Reed Business Information's Design News (www.designnews.com) Announces Mechatronics...

Reed Business Information's Design News (www.designnews.com) Announces
Mechatronics 2.0 Expo in Detroit on Sept. 9th 2008
Keynote speakers to include David Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive
Research and Tom Watson, VP of Engineering and Technical Planning, Light
Vehicle Systems, ArvinMeritor

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Design News (www.designnews.com)
along with sister publications, Control Engineering, EDN and Test &
Measurement World, have announced Mechatronics 2.0: Driving Innovation in the
Auto Industry, an expo and conference on September 9th in Dearborn, Michigan
at the Ford Motor Co. Event and Conference Center.
This free event will take place from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and address
the fundamentals of mechatronics in automotive systems. Speakers will tackle
some of the major integration challenges facing automakers, suppliers and
engineers today. Space is limited and advance registration is encouraged
(www.mechatronicsexpodetroit.com).
Keynote speakers will include David Cole, chairman of the Center for
Automotive Research, and Tom Watson, vice president of Engineering and
Technical Planning Light Vehicle Systems at ArvinMeritor. Watson is known for
his work as the lead engineer on Ford Motor Co.'s hybrid, which earned him
Design News's prestigious Engineer of the Year award in 2006.
Engineers will also have the opportunity to learn solutions to the
challenges implementation of mechatronics presents in real life. Rich
Swortzel, VP of Business Development for MotoTron, Corp. a Brunswick Co., will
present a workshop on mechatronic control solutions in hybrid vehicle systems.
Wensi Jin of The MathWorks will speak on model-based design -- the
emerging safety standards in the automotive industry -- and how mechatronics
is increasingly used in safety-critical systems.
Engineer Gereld Deren of Siemens PLM will explore the role of PLM, Product
LifeCycle Management, in embedded software development. A Ford Motor Co. case
study on its implementation of the Siemens Teamcenter product will be
presented.
About Mechatronics
Mechatronics -- the integration of mechanical, electrical and computer
engineering into one system -- has been practiced in Asia, Europe and
Australia since the 1960s. With a strong consumer demand away from SUVs
towards more green, fuel efficient vehicles and robotic systems, mechatronics
has never before been so important to the U.S. Auto industry.
"Long gone are the silos of electrical, mechanical and computer
engineering. Today's automobiles are made with complex embedded systems," says
John Dodge, editor-in-chief of Design News. "In fact, it's hard to find a
system in an automobile that doesn't have dozens of microprocessors."
According to Dodge, "Automotive design is the very embodiment of
mechatronics, involving mechanical, electrical, control and software
engineering. That's why there isn't an automotive engineer in the greater
Detroit area who should miss the mechatronics expo."
With the rise of global competition, a focus on developing fuel-efficient
cars, and the current weak economy, automakers, manufacturers and distributors
are forced to adapt new engineering approaches. Mechatronics is one method
that many in the auto industry are turning to as the next generation of
automotives in the United States emerges. To help engineers adapt to this
changing industry and learn mechatronics, our editors are hosting a series of
seminars and workshops with the help of some of Motor City's most innovative
industry professionals. They will share multi-disciplinary design strategies
that will help expo participants design smarter, more cost-efficient
automotives.
To address the information needs of our readers on this topic, Reed
Business Information launched a dedicated microsite, www.MechatronicsZone.com.
By creating a website that communicates the importance of mechatronics, our
editors provide content that targets an audience of engineering managers,
project managers and engineers. The program also includes a quarterly webcast
series, monthly e-newsletter, two print supplements, a new monthly Design News
column and an in-person educational expo.
About Design News
Design News (www.designnews.com) is the leading technical resource for
design engineers who create everything from planes, trains and automobiles to
cellular phones, medical devices and just about every other product on the
planet. The magazine provides highly useful and practical editorial content,
both in print and online, to more than 170,000 subscribers.
About Reed Business Information
Reed Business Information (www.reedbusiness.com/us) offers business
professionals in the media, publishing, manufacturing, electronics,
construction and retail industries more then 80 market leading
business-to-business publications, 80 websites, custom publishing,
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is a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK; ENL) -- a
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medical, legal, and business-to-business industry sectors.
SOURCE Design News

Colleen Heckman of Reed Business Information, +1-781-734-8186, or
colleen.heckman@reedbusiness.com