ME alum elected to top engineers group

Syed M. Shahed (16K JPG)

A mechanical engineering alumnus has been elected president of one of the automobile industry's most prestigious organizations. Syed M. Shahed (MS ME '69, PhD ME '70) was sworn in as the 2002 president of the Society of Automotive Engineers at the society's annual World Congress meeting in March in Detroit. The meeting is the world's largest automotive technology conference and exhibition. SAE is an international organization of more than 80,000 automotive engineers and practitioners.

Shahed serves as vice president of advanced products and systems for Garrett Engine Boosting Systems, a unit of Honeywell, Inc. based in Torrance, California. A native of India, Shahed came to UW-Madison after obtaining his bachelor's degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India. He earned his master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1969, and his PhD the following year. While studying at the university, he met his wife, Asha, who was studying horticulture and biochemistry.

Shahed's work has focused on developing environmentally benign transportation power systems. He has done research on understanding how pollutants form in diesel engines, and worked on better systems for emissions and improving fuel efficiency through advanced fuel-injection and charge-air boosting and cooling systems.

He began his career teaching at the University of California-Berkeley, then spent 20 years with Cummins Engine Company, moving from senior engineer to executive director. He later worked at the Southwest Research Institute, and since 1995 has been a vice president at Garrett Engine Boosting Systems.

In a recent article of Automotive Engineering International magazine, Shahed said two of the biggest influences on his career were Department of Mechanical Engineering Emeritus Professors Phillip Myers and Otto Uyehara. Their early encouragement of his engineering career was one step, but a crucial one, in his ascendancy to the presidency of SAE. "The single experience that stands out is how good people have been," Shahed said.