Technological watch

Altair’s (Troy, Mich., U.S.) 2023 Enlighten Award is now open for submissions. Presented annually in conjunction with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR, Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.), the award honors the greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts.

“The Altair Enlighten Award is a special award that allows the world to see how the automotive industry’s leading minds — from the biggest names to its newest startups — are creating a better, greener industry,” James R. Scapa, founder and CEO, Altair, says. “Continuing to make strides toward a more sustainable transportation sector is an absolute must in global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.”

Now in its 11th year, the Enlighten Awards program gives everyone a chance to see the present and future of cutting-edge innovation in automotive sustainability. Importantly, composites innovations always make a presence, as seen in the past three year’s featured winners (see winners from 2020, 2021 and 2022).

This year’s award features a new category, “Responsible AI,” that highlights outstanding achievements in AI and data analytics that improve sustainability. The category reflects the importance of data and AI in the automotive industry and beyond. This year’s Enlighten Award categories are:

• Sustainable Product: Emissions reduction, lightweighting, material circularity and safety advances in a production vehicle or major system module.
• Sustainable Process: Emission reduction, material reuse/recycling and water conservation advances in engineering and manufacturing.
• Module Lightweighting: Mass reduction of a vehicle module, subsystem or component.
• Enabling Technology: Technology advancement that enables vehicle lightweighting, including a material, production process, design method or joining technology.
• Future of Lightweighting: Process, material or technology not in production, but has significant potential to advance vehicle lightweighting.
• Responsible AI: Exemplary use of data analytics and AI that delivers substantial sustainability benefits throughout the automotive value chain.

An award that garners interest from industry, engineering, policymakers, educators, students and the public alike, the Altair Enlighten Award showcases the latest and greatest technology innovations dedicated to sustainability. Past winners of the Enlighten Award include GM, Ford, Stellantis, Harley-Davidson, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Ferrari, JLR, Mercedes, BMW, SAIC-GM-Wuling (SGMW) and many more.

Read: Plant tour: Victrex Composites Solutions, Bristol, Rhode Island, U.S.

Media partners for the 2023 Altair Enlighten Award include SAE, Automotive Engineering, Tech Briefs, and Automobil Industrie.

To learn more about the Enlighten Award or to submit an entry, visit Altair’s website here. Entries must be received by May 31, 2023. Final judging will occur in late June and the winners will be announced during an award ceremony on August 1, 2023 at the annual CAR Management Briefing Seminars (MBS).