CenTiRe Center for Tire Research, CenTiRe

The College of Engineering at The University of Akron has established a new tire research center with funding from the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) Program. An I/UCRC begins with a small planning grant to form a team and run a Center. If the proposed Center receives a strong support from industry, it can submit a proposal to the NSF describing the team's potential to run a successful center. Two or more universities are required to propose a multi-university Center. Following a successful merit review of the proposal, the NSF grants an initial five-year award. The NSF funding may be extended at for an additional five years, but the total support is limited to ten years. The Center for Tire Research will focus on developing new tire materials, manufacturing, sensing, modeling, simulation, and testing of tires.

The center, known formally as CenTiRe, has two university sites; one is here at the University of Akron and the other is at Virginia Tech (VT). The site director in Akron is Celal Batur, Prof. and Chair of Mechanical Engineering. The site at VT is directed by Saied Taheri, Associate Professor of mechanical engineering.

Currently there are 19 tire and automotive companies financially supporting this center..  The corporate members form an Industrial Advisory Board which meets twice a year. During these meetings the NSF representatives, faculty from both universities and the corporate members jointly decide which projects are relevant to industry and need financial support for that current year. The members’ annual membership fee entitles them to all research results, and priority licensing of patents.

For more updates please visit CenTiRe web site at: www.centire.org