Japan-Based Professor and Engineer to Receive SAE Award for Research

WARRENDALE, Pa., March 19, 2008 - Matatoshi Shimoda and Jiro Tsuji are the recipients of SAE International's Colwell Merit Award. They will be honored during the SAE 2008 World Congress Award Ceremony held April 15, 5-7:30 p.m., at Cobo Center in Detroit.

The Colwell Merit Award, established in 1965, annually recognizes the authors of outstanding papers presented at an SAE conference or SAE section meeting. The late Arch T. Colwell, who first funded this award, served SAE International in many capacities for nearly 50 years, including a term as President in 1941.

This award is funded through the SAE Foundation. In addition to supporting the awards, recognition and scholarship programs of SAE International, the SAE Foundation develops and funds programs and incentives that foster student interest in engineering, scientific and technical education.

Shimoda and Tsuji will be recognized for co-authoring, "Non-parametric Shape Optimization Method for Rigidity Design of Automotive Sheet Metal Structures" (SAE paper #2006-01-0584). The paper presents a shape optimization method for the rigidity design of sheet metal structures under multiple loading conditions.

Matatoshi Shimoda
Shimoda is an associate professor in the mechanical design engineering department at Shonan Institute of Technology in Japan. His research focuses on the field of structural optimization, particularly the shape optimization of shell structures, which are used as the base of many structures, including automobiles and aircraft. Previously, he worked at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation as a CAE and structural engineer.

Shimoda has been honored with an outstanding technical paper award from the Japanese Society of Automotive Engineers (JSAE). He is a member of JSAE, the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Japan Society for Design Engineering, the Japan Society for Computational Engineering and Science, the Society for Science on Form and the International Association for Computational Mechanics.

Shimoda holds a master's in energy engineering and a doctorate in engineering from the Toyohashi University of Technology.

Jiro Tsuji
Tsuji is a project engineer working on body and chassis strength analysis at Mitsubishi Automotive Engineering Co., Ltd., in Japan.

For more information about SAE International's Arch T. Colwell Award, please contact pr@sae.org.