IEEE and Toyota Recognize Groundbreaking Achievements in Environmental and Safety Technologies with Innovative Award

Toyota Motor Corporation renewed its commitment ensuring the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies Award will be presented through 2030 

Piscataway, N.J. – 7 August 2019 - IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization advancing technology for humanity, recently presented the 2019 IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies, sponsored by Toyota Motor Corporation, to Richard Nute, D. Ray Corson, and Jim Barrick for their contributions to hazard-based safety engineering as the basis for product design and product safety standards development.

The creation of an engineering-based systematic process for predicting how energy flow can cause injury and for developing safeguards to prevent such injury by Nute, Corson, and Barrick has taken safety standards to a new level and resulted in the development of safer products to protect people around the world. Originally developed as an internal course for engineers at Hewlett-Packard, now known as Hazard-Based Safety Engineering (HBSE), it allows for an environment for predicting a safe product design. Nute, Corson, and Barrick went on to teach HBSE to engineers at other companies and around the world.

In 2008, Toyota Motor Corporation and IEEE established this global award with assistance from Professor Fumio Harashima, Professor Hiroyuki Sakai, and 2019 IEEE President-Elect Professor Toshio Fukuda. In 2018, Toyota renewed its commitment through a second US$300,000 gift to the IEEE Foundation Awards Fund, ensuring that the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies Award will be presented through at least 2030.

The award recognizes outstanding worldwide accomplishments in the application of technology that improve the environment and/or public safety. Open to individuals, as well as teams of up to three members, the award covers a wide variety of disciplines including power electronics, intelligent transportation systems, wireless communications, sensor networks control, control and automation, computing, and signal processing.

“One of the Toyota Motor Corporation’s core values has been to focus our research and development efforts on environmental and safety technologies. This philosophy prompted us to work with IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, to create the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies and recognize individuals and organizations that are making a difference, globally,” said Hiroaki Okuchi, President, Advanced R&D and Engineering Company – Toyota Motor Corporation. “Together with IEEE, we look forward to promoting this global movement on sustainability and the successes achieved by each recipient.”

“Toyota’s ongoing commitment to the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies will inspire individuals and organizations to develop innovative technologies to benefit humanity around the world,” said IEEE President José M. F. Moura. “We are pleased to work with Toyota to continue to recognize outstanding contributions in environmental and safety technologies.”  

Criteria considered for the award include: public benefits of the contribution; degree of improvement in important performance metrics; innovative design; development or application engineering; and favorable influence of the contribution on technical professions.

Recipients of the IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies receive a gold medal, a bronze replica, a certificate, and a cash prize. Nominations for the 2021 Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies are due by 15 June 2020. The nomination period opens 1 December 2019. Learn more.

To learn more about this and other IEEE Awards, visit http://www.ieee.org/awards.

About IEEE

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more.