SPE Automotive Division seeks parts competitors

Awards for innovations in composites will be presented at ACCE in September.

April 7, 2026

The ACCE Most Innovative Part People's Choice winner in 2025 was submitted by Volkswagen North America and Baylor University. — Volkswagen North America and Baylor University was the People's Choice winner of the ACCE Most Innovative Part last year.

The SPE Automotive Composites Conference & Exhibition (ACCE) is seeking nominations for its annual parts competition. The conference will be held Sept. 9-10 in Novi, Mich.

Any registered conference participant (speaker, sponsor/exhibitor or attendee) may nominate original equipment or aftermarket composite parts on automotive, heavy truck or other transportation applications from anywhere in the world. Prototype parts are also eligible. Companies, organizations and universities are encouraged to participate.

The vehicle producer must give permission and the part must be brought to the SPE ACCE for a formal review by judges.

Five prizes will be awarded, including four for the most innovative production part and prototype part in the Materials Innovation and Process Innovation categories (selected by judges who are industry experts and members of the SPE ACCE planning committee) and one People's Choice award winner (selected by conference attendees).

Abstracts are due July 30 and final writeups are due Aug. 30. Instructions are available at https://speautomotive.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-SPE-ACCE-PartsCompetition-1.pdf.

Part Competition Chairman Leonardo Simon may be reached at [email protected].

ACCE typically draws approximately 450 speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and attendees who work for OEMs, tier suppliers, processing equipment makers; resin, additives, carbon fiber, glass or other reinforcement suppliers and more. For information on ACCE, go to http://speautomotive.com/acce-conference.