ECU professor receives award from SAE International
An engineering professor and associate dean for research at East Carolina University has received a prestigious award from SAE International, a global association of professionals in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle industries.
Dr. Tarek Abdel-Salam, director of the Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering, has received an award from SAE International. (ECU file photo)
Dr. Tarek Abdel-Salam, the director of the Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering and Technology, has received the 2022 Forest R. McFarland Award for outstanding and notable contributions in support of SAE engineering events.
“This award and the recognition will be a big motivator for me to do more,” Abdel-Salam said.
The award recognizes the outstanding contributions of individuals to SAE engineering events such as meetings, conferences, professional development programs or event operations. It also highlights the dissemination or exchange of technical information at such events.
Abdel-Salam will be recognized at SAE’s World Congress Experience conference April 5-7 in Detroit. That event focuses on issues ranging from the mass deployment of electric vehicles and development of autonomous vehicles to global supply chain constraints that are affecting the automotive industry.
Abdel-Salam is organizing two sessions at the conference. One will focus on experimental and computational work in the area of fuel injection systems and sprays, while the other will look at technologies that have the potential for improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines.
Abdel-Salam is chair of SAE’s Sustainable Programs Development Committee. Some of his research related to SAE includes fuel injection systems, supersonic combustion in scramjet engines and various types of biofuels.
ECU had an active student chapter of SAE before the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of that chapter, students built Baja cars for SAE competition, receiving both technical and financial support from the organization.
“They learned a lot by building the Baja car, like the design, steering, brake and suspension systems of the car,” Abdel-Salam said. “This has great impact on their careers and in finding good jobs.”
SAE has more than 128,000 members and puts a focus on life-long learning and voluntary consensus standards development. It established the Forest R. McFarland Award in 1979 to honor his contributions to the organization as a session organizer, committee chairman and member of the engineering meetings board.