Clemson Corporate Connections
The Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) group within the Office of Development at Clemson University is dedicated to building and maintaining long-term relationships that benefit your company as well as the University and its students. The Corporate Connections newsletter is a quick update on some of these partnerships.
People
In January 2012, Zoran Filipi joined Clemson’s faculty as the Timken Endowed Chair in Vehicle System Design at Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). He came to CU-ICAR from the University of Michigan, where he was the director of the Center for Engineering Excellence through Hybrid Technology and the deputy director of the Automotive Research Center, a U.S. Army Center of Excellence for modeling and simulation of ground vehicles.
Filipi received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Belgrade in 1992 and joined the University of Michigan in 1994. His main research interests are alternative and hybrid powertrain systems, advanced IC engine concepts and energy for transportation.
Dr. Filipi is the recipient of the SAE Forest R. McFarland Award, the IMechE Donald Julius Groen Award, and the U of M Research Faculty Achievement Award. He is an SAE Fellow and a member of the SAE Executive Committee for Powertrains, SAE Fuels and Lubricants Activity, the Editor-in-Chief of the SAE Journal of Alternative Powertrains, and the Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power.
Partnerships
OFS Laboratories is teaming with Clemson University’s Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies (COMSET) to create fiber optics research space in Clemson’s Advanced Materials Research Laboratory. The area will be known as the OFS Laboratories Optics Industry Lab.
“COMSET’s Industrial Partners Program recognizes our most generous industrial partners as their investments help sustain our innovation and workforce development activities,” said John Ballato, COMSET director. “We are especially grateful to OFS Laboratories as an inaugural industrial partner and recognize their commitment to our vision through this naming.”
“OFS Laboratories is excited to be working with the talent at Clemson’s COMSET labs and contributing to the academic environment that fosters innovation and new researchers in the optical field,” said David DiGiovanni, chief technology officer for OFS.
The OFS Laboratories gift enables COMSET to further its mission as a global leader in innovative teaching and research, Ballato said. Find out more about COMSET.
Events
Trustees from the Abney Foundation enjoyed a reception with President and Mrs. Barker and the Clemson University Abney Foundation scholarship recipients on October 24, 2012. David King, Carl Edwards and Lebrena Campbell represented the Abney Foundation. Barker and King awarded each student a certificate and a lapel pin in honor of their selection as an Abney Scholar.
Since 1975, the Abney Foundation has awarded deserving students at Clemson University the scholarships they need to help make the cost of higher education more affordable. In the almost 40 years since support began, the Abney Foundation has provided 3,148 scholarships to Clemson students totaling almost $4.4 million. During the 2012-13 academic year, 96 Abney Scholars will receive over $157,000 in scholarships.
These students come from across the state of South Carolina and represent a wide range of studies. Every year the Abney Foundation trustees and the Abney Scholars enjoy an on-campus reception to give the students an opportunity to say thank you to those who provide important funds for their educations.