University of Nevada, Las Vegas & College of Southern Nevada

The University of Nevada Las Vegas, along with its vocational partner the College of Southern Nevada, is excited to participate in the first-ever Battery Workforce Challenge. The UNLV & CSN BattChallenge team compromises 20 engineering students, encompassing a wide variety of disciplines including mechanical, electrical, and entertainment and design engineering as well as computer science.

The team works diligently to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver a custom designed battery pack, successfully integrating a full electric vehicle system. This process will include gaining hands-on experience in crucial areas such as design, testing and manufacturing processes. The team will also work to innovate in potential areas including form factor, structural integration, rechargeability, energy density, cost, durability, safety and modularity. Through this competition students are eager to attain new skills to be utilized as part of the future electric vehicle workforce.

The UNLV & CSN BattChallenge team's vision is for its institutions to play a critical role in the future of battery development in Nevada. As the crew proceeds through this challenge, it hope to further establish Las Vegas as a technology hub utilizing its rich battery-related resources and attract more connections to the corporate world through sponsorships and internships.

The UNLV & CSN Battery Workforce Challenge team’s mission is to build a welcoming, challenging and empowering partnership to prepare the future battery workforce needed for the expansion of electric vehicle demand. In support of making Nevada a leader for EV battery manufacturing and cleaning energy supply chains, this crew aims to take a critical role in training a knowledgeable, motivated and diverse workforce. These institutions aim to create an authentic sense of partnership and community, with a focus on accountability, teamwork and inclusion, and support student growth through hands-on experience with battery pack design, testing, manufacturing and integration.

The UNLV & CSN BattChallenge team strives to accomplish the following goals in year one of the three-year collegiate engineering competition. They include:

• Develop a team culture that promotes learning and growth from the team and encourages them to have an excellent time 
• To be a competitive team within the competition and gain professional knowledge that can be executed outside of the Battery Workforce Challenge
• To foster professional connections within the electric vehicle and automotive industries alike