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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 7, 2003
MEDIA CONTACT:
Roxann Henze, (703) 726-8302 or rhenze@va.gwu.edu FOR SAFETY RESEARCH LAB Research to Focus on Child Safety Seat Performance and Automotive Safety
WASHINGTON - The George Washington University announced today the receipt of a $410,000 grant from Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motor Corporation to establish the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Safety Research Laboratory (ASRL). The funding, which is the first installment of a multi-year grant, was awarded to the Federal Highway Administration/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (FHWA/NHTSA) National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) at GW's Virginia Campus. "The mission of the Hyundai-Kia ASRL is to conduct research in automotive safety to advance crashworthiness and biomechanics engineering for the benefit of the entire safety community, with emphasis on problems of particular interest to Hyundai-Kia research and development (R&D)," said Nabih E. Bedewi, GW professor of engineering and applied science and director of the NCAC. "The ASRL will grow to become the focal point of Hyundai-Kia's safety research in the United States, both interacting with the company's various American engineering organizations, and overseeing and managing research conducted by other institutions and universities in the United States for Hyundai-Kia's Korean R&D division." Frank Shin of Hyundai Motor Company's Washington office said, "Hyundai Motor Company is committed to automotive safety and is proud to partner with The George Washington University to support a research laboratory that will benefit the entire safety community." "The first two years of research will address the investigation of child safety seat performance during vehicle impacts using finite element analysis, and investigation of real world car crashes in the U.S.," said George Bahouth, senior research scientist at the NCAC and manager of the ASRL. "We are very proud that Hyundai-Kia selected the NCAC for this long-term partnership," said Timothy Tong, dean of GW's School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). "This award is yet another testament to the outstanding contributions GW has made to the field of automobile safety." GW also will be directing resources from the Hyundai Scholarship Fund to support three doctoral students who will be involved in the research. While the general motoring public will be the primary benefactor of the research, the grant also will provide a foundation for numerous masters and doctoral degrees at GW. Hyundai and Kia both achieved record U.S. sales in 2002 and both anticipate this momentum will continue in 2003. Last year their combined share of the U.S. market reached 3.6 percent, surpassing Mitsubishi, Volkswagen and Mazda. The NCAC is a world-renowned research center devoted to the advancement of automotive safety. As a part of the civil and environmental engineering department within SEAS, the NCAC also produces top-notch graduate students in transportation safety engineering. Conveniently located in the Northern Virginia technology corridor near Dulles International Airport, GW's Virginia Campus is the University's Research and Technology Campus. The 90-acre campus is a robust cluster of executive education and technology programs and world-class research initiatives in transportation safety and security, information technology and telecommunications. Since opening in August 1991, the campus has experienced a tenfold increase in its student base and has grown annual research funding from $50,000 to more than $7 million.
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© 1998 The George Washington University
Virginia Campus
20101 Academic Way
Ashburn, Virginia 20147-2604
(703) 729-8300 Voice (703) 729-7244 Fax