On May 18, ACE Mobility organized its annual Future Day where this year's theme was "The impact of digital mobility". Speakers from KPN, TomTom, SZTAKI in Hungary and Utrecht University gave an insight from their expertise into the importance and role of digital mobility in their company or organization. The Future Day took place at the Summa College at the Automotive Campus in Helmond; besides the representation of visitors from the automotive industry, automotive students from the Universities of Applied Sciences and vocational education were also present.

The impact of digital mobility

The automotive industry is undergoing major changes in terms of sustainability. Besides electrification, digitalization within mobility also plays a major role. Given the contribution of ACE as the connecting force between education and the automotive industry, the focus during the ACE Mobility Future Day was on the impact of digitization within mobility. Both industry and education came together during the Future Day to gain new insights into the various topics surrounding this subject.

Speakers and round table discussion

Edwin Bussem kicked off the Future Day with a lecture on the challenges that KPN as a telecom provider faces in the area of Smart Mobility. Paul Hesen of TomTom spoke in particular about the development of digital maps for the application of forms of new mobility. Balint Vanek, Senior Research Fellow of SZTAKI from Hungary took the audience into his research on autonomous vehicle systems and told about the test facility ZALAzone that SZTAKI developed in cooperation with the government of Hungary for frequent testing with both autonomous vehicles and aviation applications. Stella Donker gave the audience many new insights with her research on the influence of human behavior in autonomous driving.

The substantive program concluded with a panel discussion in which Joëlle van den Broek (TNO), Frans Tillema (HAN), Chris Hottentot (ANWB) and Bas Geleijns (Fontys) talked about the Netherlands as a pioneer of digitization and the education sector that must continuously renew its programs to keep up with developments.

Networking drinks and mini market for student teams

After an interesting afternoon with many new insights, the guests went to the workplace of students for a network drink. Several student teams were ready to show their innovative projects to the general public. For the companies and organizations this was an excellent opportunity to discuss the future of mobility but also for students to make valuable contacts.