Lasers & Sources

Student designers partner with Visteon, OSRAM on future automotive lighting concepts

Dec. 21, 2011

Detroit, MI--As part of the College for Creative Studies' (CCS's) ongoing Corporate Sponsorship program, 18 CCS Transportation Design seniors researched areas of innovation focused on the development of new exterior automotive lighting and styling concepts with representatives from Visteon and OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

Student designers at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) collaborated with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and Visteon to research and develop new LED-based designs for exterior automotive lighting and styling concepts.

Detroit, MI--As part of the College for Creative Studies' (CCS's) ongoing Corporate Sponsorship program, 18 CCS Transportation Design seniors researched areas of innovation focused on the development of new exterior automotive lighting and styling concepts with representatives from Visteon (Chennai, India) and OSRAM Opto Semiconductors (Regensburg, Germany). These projects have opportunities presented by OSRAM's LED technology and Visteon's application knowledge.

Mark West, chairman of the Transportation Design Department at CCS, says that partnering with automotive suppliers enables their students to understand all the elements that must be taken into account when creating outstanding designs. The school has been training students in a new area of design development and new LED lighting technology for global vehicles, he adds.

CCS began partnering with Visteon in 2002. This year's project also included a major role by OSRAM, with whom CCS has been partnering since 2010. Students are benefiting from firsthand accounts and hands-on direction by Visteon and OSRAM designers and engineers.

LED lighting has emerged as an automotive industry breakthrough technology, overcoming design barriers in both aesthetics and safety, says Mike Martens, product marketing manager for OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.

Some of the preliminary work from the students demonstrates that the partnership is leading students to think out of the box and to design in a way that brings both aesthetics and functionality to this new generation of automotive forward lighting. The class wrapped in December with a formal presentation of the students' projects. The winning students are:

1st Place: Alexander Mcgowen, 21 (Houston, TX);
2nd Place: Jae Han Song, 23 (Seoul, Korea); and
3rd Place: Dexter Carrie, 23 (Toronto, ON, Canada).

The final student designs will be displayed at multiple locations in 2012, including Visteon and CCS.

For more information about CCS's Corporate Sponsorships, please visit www.collegeforcreativestudies.edu/corporate.

-----