Richard Blackburn has been appointed as the faculty lead of Motlow State’s new Electric Vehicle Engineering Technology (EVET) Program which is slated to begin in the fall of 2025. Pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, EVET will be offered in the Automation and Robotics Training Center in McMinnville and will prepare students to be at the forefront of a new world of industry.
Motlow State is the second community college in Tennessee to offer the EVET Program. Blackburn and Smyrna Mechatronics Instructor Omar Tantawi have worked closely with Chattanooga State Community College to develop the curriculum that Motlow students will use in learning to work on electric vehicles, batteries, and charging stations. The two partnered with Tantawi’s brother Professor Khalid Tantawi at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga to apply for the grants that made this new program possible for Motlow State.
Blackburn joined the Marines at the age of 20 to financially support his college education. He completed a five-year degree at MTSU in only three-and-a-half years and participated in a Robotics team that competed at NASA against teams from across the world. He worked for three years as a design intern in Smyrna before becoming a maintenance supervisor and later a production supervisor in a factory. This position allowed him to teach Industry Mechatronics, and his love of the subject led him to seek a position as a full-time instructor. His search led him to Motlow’s Mechatronics Program. Blackburn was hired at Motlow in July of 2019 and is excited to take this next step in his career with the College as lead of the EVET Associate of Applied Science Program.
Blackburn hopes that this program will give students a more well-rounded view of vehicles and help them to keep up with the ever-changing car industry so that they can be better positioned for success and meeting the needs of customers. He stated, “When people are looking for a Mechatronics Program, Motlow State stands out as an obvious choice because the College has been a pioneer in the field. That is exactly what we want to accomplish with the Electric Vehicle Program. We want to be the best choice and to be at the forefront of innovation.”
Mechanics with electric vehicle experience will become more necessary as customers purchase more electric vehicles. Students who finish this program will know how to prepare vehicles that come off the line for sale, repair charging stations, and service car batteries. The program will have an emphasis on maintenance safety to ensure that students understand best practices when working on electric vehicles in order to prevent potential injuries.
The field of electric vehicles has already seen drastic changes and improvements in its short existence, and students who choose the EVET Program can play a part in the development of this ever-growing field. Contact Richard Blackburn at rblackburn@mscc.edu to learn more about the program and find out if it is the right fit for you. Become a student at Motlow.edu/apply.
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