Alan Luo
The Detroit Chinese Engineers Association (DCEA) successfully organized its 2003 technical conference at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) in Southfield on April 5. As a major sponsor of the event, the President of LTU - Dr. Charles Chambers personally delivered the welcome speech to the audience. A "Technical Overview" presentation session and a "China Experience" panel discussion session were offered for this year's conference. Both sessions were well received by roomful audience of about 100 people. The lunch keynote speech was given by Mr. Ping Lee, Director - Advanced Product Finance and CFO of DaimlerChrysler's Beijing Jeep Operation. During the lunch session, "Ford Future Engineer" Award was given to Jack Chao of the University of Michigan and "DCEA Outstanding High School Student"Awards were given to Christopher Tien and Yicheng Chen of Troy, for their extraordinary performance in academic and extra-curriculum activities.
The technical session in the morning started with Dr. Yucong Wang of GM on the topic of GM Collaboration program with universities in China. The collaboration aimed at utilizing high calibre research resources in China in wide range of engineering areas such as triboloty, fabrication, tire-rolling simulation systems etc. Such a program enhances GM's global competitive advantage and is a central part of GM's goal of increasing China's/global market share. The next two presentations were both on automotive materials but with a strong contrast on the materials of favor - steel vs aluminum. J.P. McGuire of US Steel presented the continuous innovation in steel material such as dual phase steel and TRIP (Transformation Induced Plasticity) steel and their implementations in automotive structures in terms of reducing weight and maintaining strength etc. Dr. Alan Luo of GM R&D presented data showing increased usage of aluminum, magnesium and other non-steel materials in automobiles in the past decade. He also explained the advantages offered by those materials. Both presenters agreed that material selection is highly application dependent, and involves consideration of a long list of technical and non-technical factors - strength, elongation performance, weight, cost, manufacturbility, short and long term souring strategy of a firm, government policies/tariff etc. The next two presentations were more on implementing technical capabilities for business development. Jie Du of PIN - Power Information Network (affiliate of J.D. Power) presented re-marketing used vehicles across the country for automotive OEMs and dealers through collecting and processing related data on customers, vehicles, transactions and dealers. Jie Song of On-Star (an affiliate of GM) presented telematics industry development and On-Star. Several factors helped On-Star to meet its break-even schedule - investment and volume commitment from GM, timing as well as being the first mover, and focus on basic needs of customers such as safety.
The "China Experience" session started with presentations from a panel of four and then followed with Q&A. The four presenters are: Dr. Hongxing Hu (currently at Panasonic), Dr. Xiaohong (Qiu) Gayden of GM, Dr. Yucong Wang (GM) and Dr. Lee Liu (representing DCBA). Dr. Hu and Dr. Qiu were expatriates sent by their companies to work in China and they had stayed there with their whole families for 5 and 4 years, respectively. Dr. Wang traveled to China extensively for his company's joint program with China. Dr. Liu is the president of DCBA (Detroit Chinese Business Association). He has established close contact with Chinese Automotive OEMs and suppliers through organizing events such as the spectacular "Chinese Supplier Exhibition" in Troy last year. Overall, their "China Experience" was very positive, which can be characterized as great challenge, great experience and great opportunity (Dr. Hu), and a way of exploring your own potential (Dr. Qiu). Decisions about working in China and decisions about going back to the US are highly dependent on individual situations, and are always tough to make. But the panelists were very open with their own experiences and insight, and made good suggestions to the audience such as work-life balance, communication and being adaptive. Career and private life should be balanced. This is especially true for working as expatriates in China where stress level is high and working hours are way beyond 9-5. Extensive communication is needed, not only with Chinese business partners, colleagues, customers, but also with other international offices of the company, and of course with the home organization in the US. Being adaptive is requirement for international assignment to any country - China has no exception because it changes so rapidly. On the other hand, the expatriates inevitably face a limit of aging and increasing family needs when children are grown up. The panel discussion captured all the attention of the audience. The audience had so many questions that they continued to talk with the panel presenters even after the formal session was over.
Two of the audience emailed DCEA later on expressing their deep appreciation of the event. This event is a result of great effort from DCEA board: Dr. Alan Luo (president and conference chair), Shengdong Liu (board member and technical committee chair), Kingman Yee (treasurer and site coordinator), Jie Du (past president), Mingfeng Shi (vice president), Hua He (secretary), Hong Yuan (board member), Connie Yao (board member), Winston Cheng (board member), Lifeng Xu (board member) and Tai Chan (advisor).
DECA would like to thank GM and Ford for their sponsorship of this event, and would invite more engineers in the metro Detroit area to learn about the organization (www.detroitengineer.org) and join the organization.