USCAR Recognition Awards – 2016

USCAR began presenting Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2003 to recognize individuals who made significant contributions to USCAR during an extended period of time. Most recipients have been active USCAR participants for at least a decade. Their dedication, expertise and the value of their contributions to the organization and our member companies have been immeasurable.

Steve Clark (FCA US)
USABC Management Committee, Energy TLC Lead

Steve Clark is a leader in the traction battery community and has made sustained contributions to USABC. Having served for more than a decade, he has been a longstanding member of the USABC Management Committee, continuously serving in leadership positions as chairman, treasurer and external affairs representative.

Clark advanced a number of new initiatives including the generation of electrolyte requirements and the formation of an associated “request for proposal information” document.  He also led the development of 12-volt start/stop battery requirements.  Clark was aggressive in starting key new development programs, including Envia, Cobasys, and LG Chem high energy density programs for plug-in HEV applications, as well as two unique high power density development programs: one with Maxwell Technologies and another with A123 Systems. Under his guidance, USABC initiated a novel membrane separator program to reduce cost and improve abuse tolerance. Clark is known at USCAR as “not only an excellent role model, but also a trusted mentor and friend.”

Allison Stephens (Ford)
Manufacturing Working Group, Ergonomics Lead

Allison Stephens has served as co-chair of the Ergonomics Task Force since 2004.  Since that time, she has worked tirelessly in support of USCAR Manufacturing teams.  She is known for her energy and enthusiasm. Her passion and drive for results are focused on scoping new projects, working through the details and delivering objectives. She is well respected for her leadership, creativity and the experience she brings to her efforts at USCAR. She has chaired many teams including the Manufacturing Working Group, and projects such as the Digital Human Model, Force Mat Insertion Measurement, Ergonomics Evaluation of Right Angle Power Tools, Dynamic Force Limits, Benchmarking of Fenceless Robots, and Hose Insertion Force Analysis.

Stephens has been and is directly responsible for continued growth of the highly leveraged Manufacturing TLC project portfolio. She has increased the value of USCAR’s Ergonomic R&D manufacturing portfolio tenfold, leveraging more than $11.5 million through the Department of Defense Virtual Soldier Program, Auto Partnership of Canada, academia and industry. To date, she has initiated nearly half of all Manufacturing TLC projects.

Mike Tamor (Ford)
Hydrogen & Fuel Cell and Vehicle Electrification TLC Lead

Mike Tamor has been involved in multiple USCAR activities since early 1994. He played a key role in aligning the Ford DOE funded Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) research project to Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) goals and led Ford’s P2000 PNGV vehicle and final report to DOE leadership. Additionally, he was closely involved in the development of USABC HEV battery system cost and performance goals.  More recently, Tamor provided guidance to the U.S. DRIVE Vehicle Systems Analysis Tech team, and from 2008 to earlier this year, he was the Ford lead on both the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell and Vehicle Electrification TLCs.

Tamor brought a systems-engineering perspective to the USCAR teams he supported. He worked to encourage USCAR teams to integrate a portfolio of projects with aligned technical goals. He also helped streamline the process by which OEMs jointly review and assess the DOE project portfolio. This enabled earlier input of OEM needs and assessment of both the relevance and technical progress of DOE-funded projects. The evaluation template for this process is used by all U.S. DRIVE technical teams today.

USCAR Team Awards recognize those teams and members who leveraged their resources, exceeded expectations, overcame challenges and created outstanding value for our member companies.

Crash Safety Working Group

The Crash Safety Working Group (CSWG) extensively analyzed the scope and practicality of a research project aimed at quantifying the performance of advanced safety technologies, specifically Driver Assist Technologies (DAT). The team focused on a meta-analysis of DAT to establish the foundation for understanding the potential safety impact, and engaged the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories to further understand modeling thermal electrochemical processes under mechanical loads in coupled formulation.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Zine Ben-Aoun, Guy Nusholtz and Yibing Shi (FCA US); Saeed Barbat and Bill Stanko (Ford); Tejas Bhavsar, Raymond Kiefer, Beichen Li and JT Wang (GM); Anita Bedra (USCAR); and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Electrical Wiring Retention Team (USCAR-44)

The Electrical Wiring Retention Team (USCAR-44) quickly formed a functional team and wrote a validation specification for products that provide “Electrical Wiring Harness Retention,” within one-quarter of the typical time. The USCAR-44 specification was published in May. Successful testing using the USCAR-44 will reduce or eliminate warranty claims and assure retainer installation follows ergonomic best practice.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Paul Dang (FCA US); Bob Vitali (Ford); Maria Luisa Perez, Harpal Singh and Dawn Shephard (GM); Dan Gilbertson (Avery Dennison); Mark Beyer and Jim Nagle (A. Raymond Tinnerman); Scott Adams and Melissa Goecks (Hellermann Tyton); and Don Price (USCAR).

Integrated Circuits Forum

The Integrated Circuits Forum (ICF) was established as a working group in 2016. The ICF worked with Tier 1 suppliers to identify designs at-risk of separation or delamination. The team also developed a series of tests for Electrically Induced Physical Damage (EIPD) of electronic modules. By developing these field-correlated test methods to identify at-risk designs, the team estimates a 60-80 percent total reduction of EIPD.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Johnny Che and Kim Mao (FCA US); Tony Lusardi and Matthew Yager (Ford); John Mason and Joseph Ney (GM); Todd Peterson (Bosch); James Roberts(Continental); Reinhold Gaertner and Leon Masseus (Infineon); and Bob Knoell (NXP).

USABC Test Methods and Definitions Work Group

The U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) Test Methods and Definitions Work Grouptook on the challenge of updating, and in many cases fully re-writing, the entire suite of test manuals in the USABC portfolio. This past year, the final 12 were completed, resulting in manuals reflecting the combined expertise and technical excellence of the OEMs, national labs and U.S. DOE.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Ron Elder (FCA US); Xiao Guang Yang (Ford); Scott Jorgensen (GM); Brian Cunningham (U.S. Department of Energy); and Lee Walker (Idaho National Laboratory).

The Special Recognition Award is designed to recognize individual OEM participants who excelled in the past year and demonstrated their exceptional commitment to USCAR by going above and beyond the call of duty. It recognizes those whose leadership inspires their teams to achieve greatness.

Jim Anderson (Ford)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: USCAR and U.S. DRIVE Fuels Working Groups

Jim Anderson, Ford technical expert – Fuel Science, is company lead of both the USCAR and U.S. DRIVE Fuels Working Groups. Anderson was the driving force behind the USCAR sponsored publication “The Effect of Compression Ratio, Fuel Octane Rating, and Ethanol content on Spark-Ignition Engine Efficiency” in the Environmental, Science and Technology journal. This publication has gained widespread recognition and has been cited by several other studies, including the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Co-Optima program. He also had a key role in the well-to-wheels analysis to determine the best way to introduce potential future high-octane fuel from a greenhouse gas and cost perspective. His work has helped USCAR to be viewed as an industry leader in the Co-Optimization of engines and fuels.

Renata Arsenault (Ford)
Energy Storage TLC: United States Advanced Battery Consortium
Technical Advisory Committee

Renata Arsenault,  Ford senior researcher, Energy Storage Research, is company lead on the USABC Technical Advisory Committee. Arsenault led the Request for Proposal Information (RFPI) group for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and the re-write of the PHEV manual. She guided a project research partner, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), through process development, resulting in project completion ahead of schedule and under budget. She aligned new recycling program deliverables with research partner, Farasis Energy, with the existing WPI deliverables to ensure the maximum ability to compare the results. Another project with JCI was led by Arsenault and has already improved its existing battery products, allowing OEMs to source an improved battery. Her leadership of new recycling efforts could lead to multi-million dollar savings relative to battery disposal.

Greg Crawford (GM)
Safety TLC: Occupant Safety Research Partnership

Greg Crawford, GM engineering specialist, is a member of the Occupant Safety Research Partnership, WorldSID 5th Female Task Group. Crawford led a series of non-standard pendulum and sled tests, and performed all data analyses necessary to evaluate the biofidelity and repeatability of the WorldSID 5th female side impact dummy with a one-of-a-kind prototype modification kit. He also prepared and presented detailed discussions of the test conditions, data analysis and biofidelity assessment for two key international groups, prompting a study of further design modifications to improve the WorldSID 5th female.  This work is critical to the industry and will help USCAR member companies repeat future biofidelity tests in a consistent manner.

Bob Dawsey (GM)
Vehicle Electrification TLC: U.S. DRIVE Electrical & Electronics Tech Team

Bob Dawsey, GM senior engineering group manager, joined the U.S. DRIVE (Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy) Electrical/Electronics Tech Team in January 2016 and immediately was named co-chair. He quickly comprehended the significant issues facing the team and the need to provide a clear vision to the National Research Council (NRC), establishing new targets based on market realities and a cost-walk for achieving technical targets. Dawsey also provided leadership and engaged industry members to develop new technical targets for an automotive integrated power module and an automotive electric machine drive.

Jacqueline Fontaine (Ford)
USCAR Leadership Group (ULG): Vehicle Structure NVH Benchmarking Group

Jacqueline Fontaine, Ford NVH sensitivity engineer, member of the Vehicle Structure Benchmarking Work Group, volunteered to author five process and procedure sheets for her team. She then organized review meetings, gathered input from all three member companies, and incorporated revisions to all five of the process sheets. Two of the process sheets for trimmed structure procedures have been published, and three body-in-prime process sheets are near publication. Fontaine went above and beyond to ensure these procedures were completed.  Thanks to her efforts, the team now has five unilaterally agreed upon Vehicle Structure Benchmarking Process Sheets and has a common framework in which to conduct structure benchmark testing for the USCAR team members.

Lou Hector (GM)
Materials TLC: United States Automotive Materials Partnership
Integrated Computational Approach to Development of Lightweight 3GAHSS Vehicle Sub-Assembly

Lou Hector, GM technical fellow, is principal investigator on the USAMP ICME Approach to Development of Lightweight Third Generation Advanced High-Strength Steels Vehicle Sub-Assembly Team. Hector managed a diverse group of academia, industry and national labs to create a functional integrated computational materials engineering model for third generation advanced high strength steel, which integrates material and forming models. With his leadership, the project was completed on-time and within budget.  Hector also helped advance the creation of two alloys and the development of new test methodologies to evaluate multiphase steels with metastable phases, such as three dimensional representative volume elements and in-situ uni-axial tensile testing coupled with digital image correlation and high energy X-ray diffraction.

Carrie Okma (FCA US)
Energy Storage TLC: United States Advanced Battery Consortium
SiNode Active Materials Development Work Group

Carrie Okma, FCA US lithium-ion cell and chemistry specialist, is the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) project manager of the SiNode project, the first materials program within USABC. She led her team to refine how materials projects would be conducted, requiring the group to determine how to work with a new GAP table and how to work with the national labs in conducting a fair evaluation using the table.  In addition to managing this project, she participates on six other project teams, and also made significant contributions to the development of the Materials Request for Proposal Information (RFPI), as well as helped to streamline the RFPI review process within USABC.

Jasbir Singh (FCA US)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Transmission Working Group Axle Subcommittee

Jasbir Singh, FCA US senior manager – Axle Engineering, is chair of the Transmission Working Group Axle Subcommittee. Under his leadership, the team developed an accelerated 30-hour break-in procedure for spin loss and efficiency testing of an axle – a significant reduction from the industry norm of 72 hours. He also led the effort to develop an axle efficiency standard for the industry, which is expected to be published as an SAE J-Standard this year. This standard will be available globally to help assess efficiency of axles and aid in determining various efficiency improvement enablers to benefit overall fuel economy for both FTP-75 cycles and the real-world experience of the customer.

Arun Solomon (GM)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: U.S. DRIVE Advanced Combustion & Emissions Control Tech Team

Arun Solomon, GM technical fellow, is a member of the US DRIVE Advanced Combustion and Emission Control Tech Team and past co-chair. Solomon led a two-year effort to survey and recommend fuel properties for spark ignition, compression ignition and low-temperature combustion. The results were shared with the U.S. DRIVE Fuels Working Group, which is discussing implementation of recommended spark-ignition fuel properties with the government and oil companies. He also presented the spark-ignition results at an SAE panel and developed a slide deck to be used in testimony to the U.S. Congress by USCAR on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Co-Optima Program. Solomon also described this position at Co-Optima listening meetings, helping to align their goals and timeframes with industry objectives.

Mike Veenstra (Ford)
Hydrogen & Fuel Cell TLC: U.S. DRIVE Hydrogen Storage Tech Team

Mike Veenstra, Ford hydrogen storage technical expert, is co-chair of the U.S. DRIVE Hydrogen Storage Tech Team. Veenstra was instrumental in rewriting the U.S. DRIVE (Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability) Hydrogen Storage Tech Team’s Target Explanation document, which had not been updated since 2009. He led the evaluation of more than 20 existing hydrogen storage targets against current state-of-the-art fuel cell Electric Vehicles (EV), and wrote several sections explaining the rationale and justification of the existing targets to the research community. Veenstra also took the initiative to join the U.S. DRIVE Fuel Pathway Integration Tech Team to provide that team with a needed automotive presence. As part of this effort, he helped provide the vision for a cross-cutting taskforce formed to evaluate the interface between the hydrogen storage and delivery systems.

The Research Partner Award recognizes external collaborators, who have become essential members of our USCAR teams. They bring the depth and resources of their organizations or companies, expanding our circle of collaboration, and go the extra mile and to do more than their contracts require.

Gloria Bucciero (Bucciero & Associates P.C.)
Bucciero & Associates, USCAR Finance Stakeholders – USAMP & USABC

Gloria Bucciero, owner and chief executive officer of Bucciero and Associates, was recognized for her work with the USCAR Finance Stakeholders and the U.S. Automotive Materials Partnership LLC and U.S. Automotive Battery Consortium LLC.  As lead business and accounting associate, involved with USCAR since 1988, she was honored for her work in assisting both teams in securing competitively bid U.S. Department of Energy awards and helping to develop statements of work, contract terms and conditions and other documentation and reports. She was cited for earning “the respect and admiration” of the teams she serves and was lauded for her “dedicated service and contributions.”

Richard “Barney” Carlson (Idaho National Laboratory)
Vehicle Electrification TLC: U.S. DRIVE Grid Interaction Tech Team

Richard ‘Barney’ Carlson, research engineer at Idaho National Laboratory, was recognized for his work as a testing team member with the U.S. DRIVE Grid Interaction Technical Team. He was a key leader in prioritizing budgetary and execution requirements for bench testing various new wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies for charging electric vehicles, leading correct engineering requirements being incorporated into the SAE J-standard currently under development. In addition, he coordinated all aspects of the project, which required resource coordination with INL and six participating facilities.

Mehdi Shafiei (Novelis Inc.)
Manufacturing TLC: Stamping Die Material Assessment for Structural Aluminum Team

Mehdi Shafiei, lead scientist and competency group leader at Novelis Inc., was recognized for his work as a member and principal investigator on the Stamping Die Material Assessment for Structural Aluminum Team for which he initiated and led a fundamental study of galling of sheet aluminum on production pierce punches and developed preventative solutions.  His research and investigations showed that magnetron puttered diamond-like carbon coatings were effective in prevention of galling in pierce and trim tools and were adopted into standards for processing dry-film-lubricated aluminum sheet. It was determined that optimized forming, trim and punch tools, using guidelines from this research, would result in significant savings for aluminum-intensive vehicle programs, potentially enabling volume ramp-up.