How College Racing Can Solve Cleantech’s Biggest Crisis: Talent

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While Tesla, Rivian, and every major automaker desperately hunt for engineers who can actually build autonomous EVs, 80+ university teams just proved they’re finally teaching the right skills. And it happened at a racetrack in Michigan.

The dirty secret slowing clean transportation adoption isn’t battery chemistry or charging infrastructure anymore — it’s finding engineers who can seamlessly integrate electric powertrains with autonomous systems. But at the 2025 Formula SAE Electric competition at the Michigan International Speedway, something fundamental shifted in how we’re training the next generation of cleantech innovators.

“The industry is desperate for graduates who understand how to integrate perception, planning, and control into a physical vehicle,” stated Sarah Chen, a senior engineer at a major autonomous vehicle developer serving as a competition judge. That desperation isn’t hyperbole — it’s the bottleneck currently constraining how fast we can deploy clean, autonomous transportation at scale.

Warning: this video is 7 hours long!

The talent pipeline finally catches up

To understand how significant this shift is, consider that the original Formula SAE competition has been running since 1980 — training automotive engineers for the internal combustion age. Formula SAE Electric, a separate competition focused exclusively on electric powertrains, only launched in 2013, just 12 years ago, as universities scrambled to catch up with the industry’s cleantech pivot.

Now, barely a decade after electric vehicles entered collegiate competition as a distinct discipline, Formula SAE Electric has made autonomous driving capabilities mandatory for the first time. Not optional. Not a bonus challenge. Mandatory. Every team competing had to design and implement systems allowing their electric race cars to navigate courses without human input — exactly the skillset that cleantech companies are struggling to find.

Oregon State University’s Global Formula Racing team didn’t just win the overall competition — they demonstrated that universities can now produce engineers ready to accelerate cleantech deployment from day one, not after years of costly on-the-job training.

“Our students embraced the new autonomous challenges head-on, proving that you can blend high-performance electric powertrains with cutting-edge AI,” said Dr. Mark Johnson, Oregon State’s faculty advisor. “They are ready to lead the industry.”

San Jose State secured second place, with Georgia Tech rounding out the podium — all three teams showcasing the exact multidisciplinary skills that Tesla’s recruitment teams scout for at events like this.

Beyond traditional engineering education

What makes this development crucial for cleantech deployment is how these students are learning. They’re not just studying electric motors in theory — they’re debugging power management systems at 3:00 AM while simultaneously calibrating LiDAR sensors for autonomous navigation.

“The challenges we faced, from designing a new accumulator cooling system to debugging our autonomous software at 3 AM, taught us more than any textbook ever could,” shared Maria Rodriguez, powertrain lead for San Jose State’s team.

This isn’t traditional automotive engineering education. Teams were evaluated on everything from battery cell selection to sensor fusion algorithms, from manufacturing cost analysis to safety protocols for autonomous systems. It’s exactly the holistic, systems-thinking approach that cleantech companies need but rarely find in new graduates.

The recruiting frenzy

The competition has become the premier talent pipeline for the clean transportation revolution.

Representatives from Tesla, Rivian, SpaceX, and Formula 1 teams actively scout the event, with top performers often receiving multiple job offers before graduation.

But this year felt different. With autonomous capabilities now mandatory, recruiters weren’t just looking for smart students — they were finding engineers who could immediately contribute to the most challenging problems in cleantech: making electric vehicles that drive themselves safely and efficiently.

The addition of mandatory autonomous challenges forces universities to completely restructure their programs, ensuring graduates understand not just how to build electric vehicles, but how to build electric vehicles that can navigate the real world independently.

What this means for cleantech deployment

This shift in engineering education could accelerate clean transportation adoption in ways that new battery chemistries or charging networks alone cannot. Every engineer graduating from programs like Oregon State’s is equipped to tackle the integration challenges that have kept autonomous EVs in endless testing phases.

The 2025 Formula SAE Electric competition didn’t just crown Oregon State as champions — it marked the moment when engineering education finally caught up with the clean transportation revolution. The talent shortage that has been constraining cleantech deployment just got a lot smaller.

And it all started with college students racing electric cars that drive themselves.