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University of Windsor
The Automotive Research and Development Centre
(ARDC)
(ARDC)
The University of Windsor/DaimlerChrysler Canada Automotive Research and Development Center (ARDC) is the first partnership of its kind between industry and academic in North America. Opened in May 1996, the Center is a major outcome of the Windsor Experiment; a study that examined how partnerships work in other countries. The university owns the building and land and conducts research of interest to the auto industry, while DaimlerChrysler provided the research infrastructure and is responsible for all operations and costs.
The Center, totalling over 226,000 square feet, contains six road test simulator cells, a 23 bay engineering laboratory, component testing facilities, a corrosion analysis lab, a vehicle recycling lab, a large design office, a full scale automotive coating research facility, a lighting research tunnel, and a number of other smaller labs. Total investment since opening in 1996 is over $600 million.
Just over 200 University and DaimlerChrysler researchers, students, engineers and support personnel are employed at the ARDC. Since opening over 100 engineering co-op students have spent their work terms at the site while more than 20 engineering graduate students and post doctoral fellows have conducted research there. The Center is also used by faculty as a real-life classroom for a number of engineering courses. Not only does this partnership provide unique automotive research and development opportunities, it benefits students, faculty and company engineers who work together on a wide variety of projects.