Summer 2003
School of Engineering and Applied Science Receives
Grant from Hyundai-Kia for Safety Research Lab
$410,000 Award Dedicated to Research on Child Safety
Seat Performance and Automotive Safety
By Matthew
Lindsay
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motor Corporation presented President
Trachtenberg and Timothy Tong, dean of the School of Engineering and
Applied Science (SEAS), with a $410,000 grant to establish the Hyundai-Kia
Automotive Safety Research Laboratory (ASRL). The funding, which is
the first installment of a multi-year grant, was awarded to the Federal
Highway Administration/ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(FHWA/NHTSA) National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) at GW’s Virginia
Campus.
“The mission of the Hyundai-Kia ASRL is to conduct research in
automotive safety to advance crashworthiness and biomechanics engineering
for the benefit of the entire safety community, with emphasis on problems
of particular interest to Hyundai-Kia research and development (R&D),”
says Nabih E. Bedewi, professor of engineering and applied science and
director of the NCAC. “The ASRL will grow to become the focal point
of Hyundai-Kia’s safety research in the United States, both interacting
with the company’s various American engineering organizations,
and overseeing and managing research conducted by other institutions
and universities in the United States for Hyundai-Kia’s Korean
R&D division.”
Frank Shin of Hyundai Motor Company’s Washington office says, “Hyundai
Motor Company is committed to automotive safety and is proud to partner
with The George Washington University to support a research laboratory
that will benefit the entire safety community.”
“The first two years of research will address the investigation
of child safety seat performance during vehicle impacts using finite
element analysis, and investigation of real world car crashes in the
United States,” says George Bahouth, senior research scientist
at the NCAC and manager of the ASRL.
“We are very proud that Hyundai-Kia selected the NCAC for this
long-term partnership,” says Tong. “This award is yet another
testament to the outstanding contributions GW has made to the field
of automobile safety.”
GW also will be directing resources from the Hyundai Scholarship Fund
to support three doctoral students who will be involved in the research.
While the general motoring public will be the primary benefactor of
the research, the grant also will provide a foundation for numerous
master’s and doctoral degrees at GW.
This marks the second major grant the University and NCAC have received
this year. Previously the Ford Motor Company gave the center a $5 million
grant to conduct research on automotive safety. The funding was part
of an out-of-court settlement that did not involve GW.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
