Written by: Arden Jacoby, MAC Communications Manager
For their sponsor collaboration activity, the McMaster EcoCAR team had the opportunity to collaborate with DENSO. DENSO, EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Sustainability-level sponsor, is a global manufacturer of automotive components offering advanced automotive technologies, systems, and products.
The McMaster team had a chance to speak with Richard Kraepel, the Senior Manager of Electrified Systems Engineering at DENSO. In their meeting, the McMaster EcoCAR team outlined what they do on the team, they asked Richard questions about DENSO, and Richard asked the team questions about the EcoCAR Competition.
The meeting was formatted in a podcast-like approach and was recorded virtually with a slideshow so that viewers could follow the discussion along. The goal of the collaboration was to meet with a DENSO representative and talk about the EcoCAR Team, as well as ask the DENSO representative questions. The team would then post the video on their social media pages for other students watch, and the DENSO communications team would post it on their website.
During the meeting, Kraepel touched on the importance of EcoCAR saying, “One of the comments I just wanted to make was the importance of the EcoCAR program. There are four main areas that I see, where EcoCAR has an impact overall. The students get the hands-on experience to see what specific swim lane they like, the students get connections to competition sponsors that are looking to hire in those spaces, the university developed new classes and new facilities for the team, and you guys are doing a lot of good things with community outreach.”
Kraepel also mentioned the importance of showing the younger generation the benefits of the EcoCAR program and getting them interested in the automotive space and the mobility space. He highlighted how he could see how passionate the team is when working in EcoCAR because it means that they have found their interests.
The McMaster team enjoyed collaborating with DENSO and look for future opportunities.
