Ford Sci Lab Turns 60

For the past 60 years, American manufacturer Ford has been running a side business it likes to call the Sci Lab; an operation which brings together people and organizations that work in the automotive industry and people and organizations that, at least at first glance, have nothing to do with the auto world.

Officially, the place where the great minds of Detroit and not only come together and exchange ideas is called the Ford Research and Innovation Center. From there, ever since 1951, Ford has tried to find a connection between the technologies it is working on and the innovations that come from institutions like universities.

Taking advantage of the celebration of the 60th anniversary, on Tuesday Ford announced the start of a new collaboration program, meant to tap into the ideas that are generated by top universities around the globe: Northwestern University, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China).

The projects both the Ford engineers and the universities' academia and students will be working on range from electrification to driver behavior and forming methods for high-strength aluminum. Below is a list of project Ford is working on together with its non-automotive partners.

• Fuel cell
• Electrification
• Conventional engine technologies (gas and diesel)
• Transmission and driveline
• Powertrain controls and integration
• Environmental sciences, emissions and atmospheric research
• Manufacturing and materials technologies
• Active and passive safety
• Electronics and electrical systems
• User interface
• Infotronics and telematics
• Vehicle dynamics
• Vehicle chassis and controls
• Analytics and e-modeling

“It is time to rethink collaboration,” said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and vice president, Ford Research and Innovation. “Traditional collaboration with automotive partners and suppliers may be what we are used to and comfortable with – and we want those ties to get even stronger – but it is also time to accelerate and embrace new forms of collaboration outside the automotive realm that will help us create not only better transportation, but a better world.”