VIEWPOINT | MEET WCX, THE RE-IMAGINED SAE WORLD CONGRESS

The SAE World Congress is no more. Meet WCX 17, its reimagined replacement, which will debut April 4-6 at Detroit’s Cobo Center. SAE has redesigned and reconfigured this signature event for automotive engineers and technology experts to make it an even richer and more rewarding experience for attendees and exhibitors from around the world.

Organizers expect WCX (short for World Congress Experience) will draw some 12,000 visitors worldwide to experience hundreds of exhibitors and more than 1,500 technical paper presentations (and interact directly with presenters) during the course of the three-day meeting.

Attendees can expect an event with more interactive opportunities than ever, from one-on-one discussions with peers and insights from panels of industry leaders to advanced-technology simulators and hands-on technical demonstrations. SAE World Congress has always offered attendees world-class career enhancement opportunities, and WCX promises a whole new level of engagement.

Bob Fascetti, vice president, Powertrain Engineering at Ford Motor Co. is executive leader of WCX. He offers a peek into this signature automotive engineering event.

Why the new name for this historic event?

The global auto industry is transforming at an extremely rapid pace as it embraces new options in personal transportation and forms powerful alliances with high-tech newcomers to the automotive world. SAE has been inspired by this unprecedented transformation to rethink the SAE World Congress as a full-sensory interactive experience. The new name reflects that perspective and lets attendees know they can expect something new and different this year.

What makes WCX a must-attend event for engineers?

For one thing, our industry’s “traditional” technologies, such as engines and transmissions, are growing at an extremely fast pace. We’re implementing new innovations at a faster pace than ever before. Couple that with the industry’s move toward electrified powertrains, and you have a very exciting time to be in the auto industry.

Perhaps more important, the challenge to keep up with the pace of change has never been greater. WCX offers visitors a very concentrated and very efficient place in which to experience the latest technologies, and do so with your contemporaries. The networking is truly superb. It’s the perfect place to make connections, broaden your perspective and enhance your career path. Nothing else compares to the opportunity WCX offers.

Then there’s the exhibition area. There’s nothing like seeing new technologies firsthand. After all, new technologies are at the core of what we do as automotive engineers. WCX concentrates the best of the best in one place, so you can really cover a lot of innovations in a short amount of time.

How do upper-level executives benefit from WCX?

The exposure to a very broad array of new and emerging technologies is extremely valuable. An event like this is an exceptionally productive way for leaders among the car companies and major suppliers to get together and exchange ideas. There’s really no better opportunity to take a hard look at what technologies are available out there and determine what can be brought into production.

For me personally, it’s a great opportunity to see the latest and greatest technologies and use that experience to help determine which innovations might make a difference for our company. That’s probably the biggest single thing I get out of attending the conference.

What are some of the special highlights for visitors at WCX?

A big one is The Exchange. In the mornings, this area on the exhibition floor will present daily Leadership Summits over three days, in which industry leaders will assess the “business of technology” in such areas as innovation, legislation and the consumer. Among the participants will be high-level representatives from such organizations as AAA Automotive, Butzel Long, Cisco, Consumer Reports, Continental, Deere, Denso, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Intel, Jabil Engineered Solutions, Lyft, Magna, Uber and Zipcar.

In the afternoons, the area will host The Tech Hub. Here visitors can sit in on presentations on artificial intelligence, automated driving, collaborative robotics, cybersecurity, racing, wearable robotics and more. Participating companies and institutions will include the Argonne National Laboratory, Baidu, BMW, Faraday Future, HIS, IDEO, NASA, Nissan Motors and TARDEC.

More personalized conversations—including one-on-one discussions—will be available on the exhibition floor through WCX’s Learning Lab and Knowledge Bar. These new show features will enable visitors to connect directly with such organizations as American Axle, Argonne National Laboratory, dSPACE, Denso, Evonik, FCA, Ford, GAMIC, General Motors, Kineticorp, Lear, TARDEC and more.

Learn more about WCX by clicking HERE or going to http://wcx17.org.