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Ford And MIT Renew Alliance

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 30, 2002; The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ford Motor Company announced Wednesday the $20 million-dollar renewal of their research and education alliance for a second five-year term, extending through 2007.

"In the past five years our work with MIT has resulted in some significant technical progress and has expanded to include new strategic activities," said Gerhard Schmidt, Ford Vice President for Research, Ford's Director of the Alliance. "We are very pleased with the new ideas and depth of insight we have gained from interactions between Ford's senior management and MIT faculty members."

The Ford-MIT Alliance has created a model for mutually beneficial university-corporate research. The Alliance has grown beyond the initial main focus areas of environmental science and policy, information technology in product development, virtual teams and education to include a diverse variety of specialized research projects and a new program area in active safety technology research. The research projects are also linked with recruiting and MIT's educational programs, enrolling engineers and managers that bring the new research knowledge back into Ford.

"MIT and its faculty have demonstrated an ability to come together across departmental and disciplinary boundaries to work on interesting practical problems," said MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay, the MIT Director for the Ford-MIT Alliance. "This work with industry contributes new insights to our faculty and enhances the implementation of MIT research through corporate partners -- a cornerstone of MIT's relationship with corporations."

Examples of projects that have contributed to Ford's technological knowledge include the following: * The MIT/AGS Consortium on Environmental Challenges is an environmental research program that supports integrated, cross-disciplinary teams undertaking holistic approaches to the study of complex problems that lie at the intersection of economic and environmental goals, such as a study of air pollution in Mexico City, the life cycle of different fuels and alternative power sources, and innovative approaches to environmental regulation. * Development, testing and implementation of DOME - Distributed Object Modeling Environment, which allows engineers at automotive companies and suppliers to use each others' computer design and modeling tools for rapid design changes and improvements. * Acceleration of the development of new 42 volt high-voltage vehicle electrical system standards through the use of virtual engineering concepts and achieving global consensus among US, European and Asian automotive OEMs and suppliers. * Initiation of active safety research projects that apply research results from military and aerospace projects to smart automobiles, with an awareness of vehicle occupants, environments and threats. * Collaboration on more than 30 other projects focusing on success in engineering careers; factors for successful global teams; future directions for engineering systems; diesel particulate matter emissions reduction; a virtual design studio; quality-enhancing engineering techniques; and data searching computer programs.

For Ford, partnership benefits include developing new technologies and knowledge to provide a competitive advantage, increased profitability and shareholder value. Ford employees benefit by working with faculty and students on research projects and these opportunities help Ford recruit new engineering and science talent.

MIT benefits through funding, access to interesting problems and joint examination of unsolved industry challenges that lead to breakthrough research, new theory and academic publications, and invaluable real-world case studies. Students working on these projects will be better prepared for workplace challenges.

The Ford-MIT Alliance began in September 1997, drawing on more than four decades of cooperative research and faculty consultation. Nearly two hundred MIT alumni are currently employed by Ford, including Ford Chief Executive Bill Ford, a graduate of the MIT Sloan Fellows (business degree) Program, and Martin Zimmerman, Group Vice President, Corporate Affairs, who received his PhD in Economics from MIT.
 
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