SAE – The “Society of Automotive Engineers”
A Universe of Automotive Societies
Automobile design, manufacturing, maintenance, and disposal historically account for about 4% of the Gross Domestic Product of the US. Contemporary acknowledgement of the significance of the “Car Business” is well documented in a 2003 report to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. Since the Car Business is such big business there are many very important professional societies involved with transportation. This post will provide some relevant background that may be of interest to the Automotive Tribune reader so that you can consider beneficial or educational affiliation.
Society of Automotive Engineers – SAE
SAE is the professional society for transportation engineers involved in space, aviation, highway, off-highway, and marine transportation. SAE membership is around 80,000 worldwide from all of the disciplines and professions that are involved in automotives professionally. Not all members of SAE are Engineers but all members are Professionals. A good historical background is found on the SAE web site and here are a couple of significant paragraphs from that text.
In the early 1900s there were dozens of automobile manufacturers in the United States, and many more worldwide. Many of these manufacturers and automobile parts companies joined trade groups that met their needs for promoting business and raising public awareness of this new form of transportation. A need for patent protection, common technical design problems, and the development of engineering standards was quickly emerging, however, and many engineers in the automobile business expressed a desire to have “free exchange of ideas” in order to expand their individual technical knowledge base.
By 1916 the Society of Automobile Engineers membership had grown to 1,800. At the annual meeting that year representatives from the American Society of Aeronautic Engineers, the Society of Tractor Engineers, as well as representatives from the power boating industry made a pitch to SAE for oversight of technical standards in their industries. Aeronautics was a fledgling industry at that time, and few could have been expected to know the essential role it would take in world history in a very short time. Early supporters of the concept of a society to represent aeronautical engineers were Thomas Edison, Glenn Curtiss, Glenn Martin, and Orville Wright.
Out of that fateful meeting in 1916 came a new organization with new horizons. This was to be a new society representing engineers in all types of mobility-related professions. SAE member Elmer Sperry actually created the term “automotive” from Greek autos (self), and Latin motivus (of motion) origins to represent any form of self powered vehicle. The Society of Automobile Engineers became the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the most important chapter in the SAE saga was underway.
SAE International
There is a great deal of activity in SAE and this post, in no way, addresses all of the educational activities to international relationships. However, if you are interested in a professional level of interaction then spend some time researching the SAE Web Site.
