INTERCONNECTS

The state of Mississippi and Mississippi State University unveiled a state-of-the art research center designed to reduce product development time, improve efficiency and increase safety in automobiles. The $9 million, 45,000 square-foot Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems will draw on Mississippi State's longstanding expertise in high-performance computing to develop manufacturing methods that yield high-quality vehicles with advanced features, while reducing time to market and production costs. A companion facility, a 23,000-square foot CAVS extension center in Canton, Miss., will officially be dedicated Dec. 15. The Mississippi State-based automotive research program was established in 2001 as part of Mississippi's successful bid to attract Nissan Motor Co. The automobile manufacturer in May rolled its first Quest minivan out at its new 3.5 million square-foot facility at Canton, where the company will employ more than 5,000 and produce more than 400,000 vehicles annually. "This facility, and the engineering extension center in Canton, will significantly expand the state's potential to become the hub of a new automotive development and manufacturing corridor in the Southeast," said Mississippi State University President J. Charles Lee. While there has been an initial partnership with Nissan, both state and university officials emphasized that the CAVS centers have a broad mission of extending technology to a variety of industries. "One of the overarching goals of CAVS is to make Mississippi a competitive player in a global marketplace," said J. Donald Trotter, CAVS director and associate vice president for strategic initiatives. Research efforts at the new facility are focused in three areas: computational manufacturing and design; alternative power systems; and human and systems engineering. Through the center's outreach and extension effort, research will be translated to direct engineering support, on-site educational programs and work force development. Included in the new high-tech center are 5,000 square-foot high-bay laboratories, and 9.000 square-foot laboratories for materials, human factors and alternative power research. CAVS, a research center within the Engineering Research Center, will draw on the ERC's high-performance computing resources. The ERC's computer capabilities place Mississippi State in the top 20 academic institutions nationally in supercomputing power. For more information, see http://www.cavs.msstate.edu/; telephone Dr. Donald Trotter at 662-325-3671.