This year’s GM PACE Annual Forum was attended by 220 students and 85 professors from 50 universities and 12 different countries in addition to 90 executives and employees from relevant industries. Hosted by the GM Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (GM PACE), the GM PACE 2015 Annual Forum was held at the University of São Paulo, in São Paulo, Brazil, from July 27 to 31, 2015. 

At the automobile design related competitions held during the forum, the KMU team won numerous awards. The team comprised students from the Department of Automotive Design-Planning-Software Convergence,  Automotive Engineering (AE, 27 persons), School of Automotive & Transportation Design (TD, 7 persons), Department of Automotive and IT Convergence (AIT, 4 persons), School of Mechanical Systems Engineering (ME, 3 persons), Graduate School of Automotive Engineering (GAE, 2 Specialists), and Graduate School of Physical Education (PE 7 persons). 

GM PACE is hosted by the world’s largest automobile group, GM, and PACE, or Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education. The PACE program provides automobile design and engineering software for educational purposes to 65 universities from 12 countries, and students are trained under the PACE program to gain the skills necessary to enter the automobile engineering industry. Students form teams and are given 2 years to solve a particular automobile related problem as part of the Global Project. They also participate in the Collaboration and Innovation Challenge (CIC), which is held at the Annual Forum, where they can present new ideas and implement projects on an annual basis.   

This year’s Global Project was titled “Reconfigurable Shared-Used Mobility System (RSMS).” The 46 participating universities were divided into 8 teams and the KMU team of twelve students—consisting of TD: 6; AE: 4; AIT: 2; team leader: Joonho Shin; presenter: Taewoon Cheun; advisors: Professor In Ho Song (TD) and Professor Woongchul Choi (AE)—was part of Team 4, along with Tongji University and four other universities. The KMU team played a core role in the automobile design aspect of their challenge and made a key contribution to Team 4, which was awarded Best Exterior Design Concept and second place in Manufacturing Engineering.

Among the 12 teams participating in the CIC Project competition, the Passenger Car with Easy Access (PACE-Access) Team won First Prize—with a total of 25 students; AE: 7; AIT: 1, TD: 2; ME: 2; specialists: 2; PE: 7; Sungkyunkwan Univ. Systems Management Engineering: 4; team leader: Nakwon Sung; presenter: Jaeseok Yu; advisors: Professor Sang Hun Lee (AIT), Professor In Ho Song (TD), Professor KiKwang Lee (PE), and Professor Sang Do Noh (Sungkyunkwan Univ.). 

The Modular Urban Driving System with Docking Mechanism (MUDS with Dock) Team came third—with a total of 11 students; AE: 8; TD: 2; ME: 1; team leader: Sejoon Choi; presenter: Juyoung Park; advisors: Professor Seang Wock Lee (AE), Professor In Ho Song (TD), and Professor Heung-Kyu Kim (AE). 

The GM PACE 2016 Annual Forum is scheduled to be held at the University of Cincinnati in the United States.