Altair Launches Automotive Industry's First Award Dedicated to Light-weighting

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair today announced the automotive industry's first award program created specifically to acknowledge innovations in vehicle light-weighting, thereby improving fuel economy and performance. Altair is a leading global provider of simulation technology and engineering services to the world's automakers and their supply base, in addition to having significant presence in the aerospace, consumer goods, energy and marine industries.

The inaugural Altair Enlighten Award (#AltairEnlighten), presented in collaboration with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), will recognize achievements in weight reduction across the automotive industry from motorcycles to passenger cars, light-trucks to commercial vehicles and buses. Achievements demonstrating the merits of a mixed material lightweighting solution will be encouraged.

The award aligns with the goals of CAR's Coalition for Automotive Lightweighting Materials (CALM) initiative. The purpose of the CALM initiative is to support the cost-effective integration of mixed materials to achieve significant reductions in vehicle mass through the collaborative efforts of the material sectors and auto manufacturers. The award will be open to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems/parts suppliers and materials suppliers from all automotive industry segments.

"Altair's computer-aided engineering software solutions are employed across the globe to optimize vehicles, systems and components for weight savings and improved performance," said Tony Norton, senior director of global automotive for Altair. "Weight reduction can be combined with any fuel economy technology to increase efficiency gains. Automakers and their supply base are striving to reduce material usage and fuel consumption while improving vehicle performance and safety through weight reduction techniques. The Altair Enlighten Award provides a platform to showcase the success stories, allowing industry leaders to be recognized by their peers and emphasizing the need to achieve the next level of light-weighting technology."

The objectives of the Altair Enlighten Award are to:  

• Honor the greatest achievements in weight saving each year
• Inspire interest from policymakers, educators, students and the general public in the environmental impact, technical depth and diversity of weight saving innovations
• Create further competition for new ideas within the industry
• Provide an incentive to share technological advances

"By recognizing practical examples of lightweighting solutions, Altair's Enlighten Award will inspire innovation which will help manufacturers achieve aggressive fuel economy targets established by the government," said Dr. Jay Baron, president & CEO of the Center for Automotive Research and director of CALM.

Manufacturers and suppliers interested in submitting a nomination will be able to access additional information about the nomination process on the Altair Enlighten website Oct. 1, 2012. The purpose of AltairEnlighten.com is to provide a global knowledge source for useful, informative and inspirational content focused on minimizing the weight of products across industries through innovative design techniques, materials technology and manufacturing processes; improving industry best practices to respond to the challenges of mass management and meeting fuel economy targets, both government and competitive; and addressing increasing vehicle safety requirements. To allow sharing of innovation to further this goal, while respecting the business and technical confidentiality of all applications, designs submitted must be implemented on a production vehicle produced between August 2012 and August 2013, with no geographical restrictions.

Applications for the 2013 Altair Enlighten Award will be accepted from Nov. 1, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2013. Finalists will be interviewed in February and March 2013. Winners will be announced in August 2013. The judging panel for the award will be formed with industry and academic leaders as well as CAR and Altair representatives.

About CAR
The Center for Automotive Research is a non-profit organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich. Its mission is to conduct research on significant issues related to the future direction of the global automotive industry, organize and conduct forums of value to the automotive community and foster industry relationships at every level. For more information, visit the CAR website: www.cargroup.org.

About Altair
Altair empowers client innovation and decision-making through technology that optimizes the analysis, management and visualization of business and engineering information. Privately held, with more than 1,500 employees, Altair has offices throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. With a 26-year track record for high-end software for engineering and computing, enterprise analytics solutions, and innovative product design and development, Altair consistently delivers a competitive advantage to customers in a broad range of industries. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com and www.simulatetoinnovate.com.

SOURCE Altair