News Release
UDM Celebrates Ford Innovation Day With Ford President & CEO Alan Mulally
On Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011, leaders from Ford Motor Company and University of Detroit Mercy joined together to celebrate innovation and collaboration on Ford Innovation Day, as part of UDM’s Engineering Centennial year. Through this unique partnership, UDM has had the opportunity to offer cutting-edge automotive education programs to Ford engineers, such as UDM Master’s Degree in Product Development and the Advanced Electric Vehicle Program.
Ford and UDM continued this collaboration with the third annual Ford-UDM Innovation Contest for university students. The announcement of this year’s winners and a keynote speech by Ford President & CEO, Alan Mulally was the focus of the Ford Innovation Day program.
For the contest, students were asked to identify current opportunities with existing vehicles as well as possibilities that may arise from emerging technologies to develop proposed innovations to the automobile. Each team, comprised of 3-5 full-time undergraduate students from any major, developed a three-minute digital video communicating the problem addressing the team’s solution. Ford will present $2,500 to the winning team, $1,500 for 2nd place, and $1,000 for 3rd place. Twenty-six teams from universities across the nation were competing this year.
The program agenda included:- 2:30 – 5 pm – Display and discussion of 11 current and future Ford vehicles
- 5 pm – 6th Annual Ford Innovation Symposium, with presentations by Ford VP, Derrick Kuzak and Ford President & CEO, Alan Mulally
Student Center, Fountain Lounge - 6:00 pm – Ford Innovation Contest presentation of finalists’ entries and announcement of winners
Many UDM graduates have held leadership positions at Ford, including three vice presidents, a Ford fellow and a past president. Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s Group Vice President for Product Development Worldwide, holds engineering bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees at UDM.
Ford Innovation Day events celebrated this broad and deep partnership and explore concepts for innovation. The event was free and open to the public.Release date: October 31, 2011
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The University of Detroit Mercy is Michigan's largest private Catholic University, offering approximately 100 majors and programs in 60 academic fields. Sponsored by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the University has three campuses located in downtown and northwest Detroit.
For the 12th consecutive year, UDM was ranked among the top tier of Midwestern master's universities in U.S.News & World Report's "Best Colleges," 2013 edition.
