challenges such as sourcing, scheduling, pivoting under duress, validating their designs, developing statements of work, documenting their designs and sequencing their build process for manufacturability.
Impact
Approximately 1,100 students participated in the BattChallenge with more than 24 schools represented. More than 50 Stellantis internships were offered to students along with nine full-time job offers.
Moving forward
With the ending of the BattChallenge and its sister competition, EcoCAR EV Challenge, Argonne’s Advanced Vehicle Technologies Competitions announced the launch of the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge. The EcoCAR Innovation Challenge will have students designing and building intelligent mobility solutions and innovative products using emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence for engineering tools, machine learning and exascale computing.