Brake Academy Turns 1

By: Mohammad Vakili

As I ready myself in front of the computer to write, my wife walks into the apartment with one of the grandchildren in tow. They do their things without paying any attention to me but not without her asking me what I am doing. “Writing about anniversary”, I simply responded…

After two years of research and collaboration with my colleagues from both academia and the mobility industry, I launched Brake Academy one year ago on October 15, 2021. Our mission has remained educational while at the same time encouraging individual companies to participate in the Brake Academy Suppliers Forum. The Suppliers Forum introduces companies’ products and services and helps keep the lights on at the Brake Academy. All our participants such as Asbury, IAG, KMI, Link Engineering, PFC, NRS, and Wolverine have had exposure to our global audience and their support is much appreciated.

On the Brake Academy Blog, the last year we had some interesting interviews with Industry Icons such as Roy Link of Link Group, Olaf Pokorny of IAG, Larry Pavey of Federated, Mary Ann Burgoon of PFC, and Chris Mason of FISITA. Each of these individuals generously shared their lifelong professional and at times personal experiences with our audience. I learned a lot from each conversation. I am grateful to each and everyone of these very busy people to have set aside time to answer my questions.

We also published several educational articles on topics such as the future of friction brakes, regenerating brakes, brake cooling, NVH simulation, copper in brake pads, brake emissions, vehicle v-max and brake systems, different strategies to control brake NVH, the role of AMECA in the brake industry, EV/ICE and California 2035, and a pragmatic approach to braking. At times members or non-members of the Brake Academy voiced their rebuttal to some of the published articles in a form of blog of their own. We published those too.

After each blog or interview we publish, I receive numerous calls, emails, text messages from colleagues around the world expressing opinions or questions about the subject matter. At Brake Academy we made it easy for our readers/viewers to simply press “Comment” and express themselves. It could be done by identifying yourself or anonymously. Yet, more people chose to reach out to me directly rather than go to the website and comment. The entire idea behind writing these blogs or showing interviews is to create a dialogue between our audience and the author online. You are still welcome to call/text/email me but there is nothing like sharing your thoughts with the other professionals.

My wife staring at me waiting to see when I finish my writing about anniversary so we can start dinner. I announced that my one-year anniversary writing is finished. She said I thought it was 54!

Mohammad Vakili has been in the Friction related technology for over four decades. He holds a BS and MS in Chemical Engineering from U. Mass. He is the Founder and one of the instructors in Brake Academy. www.brakeacademy.org