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Apply Today for Wayne State University's Free Professional Development Course on Electric-Drive Vehicle Technology
Don't miss your opportunity to attend a free professional development course on electric drive vehicle technology being offered by the CAAT and Wayne State University. The course will be held July 21-22 at the Vehicle Technology Training Center at Erie Community College in Orchard Park, New York.
The workshop is designed to provide fundamentals of electric-drive vehicle powertrain configurations, electric propulsion components, energy storage systems, and lightweight materials to 4-year college/university engineering or technology faculty, community college instructors, high school science or technology teachers, and automotive industry professionals.
The course will focus on four key topics:
- Hybrid, electric, and connected vehicle technology
- Advanced battery systems for hybrid and electric vehicles
- Power electronics and traction motors for electric-drive vehicles
- Lightweight materials for automotive
Attending this course will allow participants the opportunity to explore state-of-the-art advanced automotive technology including electric-drive vehicles, connected vehicles, energy storage systems, and lightweight materials, as well as discuss emerging technologies, challenges and development with industry professionals.
While there is no registration fee at attend this workshop, anyone interested in attending must complete and submit an application form by Friday, July 15. Those selected to attend will receive course materials, and those completing the course will receive a certificate of completion accredited by WSU and a $200 stipend. Limited lodging support is also available upon request (must include a travel proposal with application). Seats are limited, so please apply early!
For more information and to apply, please click
here.
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Register Today for the Next CAAT Webinar! Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles: The Other Electric Vehicle?
There has been much research and development work on hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), but the lack of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure has dramatically slowed their introduction into the marketplace. However, FCEVs are now being sold in California, and therefore automotive technician training for FCEVs is needed. This webinar will explain the operational characteristics of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, compare them to other energy storage systems, and outline the start of new fuel-cell educational programs.
Speakers for the webinar will be CAAT Assistant Director, Nelson Kelly, and John Frala, from Rio Hondo College's Advanced Transportation Technology area. Frala is also an alternative fuels instructor and NSF principal investigator.
This informative webinar will be held on August 23 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM EDT. Click
here to learn more about the webinar and to register.
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Macomb Community College to Host the 2016 SAE Battelle CyberAuto Challenge
In its fifth year, the
2016 SAE Battelle CyberAuto Challenge is a groundbreaking event in automotive cybersecurity. The Challenge is a 5-day practicum based workshop where teams comprised equally of students and professionals, including automotive engineers, government engineers, and ethical "white hat" hackers, work on real cars to find real answers to the challenges posed by cybersecurity in automobiles. Teams work to identify automotive cybersecurity trends and develop talent in a new technical discipline in a high tech industry. The event will be held July 25-29 at Macomb Community College's South Campus Sports and Expo Center in Warren, MI.
An interactive learning format, the Challenge is a series of classroom lessons and discussions alternating with hands-on work. It fosters collaboration and creativity among different cross-sectors of the automotive and cybersecurity industries. Industry professionals benefit from the fresh perspectives offered by high-performing high school and college students. Students gain exposure to industry experts and hands-on learning you can't find anywhere else. All parties benefit from mentorship relationships and the powerful connections formed at this event.
The Challenge demonstrates that the automotive community:
- Is keeping the core auto engineer connected to the cyber community
- Is prioritizing cybersecurity and mitigating potential risks from cyber/auto development
- Is developing a common "community of interest" around the cybersecurity issue
- Is developing a cyber/auto talent "pipeline" among high school and college students
For more information on this event, please click the link above.
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Auto STEAM Days - Save the Date!
October 19th and 20th, 2016
Macomb Community College's Robotics, Engineering, and Technology (RET) Days and the Automotive Design and Engineering Career Expo are now combined into this new special event for students in grades 6-12.
At the
Auto STEAM Days event, students will learn about careers in automotive design, robotics, and manufacturing, and about the technology that makes it happen!
- Discover the latest trends in automotive design and technology
- Talk with experts in the fields of engineering and robotics, and participate in hands-on activities
- Experience 3D printing and automotive clay modeling
- Operate hands-on skilled trades equipment and learn about apprenticeship programs
Registration will be opening soon.
Multi-level sponsorship opportunities are available to companies interested in providing students with hands-on experiences in advanced manufacturing and technology. Help us develop the great minds of tomorrow by becoming an Auto STEAM Days sponsor. For more information, click the event link above.
Students are also encouraged to bring their parents, family, and others to "Explore Careers in Manufacturing and Technology" on Thursday, October 20th from 5:30 - 8:00 pm. This related event provides the opportunity to learn more in-depth information on automotive and technology careers from recent graduates and local companies.
Additional information on this exciting new event will be provided in the next issue of the CAAT Tracks newsletter.
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Successful 'The Garden Party' Event to Provide Scholarships to Macomb Community College's Applied Technology Students!
The Garden Party 2016 was held on June 12 with 600 in attendance at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
It was a beautiful day on the grounds of the former Dodge family estate, with temperatures in the high 70's and plenty of sunshine. Attendees enjoyed great food, wine, and an impressive display of classic cars (including a '23 T-Bucket built by Macomb Community College students that runs on propane, and a '65 Mustang convertible and '68 Barracuda convertible from CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier's personal collection).
Proceeds from the The Garden Party 2016 will be awarded to the Oakland Community College Culinary Studies Institute and Macomb Community College's Applied Technology & Apprenticeship area. Funds will provide support for Macomb's students in completing their skilled trades program.
Here's what just a few of last years' scholarship recipients had to say about how the funding impacted their lives:
- "Oh my gosh! This made my day! Now I won't struggle to pay for the books I need for my classes and will be able to take advantage of the Snap-on Tools program. Thanks again!
--Alan Cortez, Major/Program: Automotive Technology/Associate of Applied Science
- "This scholarship is going to help me and my family in a way that will change my life for the better... I see a very bright future for technical students with the support from The Garden Party Foundation!"
--Thomas Vattamala, Major/Program: Automotive Technology/Associate of Applied Science
- "This is the first scholarship I have received since returning to school last January and it is a massive confidence booster to my ability to succeed in school since I have never really excelled in academics until this last year."
--Frederick Walker, III, Major/Program: Automotive Technology, Welding
- "Now I will be able to fund my winter/spring tuition and buy all of my automotive books. This will be a huge benefit as I won't have to rent my lab books every month... thank you for making Christmas come early this year!"
--Brendan Griffith, Automotive Technology/Associate of Applied Science
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CAAT Attends World's Largest Annual Event Dedicated to Connected and Automated Vehicle Technology
CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier, and Assistant Director, Nelson Kelly, attended the 16th Annual
TU Automotive Detroit 2016 Conference and Exhibition. The event was themed "Collaborate to Put Auto in the
Internet of Things Driving Seat" and was held in Novi, MI June 8-9. The gathering was billed as the world's largest annual event dedicated to connected and automated vehicle technology and was attended by over 1,000 people from industry, academia, and government. The conference offered more than 160 speakers and panelists and more than 100 exhibitors with booths containing information on and displays of their hardware and software products. Much information was shared on new technology for automated/connected vehicles in both plenary and breakout sessions as well as on the exposition floor.
Attendees were exposed to a wide variety of topics including advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), connectivity, autonomy, safety, convenience, cybersecurity, and the human/machine interface. Some challenges automakers will have to deal with include innovation, disruption, expectations from a new generation of customers, attracting a talented workforce, and increasing competition from Silicon Valley. Several speakers noted that smart phones and the internet of things (machines with different operating systems and purposes talk to each other), together with a generation brought up using such features and who have less desire for ownership and greater desire for sharing and renting, will change the automakers business model over the next 10-20 years. A panel of experts at the conference predicted that fully autonomous vehicles are about 10 years away, with limited availability coming earlier. As reflected in the conference theme, many predict the car will ultimately become a personal information device that will epitomize the Internet of Things.
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Center for Automotive Research Holds Connected and Automated Vehicle Working Group Meeting at Oakland University
 CAAT Director, Bob Feldmaier, attended the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Connected and Automated Vehicle Working Group meeting at Oakland University (OU) on June 3. It was being held at OU in conjunction with the
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. Schools from as far away as Bombay, India, competed in the event using carts (approximately 2'x2') as their "vehicles," and followed a prescribed course. More representative type electric vehicles, such as golf carts, are being considered for future competitions.
There was also a presentation by the
American Center for Mobility, which is constructing a driverless-car testing center in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at the site of the former 335-acre General Motors Co. Willow Run Powertrain manufacturing plant. Ground breaking is set for spring 2017, with the opening scheduled for December, 2018. The American Center for Mobility is a joint initiative among the
Michigan Department of Transportation,
Michigan Economic Development Corp., the
University of Michigan,
Business Leaders for Michigan, and
Ann Arbor SPARK. The Ypsilanti based connected vehicle research center will be a place where precautionary testing is done before vehicles are deployed on the road and a proving ground for collaborative safety technology demonstrations. It will also serve as a high technology research and development facility that will allow companies to lease space for office and research use, garages, and other amenities, ultimately expanding the region's business incubation and acceleration capabilities around automotive technology.
For more information on the CAR CAV meetings, click
here.
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CAAT Participates in Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT) Meeting
CAAT Assistant Director, Nelson Kelly, attended a
LIFT meeting titled "Open for Innovation Detroit: Mobility" held at LIFT headquarters in downtown Detroit on June 3. LIFT is a public/private partnership formed to develop and deploy advanced lightweight materials manufacturing technologies as well as implement education and training programs for the workforce that will support that industry. The purpose of the meeting was to help connect established companies with startups developing innovative technologies.
The meeting featured comments by United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and included remarks by Michigan representatives Sander Levin, Deborah Dingell, and Brenda Lawrence. The meeting was chaired by Larry Brown, Executive Director of LIFT. Several panelists from industry and government shared their thoughts on beneficial interactions with LIFT. The revitalization of manufacturing in the Detroit area was highlighted by Secretary Pritzker and all three Michigan Representatives. There were opportunities for networking both before and after the meeting.
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CAAT Attends Integrated Electrical Solutions Forum (IESF) Conference
CAAT Assistant Director, Nelson Kelly, attended the 16th
Integrated Electrical Solutions Forum (IESF) conference held at the Ford Conference Center in Dearborn, Michigan on June 1. IESF is a global conference program for electrical/electronic design engineers, managers and executives. Each IESF event focuses on EE design issues in the automotive, off-highway, military and commercial vehicles sectors.
Event host, Don Kurelich, Technical Director at Mentor Automotive, kicked off the conference by describing the three waves directing the future of the automotive industry: globalization, electrification, and digitization.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Lawrence Burns, a major voice for the reinvention of the automobile, delivered a presentation titled "Transforming Mobility: The Signal in the Noise." His advice is to "start small, think big, and learn fast." Dr. Burns envisioned vehicles that were efficient and smart, i.e., small electric vehicles with one or two riders that are autonomous and shared among users who summon the vehicles on an as-needed basis using a smartphone.
Paul Hansen, writer and publisher of the Hansen Report, followed Dr. Burns and addressed major milestones on the road to autonomous vehicles. Over forty breakout sessions were offered throughout the day on the following topics: validation and testing, infotainment, electrified vehicles, automotive network design and software, connected and automated vehicles, and safety.
For more information, click
here.
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 What's New in the CAAT Resource Library?
Resources recently added to the
FREE CAAT Resource Library.
- Design with Aluminum: Developed by Kettering University through CAAT seed funding, this is an introductory course focusing on students' learning of basics of engineering design, properties, manufacturing processes, design aspects and design guidelines along with several real life examples and applications of aluminum alloy materials commonly used in automotive and other applications. The topics will be covered using blended learning and flipped classroom approaches. Being an introductory course, only basics of engineering design, mechanical and physical properties, mechanics (stress-strain relationships), and manufacturing processes as applied to body design are introduced. Where applicable, a comparison between steel and aluminum is presented and discussed. The lecture handouts, together with homework assignments, course projects, and exams, are designed to train targeted students in community colleges with basic math, CAD and mechanics experience, for associate degrees and/or certificate programs. A list of a few important references is provided at the end of each course module.
- Downloadable Dynamometer Database (D3): This database offers publicly available testing data regarding advanced technology vehicles. Derived from independent laboratory testing, the data is intended to enhance the understanding of advanced vehicle technologies for researchers, students, and professionals engaged in energy efficient vehicle research, development and education. This data is from the Downloadable Dynamometer Database and was generated at the Advanced Powertrain Research Facility (APRF) at Argonne National Laboratory under the funding and guidance of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
- Help or Hindrance? The Travel, Energy and Carbon Impacts of Highly Automated Vehicles: In this paper, the authors identify specific mechanisms through which automation may affect travel and energy demand and resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and bring them together using a coherent energy decomposition framework. They also review the literature for estimates of the energy impacts of each mechanism and, where the literature is lacking, develop their own estimates using engineering and economic analysis.
- The Connected Vehicles Pilot Deployment Program Library by USDOT: A series of USDOT - sponsored technical assistance reports, presentations, and webinars, that have been developed to assist not only three preselected sites, but also other early deployers of connected vehicle technologies to conduct concept development activities.
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CAAT Resources Archived with ATE Central
We are pleased to report that 48 digital resources from our online library were submitted to the ATE Central Archiving Service to be archived. At this time, 42 resources have been archived with an additional six in progress. The CAAT is required to archive grant deliverables (resources) with ATE Central according to
National Science Foundation requirements.
What is the ATE Central Archiving Service?
Many ATE projects and centers rely on the web to disseminate the resources they create, though not all members of the ATE community have the infrastructure necessary to sustain online access to these resources over time. In order to preserve these and other resources created by ATE awardees-thereby broadening the impact and reach of the ATE community as a whole-ATE Central offers a digital archiving service designed to provide access to these valuable materials beyond the lives of those projects and centers that created them.
The ATE Central archiving service is available to all ATE projects and centers as part of the support provided to the ATE community in executing data management and digital curation efforts.
ATE Central preserves the integrity of all resources submitted for archiving. This means that contributors must make important decisions, prepare all materials according to ATE Central digital preservation guidelines, and be confident of the finality of their submission to ATE Central prior to ingestion. ATE Central ensures access to these materials-as curated by the ATE contributor-by enabling users to download archived materials for educational purposes or other permitted use.
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| Did you know... Google will soon open a self-driving car development center in Michigan? John Krafcik, CEO of Google's self-driving car project, announced recently that the Silicon Valley tech firm would open a 53,000 square-foot development center in Novi, Michigan. "Many of our current partners are based here, so having a local facility will help us collaborate more easily and access Michigan's top talent in vehicle development and engineering," Krafcik said in a post to Google+. Source |
Did you know... that a new marketing campaign to promote the state of Michigan as the center of "next generation mobility" was announced at the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference? "Planet M represents Michigan's future as a leader in mobility and the innovations that will continue to attract investment in our state," Governor Rick Snyder told a crowd of business and political leaders on Mackinac Island. "Michigan has always been the automotive industry leader, and as the transportation industry evolves, our state's influence will continue to shape the way the world moves." Source |
| Did you know... The U.S. Army has begun testing radio technology on a convoy of tractor-trailers along Interstate 69 in the first step toward driverless military vehicles. The technology, called dedicated short-range communications, allows the vehicles to "talk" with each other and with roadside sensors by communicating things like location, speed and driving conditions. Source |
Did you know... that a former town located within a naval base is now a testing ground for Honda's autonomous cars? "GoMentum Station", located in a suburb of San Francisco, gives the automaker access to 20 miles of various road conditions that are found in the real world. Honda's Chief Engineer of Research and Development, Jim Keller, said the automaker has access to the facility for the foreseeable future. Source |
| Did you know... there is a YouTube video called Did You Know 2016 that provides interesting facts about the digital world and the evolution of information technology? View |
Did you know... that an IHS study recently predicted that there will be 21 million autonomous vehicles on the road by 2035? Source |
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