Ford Motor Company is Host Company for SAE 2004 World Congress

DEARBORN, Mich., April 29 -- The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) announced that Ford Motor Company will be the host company for the SAE 2004 World Congress. The event is set for March 8-11 at Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. Ford last hosted the SAE World Congress in 2002, and this marks the seventh time in the past 30 years that Ford has done so.

Ford's Phillip R. Martens, Vice President Product Creation, North America will serve as the general chairperson of the event. In his position at Ford, Martens oversees design, engineering and development of Ford and Lincoln- Mercury cars and light trucks sold in North America. He is responsible for managing the product creation process in North America. Martens came to Ford from Mazda in 2000.

"We at SAE are delighted to once again have Ford Motor Company host the world's premier automotive technology event," said Dave Amati, Director of Automotive Business at SAE. "We are pleased that Phil Martens and his Ford team will provide the leadership and strategy necessary to continue the transformation of the SAE World Congress that began under Rich Schaum's capable leadership in 2003."

Since 1947, the SAE World Congress has been the world's largest meeting and exposition devoted to automotive engineering and product technology. Each year in early March, the world of automotive engineering, design, and technology descends on Cobo Hall for the SAE World Congress. It remains the primary forum for the best and brightest technical talent to meet and exchange ideas with their peers.

SAE will build upon the success of the Technology Theater that debuted in 2003, as well as increasing OEM exhibit and executive participation levels seen at the 2003 event. Always a primary source of excellence at SAE World Congress, the extensive technical program perennially features well over 1,000 technical papers from engineers and technical management from OEMs and supplier companies in the global automotive industry. In 2003, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, and Toyota made up 276 of these presentations, while Delphi, Visteon, Robert Bosch, and Motorola were the top contributing supplier companies presenting technical papers.

For information about exhibiting at the SAE 2004 World Congress call the SAE exhibits team at (724) 772-8537 or Email: exhibitions@sae.org. For information about submitting a technical presentation for the event log on to the SAE 2004 Call for Papers web page - http://www.sae.org/congress/author/cfp04.htm.

SAE media contact: Steve Yaeger (724) 772-4068

SAE is a non-profit engineering and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity. Nearly 84,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles, including automobiles, aircraft, aerospace craft, trucks, buses, marine, rail and transit machinery. This information is disseminated through SAE meetings, books, electronic products and databases, technical papers, standards, reports, and professional development programs.