Battery Workforce Challenge
BWC End of Year One Competition Results
The UA Battery Workforce Challenge (BWC) Team attended the Year 1 Competition (May 6th to May 9th 2024) in Chicago and won the Third Place Award among 12 competing teams selected to compete from across North America (United States and Canada).
The BattChallenge is an elite public-private partnership and North American collegiate engineering competition sponsored by DOE, Stellantis, and it is managed by Argonne National Laboratory. The Project Manager Mohammad Alsmadi received the Award on behalf of the team.
In addition, the team has won the Most Creative Technical Design Check-In Award which is presented as recognition for the team who showed creativity in problem-solving, design optimization, and integration strategies for their battery pack. This award was given to the team due to the innovative integration of concepts developed in Dr. Jaber Abu Qahouq’s Research Laboratory in addition to the electrical bussing strategy in the battery which considers the industry’s Automotive Safety Integrity Level Standards.
Moreover, the Engineering Management Award was presented to the Engineering Manager Owen Schreiber.
The following 14 personnel traveled to the competition to represent the larger team: Project Manager Mohammad Alsmadi (UA ECE Graduate Student), Engineering Manager Owen Schreiber (UA ME Graduate Student), Hardware Lead Shane Vanderhagen (UA ECE Undergraduate Student), Software Lead Ahmed Bakr (UA CS Graduate Student), Vehicle System Integration Lead Lukas Kiesewetter (UA ME Undergraduate Student), Team Member Sadie Jarrell (UA ChE Undergraduate Student), Team Member Dexter Gard (UA CS Undergraduate Student), Team Member Henry Herman (UA ECE Undergraduate Student), Team Member Ahmad Fuad (UA ECE Graduate Student), Team Member Kerry Pinkard (SSCC Student), Team Member Nery Carillo (SSCC Student), Lead Faculty Advisor Dr. Jaber Abu Qahouq (UA ECE), Faculty Co-Advisor Dr. Krishna Shah (UA ME), and Vocational School Advisor Mr. Michael Hobson (SSCC).
UA: The University of Alabama.
SSCC: Shelton State Community College.
ECE: Electrical and Computer Engineering.
ME: Mechanical Engineering.
CS: Computer Science.
ChE: Chemical Engineering.