CAR participates in inaugural Ohio State Pan-Asian Forum on smart cities and smart mobility

The Center for Automotive Research (CAR), as well as Ohio State alumni, faculty and academic and corporate partners participated in “Smart City, Smart Mobility,” the first Ohio State Pan-Asia Forum held October 22- 23 in Shanghai, China.

The event was hosted by the OSU China Gateway and provided an opportunity for industry and academic leaders from the United States, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea to share their perspectives on how technology will shape the future of cities and the ways people mobilize within them.

Both industry and academia participated in the event and featured speakers including OSU CAR Director, Giorgio Rizzoni, John Chang, executive director of vehicle electrification and autonomous vehicles for Ford Asia Pacific and Min Xu, dean of Institute of Automotive Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.  Many prominent OSU alumni also participated in the forum as speakers, panelist and attendees.

David Cooke, an assistant director at OSU CAR, presented to the forum about the automotive, mobility and smart city activities in central Ohio and participated in a panel discussion on the future of smart mobility. Central themes to the panel discussion included the rate of automotive electrification, the future of the internal combustion engine, EV charging infrastructure, the impact of startup companies in this space and the shifting trends of the traditional vehicle ownership in the future automotive market.

“I really enjoyed participating in the forum and the panel discussion. I have been working in the automotive research arena for the past 15 years but this was my first chance to see what is happening in the Asian region first hand,” said Cooke. “In Columbus, OH we are in need of and ready to embrace technology to provide a positive impact to our daily life, but smart mobility and smart cities can have a lot of different meanings in different places. My work has been very focused on the US market and the challenges we have here. Visiting a mega city of 20+ million people and learning about their mobility challenges brings an entirely new view to the potential impact of up and coming technologies. Exchanging ideas with leaders from many different backgrounds around the Pan-Asian region was extremely insightful and I look forward to future instances of this great event.”

The Forum kicked off with a Pan-Asia alumni reception in Shanghai. Dave Tomasko, associate dean for the College of Engineering welcomed alumni and provided information about current programming and events for international students.