Felix Wu, SPE ACCE 2022 first keynote speaker. Photo Credit: SPE ACCE
The executive planning committee for the Society of Plastics Engineers (Danbury, Conn., U.S.) Automotive Composites Conference & Expo (ACCE, Troy, Mich., U.S.) is announcing the first keynote speaker for their ACCE 2022 event, in addition to a call for Innovative Parts Competition nominations and Student Poster Competition abstracts. SPE ACCE 2022 is occurring Sept. 7-9 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan (Detroit suburb)
Dr. H. Felix Wu, senior technology manager in Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will present “Advanced Polymer Composites for Next Generation Electric and Autonomous Vehicles (EV/AV) – Challenges and Opportunities.” The presentation will provide an overview of science and innovation developed from the ongoing VTO’s Composites Core Program. New research on multifunctional materials using advanced polymer composites to reduce manufacturing cost and carbon footprint, overall embodied energy of the vehicle, as well as weight saving of electric vehicles (EVs) will also be discussed.
“Multi-functional materials will allow design of automotive components capable of undertaking multiple functions, increasing battery specific energy capacity, reducing the number of vehicle components and thus overall weight and total cost,” Wu says. “Such composite materials and structures systems with autonomous health management could transform the current EV/AV platform.”
Innovative Parts Competition
SPE ACCE organizers have also issued a call for nominations for its annual Innovative Parts Competition. Any registered conference participant (speaker, sponsor/exhibitor or attendee) may nominate original equipment or aftermarket composite parts on passenger vehicles, light trucks and heavy trucks from any geography. Prototype parts are also eligible. Companies, organizations and universities are all encouraged to participate and get recognized for their innovative production parts or prototypes. The vehicle producer must give permission. The part must also be displayed during SPE ACCE and be available for a formal review by judges.
A total of five prizes will be awarded including four for the most innovative Production Part and Prototype Part in Materials Innovation and Process Innovation categories (selected by judges who are industry experts and members of the SPE ACCE planning committee) and one People’s Choice award (selected by conference attendees), with winning teams receiving recognition and a trophy at the event.
Nomination abstracts are due July 30, 2022 and final nominations are due August 30, 2022 via email to [email protected]. For more info, visit this link.
See 2021’s “SPE Automotive congratulates Innovation Awards Gala winners”
Student Poster Competition
Graduates, undergraduates, and community college and high school students are encouraged to submit abstracts on innovative composites technologies, for automotive and ground transportation, for the SPE ACCE’s annual student poster competition. The competition will be held during the ACCE. Judges who are industry experts, SPE board members and members of the media will review all posters with student authors on the first day of the conference, Sept. 7, 2022.
First-, second- and third-place awards will be presented to winners in graduate, undergraduate and high school categories during a special ceremony during the ACCE.
Students interested in participating in the competition should contact Dr. Uday Vaidya ([email protected]), ACCE student poster competition chair as well as chief technology officer (CTO), Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI, Diamond Bar, Calif., U.S.) and professor and governor’s chair of Advanced Composites Manufacturing at University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Abstracts are due by July 1, 2022. Digital copies of posters are due by August 20, 2022, for pre-review by judges. Students will need to bring printed copies of their posters to the conference (see poster template here). Large multi-poster panels and push pins for displaying the posters in the Student Poster Display area will be provided.
Poster topics may include, but are not limited to, subjects such as:
- Automotive composites
- Composites and lightweight materials for trucks
- Biocomposites
- Nanocomposites
- Glass, carbon and hybrid fibers
- Thermoset and thermoplastic technologies
- Recycling and green technologies
- Multi-materials
- Joining technologies
- Applications of composites in EVs
- Modeling and analysis of lightweight materials
- CAFE standards and mandates
- Cost-effective manufacturing
- Use of advanced materials in innovative applications
- Virtual prototyping and design
- Microstructure, failure and fracture
- Failure envelopes and theories
- Additive manufacturing (AM) of composites
Students and their posters are ranked using the following criteria:
- Content (student and poster demonstrate clarity of topic, objectives, and background);
- Motivation for research and technical relevance to conference theme;
- Methodology and approach to problem;
- Quality of proposed research results/findings;
- Conclusions are supported by information presented;
- Presentation (display aesthetics are pleasing and there is a logical flow between sections);
- Knowledgeable (presenter has a good grasp of the subject);
- Understandability (poster is effective even without student being present to explain it); and
- Overall rank versus other posters and presenters.
In addition, all students presenting a poster in the competition will receive free registration to the conference, a partial travel stipend, a shared hotel room provided by SPE ACCE and one year of free student membership in SPE. The show also provides many networking opportunities, for those close to graduating, organizers note.
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