The global automotive industry faces pressure to reduce fuel consumption and emissions while developing vehicles that are smarter and safer. Consequently, it broadly employs engineering simulation to meet these challenges. So it is with great pleasure that I introduce this year’s final issue of ANSYS Advantage with its focus on trends in the auto industry.

Steering Toward the Future investigates how the automotive industry is re-inventing itself in response to environmental and economic concerns as well as the critical role that simulation plays in the development process.

Fast-Charging Battery Development examines how ANSYS, General Motors and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are collaborating to advance lithium-ion batteries for electric cars via model thermal management.

Cleaning Up features how Magneti Marelli is reducing engine emissions and improving fuel efficiency by modeling the engine cycle through simulation.

Smart Products, Smart Engineering Solutions highlights the recently acquired Esterel Technologies. Its simulation applications provide model-based software development solutions for embedded systems and software. Esterel solutions, in conjunction with ANSYS products, allow ANSYS users to simulate hardware and embedded software simultaneously.

There are a number of other auto-related articles in this ANSYS Advantage issue, and mostly they reinforce that the industry, in its 125-year history, has never seen such a period of rapid, exponential technological change. And that’s one of the reasons that ANSYS is hosting the Automotive Simulation World Congress next week in Detroit. You still have time to register to partake in presentations from industry-leading companies such as Ford, General Motors, Cummins and Volvo, among many others. The ultimate take-away is how engineering simulation is helping theses organizations to realize their product promise — and how it can help your business as well.

Back to ANSYS Advantage. This month’s issue also incorporates subjects outside of the auto industry, from extrusion molding to embedded software to marine applications.

For example, Deep Dive illustrates how ANSYS technologies were used to design the deep-sea submersible that James Cameron piloted to the deepest waters on earth. As you read it, especially take note of the quote from Cameron: “When you are on the dive, you have to trust that the engineering was done right.”

I’ve highlighted only a few of the articles in this issue of the ANSYS Advantage. Be sure to download the full version and catch up on what’s happening in engineering simulation.