Clemson researchers to present at S.C. automotive summit

GREENVILLE, SC – February 14, 2012 – Three Clemson University faculty members will discussthe role of a research university in workforce development Thursday andFriday during the 2012 S.C. Automotive Council Manufacturing Summit.

The two-day summit at the Embassy Suites Golf Resort and ConferenceCenter features addresses by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley, state CommerceSecretary Bobby Hitt and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Attendees also will tour the Clemson University International Centerfor Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) campus, including the Carroll A.Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center.

Click here to view the full summit agenda.

Thursday afternoon, three CU-ICAR researchers will discuss supportingthe state’s automotive industry through research and workforcedevelopment. 

In September last year, Clemson announced it received a $1 milliongrant from the U.S. Department of Energy to create a center for researchand education in sustainable vehicle systems at CU-ICAR. Established bythe DOE’s Graduate Automotive Technology Education, or GATE division,the center will help overcome technology barriers in the design anddevelopment of high energy-efficiency and low environmental-impactvehicle propulsion systems by integrating graduate education andresearch.

The three Clemson panelists are:

• Imtiaz Haque, executive director of the Campbell Graduate Engineering Center;
• Paul Venhovens, associate professor and BMW Chair in Systems Integration; and
• Joachim Taiber, research professor in the automotive engineering department.

On Friday, industrial engineering professor Bill Ferrell will discusssupply chain and logistics, and Anand Gramopadhye, director of theClemson University Center for Workforce Development and associate vicepresident for workforce development, will speak on a panel titled“Designing tomorrow’s automotive workforce.

In October last year, led by Gramopadhye, Clemson and its partnertechnical colleges were awarded a $2.3 million competitive grant by theNational Science Foundation (NSF) to create the Center for WorkforceDevelopment for aviation and automotive technology. The partnershipcreated NSF Advanced Technological Education satellite resource centersat Florence-Darlington Technical College, Greenville Technical Collegeand Trident Technical College in the Charleston area.

Other summit speakers include ZF chief executive officer LudgerReckmann; Peter Brown, publisher and editorial director of AutomotiveNews; and William Strauss, senior economist and economic adviser at theFederal Reserve Bank of Chicago.