DuPont News, May 21, 2009
Seed the Future: Rethinking Automotive R&D
DuPont Automotive in Troy, Mich., recently hosted more than 100 automotive industry engineers for its “
Seed the Future” seminar. The seminar’s purpose was to facilitate collaboration between the U.S. government, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers.
This year’s event featured Dawn Rittenhouse, DuPont director of sustainable development, and Christopher Grundler, deputy director for the Transportation and Air Quality Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
"We are seized by the importance and urgency of the task before us to address the threat of climate change," Christopher said as part of his comments to event participants.
Karla Butler, Automotive Performance Materials marketing and development director for the Americas, previewed new materials and initiatives to help the automotive industry meet these challenges
“The drive to improve fuel economy and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is encouraging automotive designers and engineers to critically rethink many components and systems,” Karla said. “This is what the global automotive application development teams do best. Working with customers at the concept stage allows us to bring global, science-based solutions to work in a cost-effective way.”
The annual seminar is sponsored by DuPont Performance Elastomers, DuPont Engineering Polymers and DuPont™ Vespel® and has already yielded five new development projects.
For speaker audio, transcripts and more information, visit www.seedthefuture.dupont.com.
