Upcoming SIAT 2015 to focus on clean, quiet and safer tech

The 14^th Symposium on International Automotive Technology (SIAT), a common platform for national and international experts to exchange thoughts and innovative ideas in various fields of the automotive technology, is to take place on January 21-24 at the ARAI campus in Pune. The focus this year is on a cleaner, quiet and safer automotive world.

The biennial event, which has been held since 1985, will be organised by The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in association with SAE India and NATRiP.

Providing details about the conference in Chennai today, Vinod Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland and ARAI president said that the government is keen on the ‘Make in India’ campaign to encourage manufacturing in the country and SIAT 2015 will encourage the ‘Design in India’ concept for the automotive industry. He added that the conference is clearly a hallmark for the best and brightest people to showcase their engineering campaign in India.

It is understood that this year the conference has received a tremendous response from companies and delegates from both India and abroad. “Everybody is coming together and focusing on one common theme for a cleaner, quieter and safer world and every paper will in line with that goal,” Dasari added. 

Rashmi Urdhwareshe, director, ARAI, said: “We are working with the government and industry to make automobiles efficient and safer. SIAT 2015 is focused on emission and safety, and assembles the best talent in the automotive industry to share their thoughts on how to ensure an increase in vehicular safety and emission performance.”

Concurrently, ARAI will inaugurate India’s first full vehicle crash test facility and fatigue test and powertrain facilities with an investment of Rs 250 crore. The full vehicle crash test facility, the first in India, will be fully functional by the end of 2015.

“The full vehicle crash test facility will help automobile manufacturer to gear up towards vehicle safety and will help ARAI to study and develop crash-proof material that will be used by manufacturers in their vehicles,” said M R Saraf, deputy director, structural dynamic lab, ARAI.

SIAT is expected see around 1,500 delegates from 25 countries and nearly 215 research papers will be presented over four days. Besides this, 44 keynote papers will be presented by experts from India and abroad. Nearly 40 papers will be presented by academicians and over 190 from industry experts, 20 percent of them being overseas delegates.

Speakers from the top six vehicle manufacturing countries including China, USA, Japan, Germany, South Korea and India will discuss technology options for producing safe, environment friendly and roadworthy vehicles.

The SIAT Expo 2015 will also have 95 automotive and allied manufacturers from across the globe showcasing their products, equipments, innovation and technologies.