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As the company providing Executive Leadership for the SAE 2015 World Congress & Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, April 21-23, Honda and its partners are providing a series of brief updates leading up to the event. The following is a blog post from James R. Keller, who serves as senior manager and chief engineer of Honda R&D Americas, Inc.

Next week over 11,000 engineers are expected to descend on the newly-renovated Cobo Center in Detroit as the 2015 SAE World Congress gets underway from April 21st through April 23rd. Honda will serve as the host company and we've worked with our Tier One Strategic Partner Continental to create a solid plan. Under the overall theme of "Leading Mobility Innovation" our basic aim as the company providing Executive Leadership to the Congress is to truly inspire everyone who comes to the event—from seasoned industry veterans and up-and-coming young professionals, to grade school students participating in the STEM activities at the World Congress.

With 2015 dubbed the "Year of Honda", it is a great opportunity to show the breadth and depth of Honda's products and technologies. We will bring life to the World Congress theme, Leading Mobility Innovation, and demonstrate to the industry what it means for Honda. We will have pinnacle Honda products and technologies on display from all across our total lineup. The HondaJet, NSX, ASIMO, UNI-CUB, Walking Assist Device and the RC213V MotoGP motorcycle will be showcased in the all-new Mobility Atrium space. On the main exhibit floor, we will display the new Fuel Cell Vehicle, the Acura TLX, a BF-250 outboard engine, the Pioneer 700-4 and the HF118 GE HondaJet engine. Along with our IndyCar competitor, Chevrolet, we will display a Honda IndyCar in the lobby area to promote the connection between racing and engineering. It is going to be outstanding! We are excited to bring such a variety of products and so many interesting technologies together at one time in support of this event.

One of the core aspects of the World Congress is to gather engineers together to exchange important technical information. That is something that will not change. However, the ways in which engineers interact, and their expectations, continue to evolve. Large events like the SAE World Congress must change with the times to remain relevant. So, with our partner Continental, we came up with a new concept to bring engineers together for 2015. The "Tech Hub" is a new venue and a new format that will cover a wide variety of topics and interests for SAE World Congress attendees. Think of it like a series of short, high-impact presentations about cool and relevant topics, similar to TED Talks, but for industry-related topics, like lightweighting, cyber security, 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality. There will even be a presentation from a NASA engineer who 'drives' the Mars Rover! Honda last hosted the World Congress in 2009, and just as we did then, we are taking a clean sheet approach to our host role. We have worked hard to add new value and move the event forward. I firmly believe that our team's efforts will make a lasting impact on this event.

And, when it comes to sharing new technical discoveries, many engineers choose SAE as a platform to present technical papers publicly. There is a high level of pride and accomplishment that comes from writing a technical paper and presenting it in front of one's peers. I think we all can be very proud that we have set a new benchmark as a host company with more than 100 technical papers submitted this year! In addition to technical papers, we will have several top-level Honda speakers, including Frank Paluch, president of Honda R&D Americas, Inc., who will outline a future vision for Honda mobility, marking the end of the event on Thursday evening.

We are working with everyone at SAE International to help make this year's World Congress an outstanding event. Leading a major industry event like this takes a great deal of commitment and support by not only the team working directly on this event, but also our leadership and management. I would like to sincerely thank all members of the Honda SAE World Congress planning team for their efforts over the past two years. We've had great support and I am confident all of the efforts and long days will pay off. I look forward to seeing many colleagues and peers at the SAE World Congress next week.