SAE Detroit Section, MIT Enterprise Forum Team Up At ACE '13
LIVONIA -- On Jan. 31, as many as 10 semi-finalists will compete for a chance to win more than $50,000 in business acceleration services at the Fifth Annual Global Automotive Industry Innovation Accelerator Competition.
The competition will be part of the ACE '13, the Annual Collaboration for Entrepreneurship, to be held Jan. 31 at Burton Manor, 27777 Schoolcraft Road in Livonia.
The collaborative event between SAE Detroit Section and MIT Enterprise Forum of the Great Lakes seeks to find innovative companies with promising ideas to solve problems within today's automotive industry. The winners will receive support from SAE Detroit Section and MITEF to accelerate lab to production cycle time for high-value auto industry innovations.
Automotive and innovation leaders are invited to participate in the judging and table top displays of the semi-finalists at ACE '13 on Jan 31 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with time for lunch and networking.
To attend, register online by Jan 15 at www.ace-event.org for admission to Automotive Innovation Competition and ACE '13 for $25 which includes lunch, or after for $35 when you register after Jan 15th.
"The purpose of the competition is to identify innovative companies and cultivate new technologies and solutions for the automotive industry," said David Stout, SAE International Board of Directors and founder of the event. "We're proud to support innovative companies like our first year winner, EmiSense Technologies, who has continued making progress, securing $3 million in funds to expand product development for clean technologies with better cost and accuracy to digitally measure oxygen and nitrous-oxide."
"The Automotive market needs better innovation faster to keep up with global consumer expectations and regulatory changes," said Dennis Nash, MITEF collaboration chairman. "The OEMs and Automotive Suppliers are looking for innovative partners to support this journey due to many reductions in engineering and R&D budgets. This annual competition with the experienced judges, coaches and industry sponsors, that have included AVL, GM, Ford, Bosch, Alcoa, AutoTech, Technology Highway and others, has help fast path commercialization efforts of finalist and helped the other team fine tune their commercialization plans."
Applications to enter an innovation into the global competition semi-finals are available at www.mitgreatlakes.org, which includes a short business plan summary and an innovation-team power point introduction.
The applications are due by Jan 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern time. There is support for global remote participation to be part of the competition.
The winners of the semifinals will get additional automotive business development coaching and opportunity to present on April 16 at SAE World Congress at Cobo Center in Detroit.
General attendance for the ACE '13 celebration is open to public. Admission is $13 (not including entrance to the Automotive Innovation Competition). Visit www.gleq.org to register to attend the event. Email mitgreatlakes@gmail.com with questions.
