General Motors

General Motors and SAE International have teamed up to provide K–college students with stimulating, hands-on STEM educational opportunities guided by industry experts. These programs aim to inspire curiosity in STEM education and ultimately transform today’s students into tomorrow’s engineers. By partnering with the SAE Foundation, General Motors aligns its business needs with an organization dedicated to the development of the future workforce.

The development of the AWIM Fuel Cell, Gravity CruiserMaking Music, Programming Each Other and Cybersecurity: Keeping Our Networks Secure Challenges are the direct result of GM’s support and funding. Equally valuable, GM continues to maintain a strong AWIM volunteer base with over 1,900 GM volunteers volunteering in local schools annually. Distribution and resource development for all AWIM curricula focus on GM communities, especially in southeast Michigan, Phoenix and Austin, and teacher and volunteer training for employees, retirees and teachers has increased in these areas.

In 2017, GM expanded its relationship with SAE to fund a new teacher professional development (PD) model for AWIM. This includes a full Learning Management System (LMS) integration for online/on-demand teacher PD in cybersecurity, project management and engineering design. This platform will be the first of its kind to fully accredit K–8 teachers in these disciplines through a teacher credentialing system.

In addition to early education, GM supports college-level students through the SAE Collegiate Design Series. The AutoDrive Challenge™ is part of SAE’s Collegiate Design Series, a diverse collection of engineering competitions including Aero Design, Clean Snowmobile Challenge, Formula SAE, Formula Electric, Baja SAE and Supermileage. In 2017, GM and SAE launched a three-year autonomous vehicle design competition, with the technical goal of navigating an urban driving course in an automated driving mode (related to the SAE J3016 Level 4 Automated Driving standard). A total of 474 students, from eight North American universities, are participating in the AutoDrive Challenge, and GM has provided each team with a Chevrolet Bolt EV as the vehicle platform.

Learn more about the GM Foundation’s long-standing partnership with the SAE Foundation and their unwavering commitment to STEM education.