Haley stresses importance of education at auto summit at CU-ICAR

GREENVILLE — Gov. Nikki Haley welcomed the 2012 S.C. Automotive Council’s Manufacturing Summit to the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) Thursday and stressed the importance of education to one of the state’s key industrial sectors.

South Carolina is at the heart of manufacturing in the U.S., Haleysaid. Companies are looking to invest in South Carolina because thestate has great things to sell: the cost of doing business is low andSouth Carolina is a very business-friendly state, she said.

But the state must ensure it has a trained workforce for thesemanufacturers, and people looking for jobs need to know whatcertifications they need and how to get certified.

“Companies coming here need to know there is a trained workforceready to go,” Haley said. “And we must ensure these companies have atrained workforce to help attract them to South Carolina.”

The two-day summit at the Embassy Suites Golf Resort and ConferenceCenter featured remarks by state Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt andrepresentatives from across the auto industry. (Click here to view the full summit agenda.)

The summit moved to CU-ICAR for the afternoon, where attendees touredthe campus, including the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate EngineeringCenter. Researchers discussed their roles supporting the state’sautomotive industry through research and education.

Imtiaz Haque, executive director of the Campbell center, saidinnovation through education and research is vital to the North Americanautomotive industry’s worldwide competitiveness.

In September last year, Clemson announced a $1 million grant from theU.S. Department of Energy to create a center for research and educationin sustainable vehicle systems at CU-ICAR.

Established by the DOE’s Graduate Automotive Technology Education, orGATE division, the five-year program funds curriculum development andexpansion, as well as laboratory work, which the DOE hopes will fostermultidisciplinary training.

The aim is to develop an engineering workforce that will overcometechnical barriers and help commercialize the next generation ofadvanced automotive technologies.

Summit attendees also heard from Joachim Taiber, research professorin the Clemson automotive engineering department, and Paul Venhovens,associate professor and BMW Endowed Chair in Systems Integration.

Taiber’s research focuses on advanced vehicle-to-infrastructureinteraction, such as charging-in-motion and high-bandwidth wirelessnetworks.

The auto industry, in collaboration with the energy and communicationindustries, is developing powertrains, renewable fuels, lightweightmaterials and advanced communications that are creating new marketopportunities, Taiber said.

Venhovens leads CU-ICAR’s innovative Deep Orange program in whichstudents in Clemson’s graduate automotive engineering program develop,manufacture and integrate innovations in a new vehicle prototype.

Each year, a prototype vehicle is developed with a new market focusand technical objectives. The projects showcase advanced technologiesand provide students an opportunity to work directly with automotiveindustry partners to innovate and develop ideas.

The students’ work was showcased at the 2011 Specialty Equipment Market Association show and the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, both in Las Vegas.

Overall, the auto industry’s future is bright.

Keynote speaker Peter Brown, publisher and editorial director ofAutomotive News, said the industry is on an upswing, with dealers andmanufacturers across the board predicting gains for the coming year.Companies are hiring again after an extended period of layoffs, and,generally, North American automakers and suppliers will do better thisyear than those in Europe, with German manufacturers a likely exception,Brown said.

What’s changed? The business model of the “Big Three” Detroit automakers has changed, becoming more streamlined, Brown said. Meanwhile,giants such as Honda and Toyota are recovering from recent poor salesyears.

“Everyone’s raising their predictions for the year,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of optimism out there.”

The summit continues Friday, when industrial engineering professorBill Ferrell discusses supply chain and logistics, and AnandGramopadhye, director of the Clemson University Center for WorkforceDevelopment and associate vice president for workforce development willspeak on a panel titled “Designing tomorrow’s automotive workforce.”

Other speakers include U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and WilliamStrauss, senior economist and economic advisor at the Federal ReserveBank of Chicago.