Altair has announced that four new judges from around the world have joined the already impressive list of renowned automotive industry leaders serving on the 2017 Altair Enlighten Award panel. The award, which promotes innovative lightweighting strategies employed by automotive manufacturers and suppliers, welcomes Dr. Mark White, former Chief Body Complete Business Unit, Body Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, Dr. Frank Zhao, Professor and Director of Automotive Strategy Research Institute at Tsinghua University in China, Dr. Ichiro Kageyama, Professor and Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Nihon University in Japan, and Ken Fouhy, Managing Director of VDI Verlag GmbH and Editor in Chief of VDI nachrichten to the judging panel.

Now in its fifth consecutive year, the Altair Enlighten Award is the automotive industry’s only award program created specifically to acknowledge achievements in vehicle lightweighting. The addition of these four individuals not only enhances the breadth of knowledge of the award’s judging panel, but also more accurately reflects the increasingly international profile of the Altair Enlighten Award.

Weight reduction is one of the keys to successful automotive design,” said Mr. Fouhy. “As Europe’s best read publication for engineers, VDI nachrichten is happy to extend the reach of the Enlighten Award to design engineers in Germany, Europe’s automotive heartland.”

Returning judges from the 2016 award panel are:

• Dr. Jay Baron, President and CEO, Center for Automotive Research and Director of CAR’s Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM)
• James Brancheau, Member of the Board of Directors and former Chief Technical Officer at Altair
• Harvey Bell, Clinical Professor of Engineering Practice and Co-Director, Multidisciplinary Design Program at the University of Michigan
• Gary Latham, Director of Design Engineering at Pratt & Miller Engineering
• Dr. Imtiaz Haque, Founding Chair and Executive Director of the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research
• Dr. Clemens Schmitz-Justen, Founder and Head of Strategic Consulting, CSJ Schmitz-Justen & Company, former director of international programs at the Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science, and former president of BMW Manufacturing LLC in Spartanburg, S.C.
• Chris Theodore, President of Theodore & Associates automotive industry consulting; former CEO of ASC, Inc., vice president of Ford Motor Co. and senior vice president of DaimlerChrysler; and former executive director of North American advanced vehicle development at General Motors.
• Ryan Gehm, Editor-in-Chief, Truck & Off-Highway Magazine at SAE International.

“We’re extremely happy to welcome our new judges to the panel for this year’s Altair Enlighten Award,” said Dr. Jay Baron, President and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). “Together the 2017 judging panel will be tasked with debating and separating nominations from across the automotive world. With lightweighting technologies and methodologies ever evolving in the automotive industry to meet weight and emissions targets, I’m very excited to see the diversity in this year’s entries.”

“This year’s judging panel brings even more talent to our panel, with the addition of four highly respected individuals from APAC and EMEA, together representing a broader perspective of lightweight design applied in the global automotive industry,” said Richard Yen, Senior Vice President, Automotive and Global Markets Team at Altair. “While choosing the most innovative lightweighting solutions from such highly acclaimed automotive OEMs and suppliers is never an easy decision, the relevant experience and knowledge of these individuals guarantees that they are the most qualified to make the call.”

The award program honors companies in full vehicle, module and enabling technology categories for innovative examples of lightweighting. The winners will be announced during the CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI on July 31st, 2017. The award is held in collaboration with CAR, media partners SAE International and media sponsor Automobil Industrie.