Written by: Kyle Wyndham-West
On January 25th, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and cabinet visited the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC) at the end of their three-day retreat in Hamilton, Ontario. During his time, he spoke with many representatives from the McMaster EcoCAR team as well as the Lead Faculty Advisor, Dr. Ali Emadi, about the work McMaster EcoCAR is conducting on the research and implementation of autonomous and energy-efficient solutions, for electric vehicles (EVs).
It was an absolute pleasure for the McMaster team to host such an important and influential figure within Canada and have the opportunity to speak with him directly about the efforts and hard work that students within the EcoCAR team have so fastidiously put in over their tenure within AVTCs. The team had many meaningful discussions with the Prime Minister about their hard work through EcoCAR and how it inspired them to hear his thoughts on the project.
Nilou Keshmiri, the Project Manager of McMaster EcoCAR, stated:
“Prime Minister Trudeau was knowledgeable in EVs and supply chain challenges of rare earth metals. He was extremely engaged, and our presentation became more of a conversation. This visit helped emphasized the importance transportation electrification, including the impact we are making through EcoCAR by aiming to meet the decarbonization needs of the automotive industry by applying automation and connectivity technologies to a state-of-the-art battery electric vehicle platform.”
Prime Minister Trudeau took in the sights of the McMaster High Bay space, the primary work zone for competition vehicles. He attentively and thoughtfully engaged with different areas and components within the evolution of vehicles from EcoCAR 3 and the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge, to the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle Challenge. Having viewed the Chevrolet Blazer and Camaro from the previous EcoCAR challenges, Prime Minister Trudeau complimented the efforts of the team to advance research and promote a brighter and cleaner future.
“We started to talk about why we call it the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre,” said Lead McMaster Faculty Advisor, Dr. Emadi. “This state-of-the-art facility is a resource for industry and our resource to train the next generation of engineers.”
Our team would like to thank Prime Minister Trudeau for taking the time to visit our team and learn about our accomplishments within AVTCs.
