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Written by Patrick Ponticel
From his elevated position with the American arm of automotive megasupplier Denso, Doug Patton has a commanding view of the engineering landscape and some power to help shape it. With the added influence of the 2017 SAE International Presidency behind him, he plans to do as much as he can to help shape up what he sees as a somewhat wobbly system for producing engineers in a stream large enough to meet the expanding needs of mobility industries. "One of my goals as president is to focus on STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] because I realize there is a lack of engineers coming through the pipeline," said Patton, who in addition to being a Senior Director at Denso Corp. of Japan is Executive Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer at Denso International America. "We, SAE, need to make an impact on young pre-engineers," in grade school, in high school, and in college cultivate them from the beginning." Cybersecurity will be the other major focus area of his SAE presidency, he said in an interview with Automotive Engineering. Patton"s work history in two of the three mobility sectors served by SAE gives him broad perspective into the many cross-sector challenges that engineers and companies face. Before joining Denso in 1986, he worked at Caterpillar as a release engineer and senior market analyst. He has been an SAE Member since 1987, with a long list of volunteer stints on various SAE boards and committees over the years. "It"s quite an honor to be SAE President," he said. "When I look at who has held this position in the past, they are very distinguished individuals and not just in the auto sector, but also in the aero sector and the heavy-duty area. I hope I can influence other individuals to aspire to be SAE President in the future." Regarding his second presidential focus area, cybersecurity, Patton said: "One of the things we can do is learn from the aero-space industry, because they"ve already faced some of the challenges. But for ag, construction, on-highway, truck, automotive cybersecurity is becoming more and more of a challenge. So it is important that we have standards [e.g., SAE"s J3061] and methodologies and ways to protect the product. SAE can play a role in developing those, so I want to promote that activity." Although not one of his specific focus areas, Patton identified additive manufacturing as a cross-sector technology for which SAE standardization efforts will "drive harmony across product lines all the way down to the service level of the product. The more standardization we have, the more cost-effective the world becomes." Automated driving systems is a technology area in which SAE is having significant influence and its recently released standard defining the six levels of automated-driving systems ("J3016: Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to On-Road Motor Vehicle Automated Driving Systems") was in Fall 2016 incorporated into official U.S. federal policy. As an aside, Patton noted that the continued development of artificial intelligence is a key tool that needs to be further developed so engineers can program automated vehicles in a way that allows them to navigate unforeseeable road situations with the same adaptability as a human driver.
Date written: 05-Dec-2016 09:42 EST
More of this article on the SAE International Website
ID: 6023
From his elevated position with the American arm of automotive megasupplier Denso, Doug Patton has a commanding view of the engineering landscape and some power to help shape it. With the added influence of the 2017 SAE International Presidency behind him, he plans to do as much as he can to help shape up what he sees as a somewhat wobbly system for producing engineers in a stream large enough to meet the expanding needs of mobility industries. "One of my goals as president is to focus on STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] because I realize there is a lack of engineers coming through the pipeline," said Patton, who in addition to being a Senior Director at Denso Corp. of Japan is Executive Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer at Denso International America. "We, SAE, need to make an impact on young pre-engineers," in grade school, in high school, and in college cultivate them from the beginning." Cybersecurity will be the other major focus area of his SAE presidency, he said in an interview with Automotive Engineering. Patton"s work history in two of the three mobility sectors served by SAE gives him broad perspective into the many cross-sector challenges that engineers and companies face. Before joining Denso in 1986, he worked at Caterpillar as a release engineer and senior market analyst. He has been an SAE Member since 1987, with a long list of volunteer stints on various SAE boards and committees over the years. "It"s quite an honor to be SAE President," he said. "When I look at who has held this position in the past, they are very distinguished individuals and not just in the auto sector, but also in the aero sector and the heavy-duty area. I hope I can influence other individuals to aspire to be SAE President in the future." Regarding his second presidential focus area, cybersecurity, Patton said: "One of the things we can do is learn from the aero-space industry, because they"ve already faced some of the challenges. But for ag, construction, on-highway, truck, automotive cybersecurity is becoming more and more of a challenge. So it is important that we have standards [e.g., SAE"s J3061] and methodologies and ways to protect the product. SAE can play a role in developing those, so I want to promote that activity." Although not one of his specific focus areas, Patton identified additive manufacturing as a cross-sector technology for which SAE standardization efforts will "drive harmony across product lines all the way down to the service level of the product. The more standardization we have, the more cost-effective the world becomes." Automated driving systems is a technology area in which SAE is having significant influence and its recently released standard defining the six levels of automated-driving systems ("J3016: Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to On-Road Motor Vehicle Automated Driving Systems") was in Fall 2016 incorporated into official U.S. federal policy. As an aside, Patton noted that the continued development of artificial intelligence is a key tool that needs to be further developed so engineers can program automated vehicles in a way that allows them to navigate unforeseeable road situations with the same adaptability as a human driver.
Date written: 05-Dec-2016 09:42 EST
More of this article on the SAE International Website
ID: 6023
