DEARBORN - Ford Executive Chairman William Clay Ford, Jr., delivered the keynote speech at the 2011 Ford Research and Advanced Engineering Recognition Event held Monday at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn.  The 19th annual event recognized Research and Advanced Engineering (R&A) employees for their technical and innovative achievements. 

Ford spoke about the future of transportation, specifically the issue of global gridlock and the fact that the number of vehicles on the road is expected to increase from 800 million today to between 2 and 4 billion by 2050.

“This isn’t just an inconvenience,” he said.  “It becomes a human rights issue if you can’t move goods, if you can’t move medicine and if you can’t move food in urban areas.” 

Ford recognized the company’s ongoing work on intelligent vehicles – cars communicating with each other and with the infrastructure – and he challenged the R&A group to think “outwardly” and come up with unique solutions.  

“We need to be open to the idea and not threatened by the idea that individual car ownership as we know it today may not be the model that works for everybody in the future,” he said.  “And if we embrace that idea and figure out what to do with it, it can be pretty exciting.” 

Following his presentation, Ford and Paul Mascarenas, vice president, Research & Advanced Engineering, presented the prestigious Dr. Haren Gandhi Research & Innovation Award to Dr. Timothy Wallington in recognition of his groundbreaking scientific research and technical leadership in the areas of sustainability, climate change, alternative fuels, vehicle emissions and advanced refrigerants. 

Additional awards presented during the 2011 Ford Research and Advanced Engineering Recognition Event include:

Operational Excellence Awards

• Global Alignment of Kinematics and Compliance Testing
  Team Members:  Frank Esser, Mark Gijbels, Simon Johnson, Ajit Palande, Klaus Rudnik
• Research & Advanced Engineering Project and Portfolio Management Process and Quality Operating System Development
  Team Members:  Apoorv Agarwal, Rick Amori, James Boileau, Maik Broda, Judy Che, Eric Curtis, Mark Davison, Jennifer Fischer, Chris Gearhart, Larry Haack, Scott Horst, Tony Lockwood, Lawrence Michalak, Marius Tybislawski, George Walley, Cedric Xia
• Novel Method of In-Situ Anode Stoichiometry Measurement in a Fuel Cell System
  Team Members:  Virgo Edwards, William Sanderson, Duane Strohschein, Todd Van Camp
• SMT to RIC – Battery Lab Relocation Project
  Team Members:  Janet Fee, Phil Rairigh, Tom Turgeon

Technical Achievement Awards (Research Category)

• Advanced Crash Failure and Casting CAE – Magnesium High Pressure Die Casting Body Components
  Team Members:  Aleksandar Bach, Joy Forsmark, Horst Lanzerath, Mei Li, Xuming Su, Ulrich Weiss
• Development and Implementation of the Perceived  Quality Toolbox Methodology
  Team Members:  Marc Galonska, Florian Golm, Thomas Ruebenach, Mark Springler, Alexander van Laack
• Body-in-White Engineering and Manufacturing Accomplishments for AIV Applications
  Team Members:  Ridha Baccouche, Ronald Cooper, John Huber, Kimberly Lazarz, George Luckey, Rosa Nuno, Saied Nusier, Parameswararao Pothuraju, Brian Schneider, Jeff Wallace

Technical Achievement Awards (Implementation Category)

• Development of a 2nd Generation Low-Pressure EGR System in Combination with SCR
  Team Members:  Christoph Boerensen, Jan Harmsen, Andreas Kuske, Juergen Stief, Jos van de Venne, Christian Vigild, Yasser Yaccoub
• Development of Stop/Start Launch Smoothness Control for Torque-Converter Automatic Transmission Powertrains
  Team Members:  Gary Coulson, Alex Gibson, Roger Huffmaster, Seung-Hoon Lee, Felix Nedorezov, David Oshinsky, Greg Pietron, Chris Piper, Brad VanDerWege, Cindy Zhou
• Vehicle Controls Development for Stop Start Vehicles with Automatic Transmissions (non Powershift)
  Team Members:  Ramzi Chraim, Hasdi, Hashim, Ming Kuang, Ryan McGee, Raju Nallapa, Chat Nguyen, Gary Song, Ray Spiteri, Xiaoyong Wang, Hai Yu

For a full listing of all awards, please click here.

Photo contributed by Stephen J. Garchar.