Automotive News Canada - August 2020 - 18

* AUGUST 2020

Her vision: Safe and easy
transportation for all

Protecting
Canada's
'critical role'

ASAL NAHIDI

Vehicle dynamics controls lead
engineer, General Motors Canada

BRIAN KINGSTON

CEO, Canadian Vehicle
Manufacturers Association

CHOSEN BECAUSE:

CHOSEN BECAUSE:
A new continental trade deal.
Warp-speed technical change. An
economy-rocking pandemic. Brian
Kingston, newly minted head of the
Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers
Association, is eager to take on the
challenge.
"I frankly can't wait to get started," said Kingston, 36, who in August
replaced the retiring Mark Nantais,
the longtime face of the trade group
representing the Detroit Three in
Canada.
Kingston, based in Ottawa, wants
regular engagement with the politicians and government officials whose
decisions on topics from regulation to
investment incentives are key to the
health of Canada's auto industry.
An economist, Kingston has been
immersed in auto-sector issues,
and especially trade, through previous roles as vice-president of the
Canadian Business Council and policy analyst with federal government
departments.
Among his first priorities: seeing through the implementation of
the United States-Mexico-Canada
Agreement and ensuring that Canada
"continues to play a critical role

in the overall North American
auto-supply chain."

lll

IN HIS OWN WORDS:
"Given the overwhelming contribution that auto and auto parts make
to our GDP, it seems to me to be a pivotal time for the industry, and this is
a pivotal role. ... I'm looking forward
to getting into auto issues at a very
deep level."

Extraordinary
times call for
extraordinary
people.
Congratulations Diana on being
named one of Automotive News'
"Canadians To Watch".

Just one of Asal Nahidi's
goals as a vehicle engineer?
"To see that a blind person
can travel by himself or herself
without any inconvenience
or safety concerns, hopefully
within the next few years."
Talk about aiming high.
But consider that in just two
years at the General Motors
Canadian Technical Centre
in Markham, Ont., Nahidi has
filed 15 patents in the ultra-complex field of vehicle controls systems and is working on 14 more.
Nahidi, 32, came to Canada
from Iran to earn a Ph.D at the
University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Her next stop might have been GM's
Michigan research centre, but the
U.S. travel ban on Iranian citizens
meant instead a position with GM
Canada.
She's moving toward Canadian
citizenship and is "so happy for this
opportunity."
The best parts of her job, she says,
are working on complex problems
- physics and mathematics are her
passions - and interacting with GM
teams on advances that for the young
engineer can never be too far-reaching.

lll

TADA.ca

"Never give up on your dreams
no matter who you are or where you
are right now. I personally never
imagined having a Ph.D from a topranked Canadian university and
working on world-class engineering for GM Canada. And as a female
engineer, I would also say never let
that male-dominated industry make
you question your capabilities and
confidence."

Helping lead mobility push
SHERIN ABDELHAMID

Technical adviser, automotive and mobility innovation,
Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network at the Ontario
Centres of Excellence

CHOSEN BECAUSE:
The Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) is an
important component of Ontario's leadership push in mobility technology, and Sherin Abdelhamid finds
herself at the centre of it.
Abdelhamid, 35, came from Egypt
in 2010 to earn her Ph.D at Queen's
University's School of Computing in
Toronto, joining AVIN in 2018 as a technical adviser for automotive and mobility innovation.
"This basically involves leading and
managing all aspects related to the
technical consultancy, research and
development," said Abdelhamid, who
was an adjunct professor at Queen's
after graduating.
AVIN publishes quarterly public
reports on its website to raise awareness
and supplies data and analysis to government and industry. Abdelhamid is especially
proud of developing AVIN's data index, which provides a central location for sharing relevant datasets to support
the research, development and testing of products and solutions
for future mobility technologies, such as connected and autonomous vehicles.

IN HER OWN WORDS:
Diana Alexandra Conte
Marketing Manager, TADA

IN HER OWN WORDS:

lll

"These mobility technologies are going to revamp how people
and goods move. It's the way toward reaching vision zero, which is
basically the target of having zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injury. So, the impact is huge."

http://www.TADA.ca

Automotive News Canada - August 2020

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