Local connected vehicle facility hosts career day for students

by Suni Jo Roberts
Deputy Editor

The American Center for Mobility, a non profit testing and product development facility for future mobility, opened its doors to students and professionals during their “ACM Career Exploration: The Future of Self-Driving Vehicles” event held at its facilities at the Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti.

The event highlighted the importance of a highly trained workforce as the technology of autonomous and connected vehicles develop. Industry leaders helped to connect students to jobs that will be created in the future.

Attendees visited booths to connect with industry leaders and gather information on the new facility which opened two months ago. Representatives from 3M, MDOT, Visteon, Goodyear, Subaru provided information on careers and new technology. Organizations accepted resumes for future co-ops, internships, summer hires and other job opportunities.
Tony Jesudoss, a master’s student at Kettering University in Flint studying automotive systems, came to the event on Feb. 23 with a few things to explore.

“Two reasons—I want to check out the center and I want to look for job opportunities,” said Jesudoss.
With prior work experience at Ford Motor Company in India, Jesudoss said he knows where his experience would be most useful.

“I can contribute more in a field where there is a good balance between engineering and management,” said Jesudoss. “I was a suspension engineer with Ford so my job was to localize products from outside. At the same time I would do design changes in parts which would reduce the cost.”

Attendees had the opportunity to tour the 335-acre facility including the high-speed loop tunnel. The facility is currently under construction with a finish date undetermined as construction is expected to be ongoing. The facility plans to rent spaces to companies in order to do product testing and development. The center is currently constructing urban, suburban and highway environments for autonomous and connected vehicles to test on.

In Oct. 2017, WCC joined an Academic Consortium with the American Center for Mobility with 14 other Michigan colleges and universities. The agreement “establishes a structure and a process for Michigan colleges and universities to work with the ACM on education, workforce training, outreach programs, collaborative research, and joint funding opportunities among other cooperative activities,” according to The Record.

WCC is currently leasing space at the Willow Run airport next to the ACM which allows for access to automotive, IT and telecommunications companies.

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