New Inventors Vie for Chance to Accelerate Adoption of Innovations at SAE Detroit Section/MIT Enterprise Forum Competition

Experience New Entrepreneurs with Excellent Business Cases and Robust Ideas for the Auto Industry

DETROIT, Dec. 7 -- Who: SAE Detroit Section and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum of the Great Lakes.

The SAE is a global association of more than 121,000 engineers and related technical experts in the automotive, aerospace and commercial-vehicle industries. SAE's members have been and continue to be industry innovator and commercialization leaders.

The MIT Enterprise Forum of the Great Lakes (MITEF Great Lakes) is one of the 24 worldwide chapters of the Cambridge, Massachusetts based MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. For over 20 years, this global volunteer organization has linked entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors by means of networking through specialized educational program events and guidance on a variety of high growth and technology business concerns, such as business plan development, funding, and management. MIT and MITEF recently cited helping create nearly $2 Trillion in new enterprise sales annually in a joint Kauffman Foundation study from over 25,000 companies launched globally. Since 1998, MITEF Great Lakes has offered educational and collaborative business forums to build stronger ties between the entrepreneurial, investment, and business incubator communities in the Great Lakes region.

What: 2009 Innovation Accelerator Competition finals and selection of winners. The Innovation Accelerator event is designed to assist companies with commercial adoption of their new technology by providing them an opportunity to highlight their ideas to automotive industry decision makers. Participants complete a ten minute presentation on their company and its technology covering specific criteria such as market need, business understanding and value proposition. Winners receive consulting services award to help them engage with potential automotive industry customers with goal of validating commercialization potential within one year and reach production sooner.

The panel of judges is comprised of experts representing automakers GM and Chrysler, supplier Kostal and the Department of the Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center's (TARDEC) National Automotive Center (NAC).

The 2009 competition finalists are:

Advanced Tire Pressure Systems - A technology that utilizes magnetic 'principals' "digitally" instead of batteries and RF signals mounted in the tires to measure tire pressure.

iQ-Telematics - Active-Adaptive Driving Distraction Mitigation System

TouchSensor(TM) - A patented, solid-state, software free, all digital switch that is revolutionizing both the vehicle's interior designs and HMI capabilities

ACP Process - A holistic product design development method based on CAE, which provides the optimal design solution to significantly reduce cost and time to market.

Clean Energy Innovations - A proprietary process for the enhancement of the rechargeable batteries, that leads to a very substantial increase in the amount of energy that can be extracted from any given battery.

  When:  Monday, December 7, 2009, 5:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

  Where:  San Marino Club, 1685 East Big Beaver Road, Troy, Michigan.

Why: Vehicles are being re-imagined, reconfigured and recast in their role in society. The reset button for automotive technology has been pushed. Innovations abound. But, one of the greatest challenges faced by new inventors and innovative young companies who have developed new technologies for the auto industry is having their technology introduced to, and evaluated by, auto makers and Tier One suppliers. The premise of the competition is help inventors scale that barrier and identify, qualify and accelerate adoption of new technologies with exceptional business cases.