Seminar: System Engineering as a Key Tool for the Future of Automotive Technology

System engineering is a broad field that can have different meanings in different industries and disciplines of engineering. A general definition of a system is a “construct or collection of different elements that together produces results not obtainable by the elements alone.”  In the automotive sector system engineering is the design and engineering of vehicle systems with the use of computational models. These systems are typically mechanical, electrical, or chemical in nature or are comprised of computer hardware and software. Recently, the role of software in ensuring performance, safety, and reliability in future vehicle technologies has become very important to the field.

The introduction of embedded systems has been altering the field of automotive engineering rapidly. The first microcontrollers were introduced 1980’s for fuel control in response to emission regulations. ‘Drive‐by-wire’ was introduced later and viewed as a significant paradigm shift by virtue of putting software between the driver’s foot and the engine’s torque production. The insertion of an embedded system between the driver and the vehicle posed a new kind of risk, and techniques were developed to ensure these systems were safe. With autonomous vehicles on the horizon, automotive systems are heading for a much more daunting challenge from the perspective of system engineering and system safety.

In this seminar, Dr. Midlam-Mohler will outline the current state of the art in automotive system engineering through examples drawn from his research portfolio. These cover a range of vehicle systems as well as the entire spectrum of “in‐the-loop” processes (xIL) used in the field. From this, Dr. Midlam-Mohler will outline some of the new research challenges in automotive system engineering that are being driven by the adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in the present day and Autonomous Vehicle Technology in the future.

About the Speaker

Prof. Shawn Midlam-Mohler is an associate professor of practice in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the Ohio State University.  He is a Fellow with the Center for Automotive Research and the Associate Director of the Simulation Innovation and Modeling Center.  His research interests include systems engineering, and he has an active research portfolio focusing on the automotive sector.  He has authored over 90 peer-­‐reviewed publications and patents in the area of automotive systems.  His teaching interests include system engineering and technical topics related to vehicle systems and modeling.  He is also the lead advisor of the OSU EcoCAR team which participates in the U.S. Department of Energy and GM sponsored EcoCAR 3 competition.

Hosted by Professor Marcelo Dapino