(See Projects story on Magnetorheological Fluid Fan Drive.)

Where are you from originally?
I'm originally from Nigeria. My parents are still there, so I go back to visit every one or two years. That's always fun.

That must be quite different from Michigan ...
Quite a bit different. For one thing, it doesn't get as cold. The coldest temperature that I've experienced there personally - and I thought it was the end of the world - was 55°F. But here, the temperature drops below 0°F occasionally.

Why did you choose to come to the United States to study?
When I was growing up, I heard that the best engineering school in the world was MIT. So it was my dream to go to MIT.

How did you become interested in engineering?
I knew at a young age that I wanted to be an engineer. I just got excited about mechanical things, mostly about airplanes, then about vehicles like cars and motorcycles. I thought it would be great to create these things.

I studied mechanical engineering, because that was what universities in Nigeria offered at the time. We had no aeronautical engineering program - just mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering, the traditional engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineering was just right for me.

What did you focus on at MIT?
I worked on dynamics and control systems. I developed a concept called Set Theoretic Control, which was the focus of my dissertation. The motivation for this concept is that we generally do not know the dynamics of a system accurately - there are always some unknowns. So to do a good job in controlling such systems, the control system must be robust. The method I developed is one way to ensure that the system you are controlling will behave well.

Did you move to GM R&D immediately after graduate school?
No. First I went to a research company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to work on new concepts for a variety of products, including robots, electric-power generating plants and network systems, and steel processing systems. Mostly this was R&D and consulting work, which was quite exciting. The work kept me on the cutting edge of technology and offered me the chance to travel, to interact with individuals in the government and at other companies, to participate in professional organizations, and to publish many technical papers and reports.

However, I always wanted to see my ideas go into products, real things that you can touch and/or feel. So I explored other potential work environments where I could achieve this objective. GMR&D quickly emerged as the ideal candidate: It offered an environment that would allow me to innovate and a natural link to the groups that would take my innovations and turn them into GM products.

What was your first project at GM R&D?
My first project was on vehicle launch control, what we call Starting Clutch Control. This involves using control technology to eliminate an expensive transmission component, the torque converter. That helps make for a lower-cost transmission. This technology also reduces transmission energy losses and therefore improves vehicle fuel economy. Although the concept was too radical to be appreciated at that time, the work we did is now being explored for potential future products.

You're particularly proud of your work in Active Driveline Damping - why is that?
Because it was my first innovation to go into production. Active Driveline Damping improves the driveability of a manual transmission vehicle. With a manual transmission, when you tip-in and tip-out the throttle in first or second gear, the driveline oscillates and translates into a perceptible - and objectionable - back-and-forth vehicle movement, which we call chuggle. This happens because manual transmissions don't have enough driveline damping.

We developed a way to monitor the driveline dynamics and regulate the engine torque output by using spark timing control to cancel out the oscillations. This worked extremely well and did not add any piece cost. It went into production in 1998 on the N-Car. The following year, GM put Active Driveline Damping on all manual transmission vehicles in North America.

What other accomplishments do you consider significant?
Our work developing very low-content multi-speed transmission mechanisms will have an impact in the future. This work has produced several patents already, and we hope that GM will be able to attain leadership and intellectual property control of future multi-speed transmission mechanisms.

What excites you about your research?
I enjoy being able to generate new ideas for research. Having the freedom to come up with innovative ideas, to try new things that others have not thought of, or to identify ways to improve on what others have done - that's very exciting for me.

For me, it's really the ultimate to have my work go into production. Then all the years of effort are worthwhile.

What is a typical day like for you?
I focus on taking time to accomplish all the regular activities and on thinking about what the next project will be - what needs to be done to complete the current project as well as what will make the next difference in the industry.

How do you do that?
Well, you won't find me sitting with my elbow on my knee and my head in my hand. I don't do much of that. I do work things out on paper. I am in agreement with Albert Einstein that problem identification is a major part of the solution. So, mainly, I identify challenging problems, which I see as opportunities, then try to figure out a way to solve them. We are never short of areas that need improvement - in performance, efficiency, cost, convenience, etc. That means there are always opportunities for innovation.

I have a folder in my drawer where I put my ideas. I can't work on everything at once, so there's always something in the drawer that needs to be addressed - fortunately.

What's coming up next?
Right now, we're looking at other applications of the MRF. I'm also interested in the whole area of mechatronic systems. This involves the integration of many different areas - mechanics, electromechanics, electromagnetics, electronics, smart materials, dynamics, and control. The opportunities for mechatronic systems are tremendous, not just in the powertrain arena, but also in other vehicle subsystems.

My other area of interest is advancing the field of dynamics and control, which is my specialty. In particular, I'm interested in control system concepts that are robust to uncertainties in system and environmental parameters, and that require less time to calibrate and validate than current control systems.

What do you do when you're not working?
Have fun. I have a family and I spent a lot of time with my wife and children. I enjoy gardening during spring and summer, riding on roller coasters, listening to music, doing some home improvements, and getting together with friends to debate, chat philosophy, and crack jokes. I also jog, and play tennis and soccer.

Why does Sir Isaac Newton's quote - If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants - resonate with you?
I am most touched by the sense of humility that it reflects for a man who accomplished so much and laid the foundation for the field of dynamics. I think that every one of us benefits from the things that we learn form others: parents, children, teachers, mentors, coaches, friends, colleagues, etc. It's easy for us to look at our own accomplishments and focus on all the great things we've done and forget the people that built the foundation for us to get to where we are.