SAE Professional Development Resource Guide 2013 - 223

Instructor Biographies
Siavoshani, Saeed
Dr. Saeed J. Siavoshani is currently a Principal Research Scientist at the Dow Chemical Corporation and is also an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy where he teaches a comprehensive electric vehicle course. In addition Dr. Siavoshani is the Chief Industry Advisor for SAE Professional Development Department’s hybrid vehicle technology curriculum. Over the past two decades, he has worked for General Motors Corporation and Ford Motor Company. During his career, Dr. Siavoshani has worked on composite projects related to offshore oil and gas, infrastructures, and pressure vessels and automotive systems including vehicle powertrain, body, exterior/interior vehicle, and exhaust/induction systems. He has been instrumental in the development of new technology, notably the integrated Front of Dashboard concept and Acoustomize, a unique method of analyzing and offering solutions to automotive noise problems. He has also worked in the area of thermoforming utilizing electro-magnetic ﬁeld technology. Dr. Siavoshani has helped to build the infrastructure for the electric vehicle battery pack including thermal management as well as reducing the weight of the overall battery. He has been granted several patents and was presented the Forest R. McFarland Award in 2012 for distinction in professional development and education. Dr. Siavoshani has a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Wayne State University and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Oakland University.

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Sovani, Sandeep

Dr. Sovani is currently the Technical Account Manager for the North American Automotive Industry Sector with ANSYS Inc., where he specializes in automotive applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics. Dr. Sovani has over ﬁfteen years experience conducting research and executing projects on a wide variety of topics in automotive thermo-ﬂuid sciences. During his career he has worked with ANSYS Inc, Fluent Inc, the Thermal Sciences and Propulsion Center of Purdue University and the Engineering Research Center of Tata Motors. He has authored over forty papers, articles, and technical reports and is a member of SAE, ASME, and Sigma Xi. Dr. Sovani is a three-time recipient of SAE’s Excellence in Oral Presentation Award, the SAE Lloyd Withrow Distinguished Speaker Award, and the National Talent Search Award from India’s National Council for Educational Research and Training. Dr. Sovani holds three degrees in Mechanical Engineering - B.Engg. from the University of Pune, M.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and Ph.D. from Purdue University.

Speirs, Robert G.

Simula, Glen

Mr. Glen Simula is President and CEO of GS Engineering, Inc., a company he founded in 2001 to provide lightweight vehicle technology to the military and commercial vehicle sectors. Mr. Simula’s expertise includes tactical vehicle design and development, structural optimization of lightweight components for military vehicles, and dynamic analysis and simulation of tracked and wheeled vehicles. His program experience includes Lightweight Military Track, MRAP Development, and FMTV Development. Prior to founding GS Engineering, Mr. Simula was a Senior Research Engineer at the Keweenaw Research Center, Michigan Technological University where he was the program manager for military vehicle design and analysis and the subject matter expert for military vehicle suspensions. Prior to joining Michigan Technological University, he was a Senior Staff Stress Analyst for Bechtel Power Corporation where he conducted ﬁnite element analysis of Class I nuclear systems. Mr. Simula received his B.S. Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and a M.S. Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Robert Speirs is Associate Professor of Plastics Programs at Ferris State Univ. Additionally, Speirs instructs many plastics engineering technology seminars covering material selection, product design and advanced plastics processing. Along with his vast teaching experience, Speirs brings practical industrial experience from his work with Baxter Travenol Laboratories and Dow Chemical. Speirs also has taught continuing education seminars in injection molding, mold design and injection molding troubleshooting for molders throughout North America and in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Spek, Erik J.

Mr. Spek is Chief Engineer for TÜV SÜD Canada, a member of the global TÜV SÜD third party testing services organization for cell and battery manufacturers, vehicle OEMs and utility grid users of energy storage systems. He is also a consultant in the ﬁeld of energy storage systems focusing on applications, veriﬁcation testing, cell and battery production facilities safety and sodium ion battery development. Mr. Spek is co-holder of a patent for next generation sodium metal chloride architecture for low cost and very high energy density. He has authored articles on Weibull statistics for battery life and BEV range modeling and has been active in the battery industry since 1984. Mr. Spek is a member of SAE International and is a Certiﬁed Manufacturing Engineer with SME. He received an M.A.Sc. from the University of Waterloo and is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada.

Spotnitz, Robert

Sittsamer, Murray

Murray Sittsamer is founder of Luminous Group, a consulting ﬁrm specializing in streamlining and standardizing workﬂow for companies. Murray has over 22 years experience in operations management, strategic planning, new process launches, ﬁnancial analysis, quality systems and process improvement. During the past ten years Murray has focused his work on supporting automotive OEMs and suppliers with their quality and productivity improvement efforts, especially in the areas of Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), variation reduction and Problem Solving. Before entering the consulting ﬁeld in 1994, Murray served as director of distribution support and quality systems for Gelman Sciences. While there he led a successful 15-month effort to obtain ISO 9000 quality system registration and had the role of project manager for a highly publicized groundwater contamination dispute. Murray earned his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and holds a Master of Science in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Spotnitz leads Battery Design LLC, a company that provides consulting and software for battery developers and users. He founded Battery Design in 1999 and developed Battery Design Studio®, a virtual environment for battery design and simulation (see www.batdesign. com). Over the last decade he participated in the start-up of two battery developers: American Lithium Energy Corp. and Enovix. Prior to that, he was Director of Advanced Product Development at PolyStor Corp. where he led efforts to develop large lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles. Before that he was a Staff Engineer for Hoechst’s Celgard Division where he built from the ground-up the Battery Applications Development Center and helped commercialize the tri-layer battery separator and also worked at the R&D center of W.R. Grace & Co where he co-invented multi-layer battery separators, as well as a number of electrochemical processes. Dr. Spotnitz provides tutorials on batteries for the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference, the Battery Power conferences, the EIS Short Course, as well for the Electrochemical Society. He has18 patents and 34 publications (including 3 book chapters). He is a member of the International Society of Electrochemistry and the Electrochemical Society. He has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University, a M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Univ. WI-Madison.

SAE Professional Development Resource Guide 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Professional Development Resource Guide 2013