Course: Developments in Tire Materials Science & Engineering
March 27, 2026; 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET
Location: This course is available virtually only and can be taken from the comfort of your home or office – remotely from any tablet, laptop or computer.
Course Description: This course will provide an overview of challenges tire technologists face over the next five to 10 years. Discussion topics include sustainability, the tire performance envelope including rolling resistance and durability, design and construction, EV tire and the critical role of the innerliner, applied modeling techniques, manufacturing and concluding with a discussion on the changing regulatory environment. The global tire industry continues to be in a growth phase, so awareness of the range of challenges and future needs are of great importance. The course will provide a perspective for the industry with much of the core highlighted technology being equally applicable to the industrial rubber products sector.
Course Content:
- Sustainability
- The Tire Performance Envelope
- EV Tires
- The Innerliner
- Modeling from an Applications Perspective
- Manufacturing
- Regulatory Environment
- Safety
- Tire Design Trends
Price: $395 Members / $495 Non-members / Free for Undergraduate Student Members / $50 for Other Student Members
Instructor: Brendan Rodgers
Bio: Brendan is based in Austin Texas and has spent 42 years working in the tire and rubber industry with both The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and ExxonMobil. Currently, he has a consulting and engineering company based in Austin, Texas. He has worked on a broad range of tire and industrial rubber products including hydraulic hose and conveyor belts, materials technology and product design. Brendan has had work assignments in the United States, China, Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg working on original equipment automobile tires, truck tires, industrial rubber products and new tire materials technologies. He is the originator of a broad range of patents in tire and rubber technology and many industry publications including editor of the text, Rubber Compounding, Chemistry and Applications, and author of the text, Tire Engineering, both published by CRC Press. Brendan has a PhD in chemical engineering from The Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he studied thermodynamics, heat transfer through large rubber sections and vulcanization kinetics. He has a master’s degree in Polymer Technology, also from The Queen’s University and a BSc in Biological Chemistry from The University of Ulster.