USCAR Recognition Awards – 2018

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.

Tom Fuhrman (GM)
Cyber Physical Systems Working Group & AUTOSAR North American User Group

Tom Fuhrman (GM) was a leader of USCAR’s electrical/electronics teams for more than a decade. He connected USCAR with the Cyber Physical Systems National Initiative, organized workshops and conferences to gather feedback and research proposals from the North American automotive community, and secured research funding from several universities and the National Science Foundation.

Fuhrman was a founding member of the AUTOSAR North America User Group, recruiting members for the task force and setting up the individual subgroups. He also led the Safety Subgroup and presented technical deep dives on safety topics in both classic and Adaptive AUTOSAR. He recruited subgroup members as AUTOSAR-based demonstrators on memory protection, timing protection and operating systems. Through his efforts, he engaged more than 15 automotive suppliers to participate in AUTOSAR North America activities.

Jack Jensen (GM)
Occupant Safety Research Partnership

Jack Jensen (GM) joined the Occupant Safety Research Partnership, or OSRP, in 1999, and chaired more OSRP Task Groups than any other individual. He was actively involved in test planning, data analysis, writing and editing the final reports of all OSRP projects. To maximize the data for repeatability and reproducibility assessments, Jensen loaned GM-owned dummies for test series conducted by other Member companies. His knowledge of instrumentation was invaluable in assuring the accuracy of recorded data, regardless of which Member company conducted the tests. He was known for offering suggestions accepted by all participants.

Jensen chaired the SID-IIs Upgrade Task Group at a point when NHTSA proposed side impact rulemaking modifications to the SID-IIs. USCAR noted their proposed Floating Rib Guide modification diminished the biofidelity of the SID-IIs and he successfully led the effort to prevent the Floating Rib Guide’s introduction in regulation. Jensen also stepped-up as a leader of the WorldSID Task Group. He remains active today and the continued success of this group, in many ways, can be attributed to his efforts.

Mark Mehall (Ford)
Business Technical Support Group

Mark Mehall (Ford) was a demonstrated leader at USCAR. He was the Business and Technical Support representative in several technology areas, including most recently Energy Storage and Hydrogen, and as a result, he was key advisor and leader to multiple teams, tech teams, working groups and contributor to countless other USCAR activities.

He was directly involved in the revisions of several hydrogen tech team roadmaps and a key member in the formation of a new Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Benchmarking Working Group. Mehall supported the Transmission and Engine Benchmarking Groups to increase budgets for their portfolio, and assisted USABC with their battery benchmarking efforts. He also contributed with the national labs and DOE outreach and the work on U.S. DRIVE.

Mehall directly facilitated the seamless transition of Ford directors and council representatives; he was a consistent leader who orchestrated these transitions with a high-level of professionalism and effectiveness. He always looked for opportunities to improve USCAR collaboration to provide the best possible results for its Members.

Frank Meinert (GM)
Aerodynamics Working Group

Frank Meinert (GM) was an active member of the Aerodynamics Working Group (AWG) for more than 12 years, serving as a company lead, chair, secretary and liaison to Vehicle Benchmarking Activity. He was a key contributor to joint projects and documents, and worked with USCAR leadership to align AWG activities with USCAR policies.

Meinert was instrumental in establishing the initial correlation among the Members’ wind tunnels, and subsequently in creating the aerodynamic benchmarking database, which currently contains data on nearly 500 vehicles and is valued at more than $5 million. He also played a lead role in the recent re-correlation of the wind tunnels. He was a key contributor to joint projects and technical papers, including co-author of the SAE Recommended Practice J2881: Measurement of Aerodynamic Performance for Mass-Produced Cars and Light-Duty Trucks, which originated with the AWG. Meinert also shared the results of his work on other world-wide correlations among full-scale and reduced-scale wind tunnels with the USCAR members.

Bill Peirce (GM)
USCAR Leadership Group & U.S. DRIVE Director

As a USCAR Leadership Group (ULG) director for 19 years, Bill Peirce (GM) was a strong advocate of the USCAR organization, and as the longest-tenured director in the history of USCAR, provided an experienced, long-term view to help guide its efforts.

Peirce was instrumental in sustaining the USCAR organization and advancing its mission. Over the years, he recruited and encouraged GM leaders to participate in USCAR, and advocated within GM for both USCAR and U.S. DRIVE. As USCAR tackled new, innovative technologies, he supported various restructuring efforts to ensure it continued to be successful. He forged new partnerships in both USABC and U.S. Automotive Materials Partnership, and laid the foundation for continued expansion of work in energy storage, aerodynamics, and manufacturing.

Peirce’s communication skills and ability to think through difficult situations made him a highly-valued member of the ULG and, more generally, USCAR. He was a champion of USCAR collaboration that brought together leading technical experts and world-class resources from both government and industry to create technical advancements that benefit the U.S. automotive industry.

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

Ergonomics Task Force

The Ergonomics Task Force (ETF) completed projects in digital human modeling, ergonomic standards and best practices which have delivered a decrease in injuries and cost reductions to USCAR Members. The ETF also initiated four new projects which will further advance and improve OEM ergonomic analysis and predictive capabilities that resolve manufacturing workplace issues within OEM plants.

The USCAR ETF is a well-known and recognized automotive industry champion in ergonomic research, development and innovation driven to providing solutions that reduce injuries and improve the business, productivity and employee health within the automotive manufacturing workplace.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Lynn Eaton, Cory Noggle and Christian Steingraber from FCA US; Julie Brazier, Rob McLean, Patty Racco and Marty Smets from Ford; Amanda Chapman, Bob Fox, Ronald Jones, Stephen Krajcarski, Gwen Malone (retired) and Ryan Porto from GM; and Sandalwood Engineering and Ergonomics.

High-Octane Fuels Task Force

The High-Octane Fuels Task Force led technical studies, papers and presentations, and collaborated with external industry partners from national labs, and the oil, agriculture and ethanol industries, to establish a consensus on critical topics relating to a higher-octane gasoline. The Task Force and industry partners established the specific octane rating of 95 Research Octane Number (RON) and addressed implementation issues such as misfueling and infrastructure. The team’s extensive work resulted in a legislative discussion draft released by the House Subcommittee on Environment – Energy & Commerce Committee and titled the “21st Century Transportation Fuels Act.” A hearing on the draft was held in December 2018.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Asim Iqbal, Michael Moore and Patty Strabbing (retired) from FCA US; Jim Anderson, Dominic DiCicco, Tom Leone and Tom McCarthy from Ford; and Coleman Jones, Rebecca Monroe, Mary Beth Stanek (retired), Bill Studzinski and Ian Sutherlandfrom GM.

USABC Low-Cost/Fast-Charge RFPI Working Group

The USABC Low-Cost/Fast-Charge EV RFPI Working Group developed a set of technological objectives based on the best experiences from previous EV battery programs and the most relevant objectives set forth by OEM partners. Today, we can package cells (related to cell energy density), but cost and time are still challenges. If successful, this program will deliver battery technologies that could be commercialized and provide the performance and economics necessary to make BEVs attractive for wide scale adoption.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Oliver Gross and Rakesh Nahta from FCA US; Renata Arsenault and Chul Bae from Ford; Harshad Tataria (retired) from GM; Brian Cunningham from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); and Jack Deppe from Idaho National Laboratory.

USABC Worcester Polytechnic Institute Battery Recycling Working Group

Working with the USABC Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Battery Recycling Program Working Group, WPI demonstrated the central claim of their technology of producing consistent nickel manganese cobalt cathode active material powder (NMC) from a diverse mix of input chemistries which performed on par or better than control cells made with commercial NMC powder. Together, the team overcame many technical and logistical challenges to ensure program success. The WPI technology addresses many challenges by being robust to a fluctuating input, tunable to generate an NMC chemistry matching next generation needs and creating a high value product that can offset processing costs.

Those recognized as part of the team were: Jake Porter and Nakia Simon from FCA US; Renata Arsenault from Ford; Peter Karlson from GM; Brian Cunningham from the DOE; David Robertsonfrom Argonne National Laboratory; Dennis Bullen and Jun Wang from a123systems; Eric Gratz from Battery Resourcers; and Yan Wang from WPI.

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.

Dominic Dicicco (Ford)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Fuels Working Group

Dominic DiCicco (Ford) led USCAR’s Fuels Working Group participation in the agriculture, automotive and ethanol policy group on how to best implement potential High Octane Fuels in the U.S., and led an analysis and potential upgrade of the California Predictive Model. This work was critical to enabling the first legislative draft of “The 21st Century Fuel Transportation Act” which aims to implement 95 Research Octane Number (RON) high octane fuel in the U.S., potentially increasing vehicle efficiency and decreasing greenhouse gas by three percent.

Craig DiMaggio (FCA US)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: U.S. DRIVE Advanced Combustion & Emission Control Tech Team

Craig DiMaggio (FCA US) was recognized for his work on the U.S. DRIVE Advanced Combustion and Emission Control Tech Team. His leadership resulted in the establishment of two protocols: the Low-Temperature Three-Way Catalyst Testing Protocol and Low-Temperature Passive Storage (and Release) Catalyst Testing Protocol. These protocols enable university research to deliver results and findings relevant to OEMs.

Meng Jiang (GM)
Energy Storage TLC: U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium

Meng Jiang (GM) was recognized for her work as a member of the USABC Technical Advisory Committee. Meng currently is the lead of two critical USABC programs, the Farasis EV and XALT 12-volt stop-start programs, helping developers align their efforts to USABC targets, so they may be potential future suppliers to the USCAR Members. She also arranged for USABC member tours of major Chinese battery manufacturers and their production lines, providing an invaluable opportunity for the team to experience battery technology development in China and the most advanced manufacture capability for batteries.

Coleman Jones (GM)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Fuels Working Group

Coleman Jones (GM) worked on behalf of the USCAR Fuels Working Group to educate petroleum refiners, state and national corn boards and ethanol producer interest groups on high-octane fuels. He also created a list of regulatory and political “barriers to blend” higher amounts of ethanol in high octane fuels. These efforts are further examples of work critical to enabling the first legislative draft of “The 21st Century Fuel Transportation Act” and implementing 95 Research Octane Number (RON) high octane fuel in the U.S.

Pete Moilanen (Ford)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: U.S. DRIVE Advanced Combustion & Emission Control Tech Team

Pete Moilanen (Ford) was recognized as a member of the U.S. DRIVE Advanced Combustion and Emission Control Tech Team. He was the lead author of a presentation communicating the need and methodology for a transient catalyst test protocol, in addition to being the lead author of the actual test protocol document. The test protocol addressed an urgent need for labs pursuing high engine efficiency to determine whether new combustion concepts can meet cold start emissions targets.

Rebecca Monroe (GM)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Fuels Working Group

Rebecca Monroe (GM) is another member of the USCAR Fuels Working Group who is working to enable the implementation of high-octane fuels. In 2018, she completed three technical reports on high octane fuels which led to the establishment of a new SAE Industry Standards taskforce which is developing a “Fuel Grade Assurance Protocol.” Her work helped evaluate the technical, cost and timing hurdles for the implementation of 95 RON high-octane fuel in the market.

Chinmay Sapre (FCA US)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Engine Benchmarking Working Group

Chinmay Sapre (FCA US) was recognized for his work as part of the Engine Benchmarking Group. He actively contributed to vehicle selection for benchmarking based on new technologies in the market that would benefit the USCAR Members and was instrumental in maintaining a common data format to save time during data reviews. He actively involved experts in fields like emissions, controls and hardware teams to enable a better understanding of new technologies.

Tom Spix (FCA US)
Advanced Powertrain TLC: Oil Filters Working Group

Tom Spix (FCA US), as part of his work with the Oil Filters Group, coordinated the review, revisions and updates to the SAE/USCAR-36 specification which is scheduled for publication this month. This specification meets the service oil filter requirements of today’s modern engines and more fully protects customers when OEM filters are not easily available.

Jim Waldecker (Ford)
Hydrogen & Fuel Cells TLC: U.S. DRIVE Fuel Cell Tech Team

Jim Waldecker (Ford) was recognized for his work on the U.S. DRIVE Fuel Cell Tech Team and as a consistent leader and advocate on behalf of the USCAR Members. His expertise enabled him to focus Tech Team efforts on projects, targets, tools and analysis on OEM-relevant priorities to accelerate fuel cell development and commercialization. He is an outstanding overall team player with a great deal of technical expertise and valuable insight.

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.

Kevin Harding (Optical Metrology Systems)
Manufacturing TLC: Gap & Flushness Project Team

Kevin Harding (Optical Metrology Systems) was recognized for his work with the “Gap and Flushness Measurements of Finish Vehicles” team. He demonstrated that blue laser sensor technology enables the ability to perform gap and flushness measurements on all vehicle surfaces and materials without the need to first prepare those surfaces. As a result, significant OEM manufacturing productivity improvements will be realized in the use of a next generation gap and flushness measurement instrument for future application by USCAR Members.

Shriram Santhanagopalan (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Safety TLC: Crash Safety Working Group

Shriram Santhanagopalan (National Renewable Laboratory) was recognized for his work with the Crash Safety Working Group. He led research of the fundamental physics associated with the impact response of the main battery in electric vehicle crash and the application of this work toward the development of methods used to model the physical response of the main battery in electric vehicle safety crash analysis. Once fully developed, these models can be used by USCAR’s Member companies for crash safety development of electric vehicles.

Lee Walker (Idaho National Laboratory)
Energy Storage TLC: U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium

Lee Walker (Idaho National Laboratory) was recognized for his work with USABC. Walker worked tirelessly to provide performance test results and present technical insights on the performance characteristics of program deliverables to the USABC. His work has helped determine project funding status and provide testing direction to focus battery development for all battery technologies.