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Great Minds Think Light: The Altair Enlighten Award

Celebrating the automotive industry's only award dedicated to lightweighting and sustainability

The Altair Enlighten Award honors the greatest sustainability and lightweighting advancements that successfully reduce carbon footprint, mitigate water and energy consumption, and leverage material reuse and recycling efforts. An award that garners interest from industry, engineering, policymakers, educators, students, and the public alike, the Enlighten Award showcases the latest and greatest technology innovations dedicated to sustainability.

This award is presented annually in conjunction with the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), and was presented this year on September 16, 2025.

Our Timeline

FEB 3

Entries Open

JULY 14

Entries Close

AUG 1

Finalists Announced

SEPT 16

Awards Presented

2025 Award Winners

Click here to download the 2025 Enlighten Award winner summary to learn more about these incredible projects.

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Future of Lightweighting

Winner: Vortex CAE
Enlighten™: A Novel Holistic Topometry Based Optimizer for the Design of Lightweight Crash Structures

Runner-up: Magna
Hemp-PA6 Composite Roof Rack Inner

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Enabling Technology

Winner: CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute B.V.
Adaptive Ultra-Thin Noise Solution

Runner-up: Lucid Motors
Modal Transient Analysis Based Durability CAE Workflow

Honorable Mention: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited
An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements

Module Lightweighting

Winner: Syensqo and Geely
Amodel® PPA Stator Cooling System

Runner-up: American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM)
Modular Lightweight Axle Housing Innovation

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Responsible AI

Winner: Lucid Motors
Predicting Crash Modes with Altair® PhysicsAI™

Runner-up: Lucid Motors
Agentic AI for Engineering Automation

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Sustainable Computing

Winner: Lucid Motors
Design-Driven Structural Assessment to Enable Accelerated Product Development

Runner-up: Mercedes-Benz AG & Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Private Limited
An Automated Sustainable Process for Generating Superelements

Sustainable Process

Winner: Marelli
Adhesive Wastewater Recovery Solution

Runner-up: CITIC Dicastal Co., Ltd.
Key Technology for Integrated Forming of Large Aluminum Alloy Structural Components

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Sustainable Product

Winner: NIO and AkzoNobel
Bottom Plate Coating for Battery Pack to Improve Lifespan During Battery Swap for Electrical Vehicles

Runner-up: Chery Automobile Co., Ltd.
Answering Earth with Low-Carbon Recycled Aluminum

2024 Altair Enlighten Award Winners

Every organization that wins the Enlighten Award joins a distinguished, trailblazing club. Last year's winners - BMW M, Dow Inc., DuPont, WEAVE3D, Toyota, BASF, Syensqo, GM, Teijin Automotive, Bridgestone Americas, CompositeEdge, Bemis, and Carsolia Composites – are among the latest organizations to showcase the future of vehicle lightweighting, sustainability and Responsible Artificial Intelligence.

Click here to download the 2024 Enlighten Award Winners Summary to learn more about these incredible projects.

You can see a complete list of previous winners here.

Past Participants

Our Partners

Highlighting the organizations who help make the Enlighten Award possible.

 

Center for Automotive Research

Center for Automotive Research

AWARD PARTNER

Google Cloud

Google Cloud

AWARD SPONSOR


Auto Bild Japan

Auto Bild Japan

MEDIA PARTNER

Autocar Professional

Autocar Professional

MEDIA PARTNER

AUTO MESSE WEB

AUTO MESSE WEB

MEDIA PARTNER

AUTO MESSE WEB Worldwide

AUTO MESSE WEB Worldwide

MEDIA PARTNER

Automobil Industrie

Automobil Industrie

MEDIA PARTNER

Automotive Engineering SAE

Automotive Engineering SAE

MEDIA PARTNER

Korean Society of Automotive Engineers

Korean Society of Automotive Engineers

MEDIA PARTNER

Tech Briefs

Tech Briefs

MEDIA PARTNER

Our 2025 Judges

Judging is conducted by an independent panel of judges led by CAR. CAR chairs the group of recognized industry experts to select each category’s winning entries.

 

Anant Agarwal
Nissan

Dr. Cristina Alonso Alija
Formerly Bayer

Niko Barach
Google Cloud

Professor Harvey Bell
University of Michigan

Brian Brothers
Altair

 

Vanessa Eriksson
Data & AI Expert

Ryan Gehm
SAE International

Sean Lang
Altair

Sanjiv Mantri
Tata Motors

Dr. Deborah Mielewski
Dione Solutions

Dr. K. Venkatesh Prasad
Center for Automotive Research

Anil Rao
Altair

Rick Watkins
Altair

Sudhi Uppuluri
Siemens