Notes from the Chair - Welcome from Adrian Feeney

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Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia

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Adrian Feeney

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Mohammad Fard Technical Director Sam Lagozzino Membershp & Events Bernie Rolfe FISIT & SAE Liaison Greg Shoemark Gov’t & Industry Liaison James Soo Autonomous/EV Vehicles Richard Taube Board Director Michael Waghorne Finances Gary White Board Director

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Adrian Feeney

Secretary, Chair and CEO Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia

Welcome to the June/July edition of VTE, we have lots to talk about.

We are now halfway through the year, and I can report that so much has happened in a short time and thankfully our events have been virtually Covid free. I announced in the previous edition that our focus will be on face-to-face activities and that is exactly what we have achieved to date. Most of our events have been face-to-face with appropriate use of Zoom limited to events that are more targeted to our Australia-wide members. I expect that this trend will continue for the rest of the year. As this edition goes to press, we will have conducted our Annual General Meeting and networking event that, based on early registrations, will be well attended and I suggest well presented by our events committee; Luke Callaway and Sam Lagozzino. The most significant announcement is the makeup of the new board. Regrettably we lost three very good board members due to work commitments but have found worthy replacements. I wish to take this opportunity to thank Noelle Parlier, Luke Callaway and David Young who have stood down and welcome James Soo, Richard Taube and Gary White. We still have one vacancy on the board and will continue to seek the appropriate candidate based on our needs.

Mohammad Fard and his Technical Committee have done an outstanding job to organise the APAC 21 Conference, scheduled for October 3, 4 and 5 this year, with two keynote speakers announced and more than 70 papers submitted. I encourage every member (and non-members too) to register and attend this event, it’s the biggest thing we have done for many years and it’s going to be absolutely critical for our industry to get up to speed with the autonomous technology – that is the subject of our conference. There is a good mix of overseas and local experts presenting together with a number of panel sessions so that everyone’s needs can be satisfied.

Formula SAE is back after a 2-year hiatus and already we have more than 30 registrations with 80 percent being Electric Vehicles (EVs). There will also be, for the first time, a Driverless Class dynamic demonstration, with the intention to make this an optional class for our competition in the future.

Very soon we will be reaching out to our network to register as a volunteer, for those who have supported this event in the past, you know just how important this event is to the students involved. If you haven’t volunteered before, I recommend you put your hand up and become involved, it’s an amazing experience and the students are so appreciative of what you will be doing for them. An email advising how to register on-line will be issued very soon. Thank you to all our loyal members, the future is bright