By Em Jankauski
Good mentors challenge their mentees. Great mentors raise the bar, inspiring their mentees to go further than they ever dreamed. Meet Ravi Saripella who’s inspiring the next generation of automotive engineers and technicians to embrace the global energy challenge.
Saripella is an advanced battery engineer for the Battery Workforce Challenge collegiate competition, which is managed by Argonne National Laboratory. But his automotive journey all started with EcoCAR – an Advanced Vehicle Transportation Competition that spans more 30 years. He joined year two of the EcoCAR 3 competition during his senior year at Virginia Tech University as part of his senior design project.
“It was kind of a snap decision I made,” said Saripella, a ‘16 VT mechanical engineering alumnus. “It was a huge challenge, a huge learning curve and there was so much going on. Once I found my niche, I was able to thrive under it. I truly do believe that my first job offer from Ford was becomes of that.”
Prior to joining Argonne, Saripella was a hybrid vehicle battery systems engineer at the Ford Motor Company. While in Michigan, he earned a master’s in energy systems engineering from the University of Michigan.
But when opportunity came a knockin’ to work for the very same engineering competition series that helped launch his career, Saripella jumped at the chance to pay it forward.
“I see this great opportunity where I can give back to my roots,” Saripella said. “My goal is for these students to be able to learn something so that they are better than me when I started and that gives them a huge leg up when they enter industry and hopefully excel in whatever they do.”
Let’s catch up with the EcoCAR 3 alumnus now serving the BattChallenge in a Q&A.
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Q: How are you furthering the EV industry in your current role at Argonne?
A: “My previous experience, coupled with the opportunity to collaborate with our many sponsors and fellow organizers, allows us to create a curriculum that mimics the industry design process for product development.”
Q: What’s one of your favorite memories, experiences or outcomes from the EcoCAR competition?
A: “My main focus on EcoCAR was to create brackets for many of the hybrid vehicle components that were newly introduced into the architecture. I remember developing a bracket for a stand-alone inverter that took about 40 design revisions before the Finite Element Analysis team got a passing result.
“It was an opportunity for me to balance an engineering solution with a manufacturable solution. It was great to hear from the team post-competition that the bracket did not fail during any of the driving events.”
Q: How do you think your experience as an EcoCAR team member has helped shape your work as an organizer for the BattChallenge?
A: “The experience of attempting to take a heavy school course load in addition to working on EcoCAR allows me to understand the demanding life of a college student. Coming into the organizer role, I want to provide students with opportunities to learn as much as possible in the battery field such that they are aware of the many design considerations that go into an EV battery. I also want to ensure that I strike a balance such that no task seems insurmountable with the demanding life of a college student as well as the competition time period.”
Q: How do you hope your efforts as an organizer for the BattChallenge collegiate competition impact the competition’s students for years to come?
A: “I hope that the BattChallenge curriculum built allows the students to build a foundation for wherever their future takes them. Very few careers follow a linear path, but the experience from every stop is invaluable.”
Q: How do you hope your efforts as an organizer preparing the next generation of EV technicians and engineers makes an impact on our automotive future?
A: “For those that remain in the battery field post college, I hope that the BattChallenge curriculum allows a jump start in their early career in battery technology.
“A lot of my beginning years was trying to understand the design and manufacturing process of a battery. I am trying to bring a lot of those early career lessons for students to learn such that they potentially have a faster runaway in their future career.”
Q: What legacy do you hope to leave on the EV battery workforce?
A: “One of my high school teachers once said that if you find a job you like, then you never have to work a day in your life. I’m fortunate that I found a field that I like that is also trying to revolutionize our everyday lives in the energy sector. I think it is a success if I contributed to 1 percent of the field through either my own engineering work or inspiring someone to take on the global energy challenge.”
Q: What advice would you give today’s AVTC students competing in the EcoCAR and BattChallenge competitions?
A: “Embrace continuous growth. The EcoCAR and BattChallenge competitions are an early opportunity for students to get a taste of industry projects. Students can use these opportunities to build a skill that they identify and explore a field of interest. The knowledge and individual toolset will continue to grow as the students’ careers continue to evolve.”
