When it comes to cars, Carnegie Mellon University is in the fast lane.

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CMU is polishing its reputation with the automotive industry through its work in automobile-related research, the strength of its engineering and other course offerings and the soon-to-be-unveiled 2005 Ford Mustang. The madeover nameplate was designed by a team of engineers and designers who graduated from CMU.

CMU's biggest selling points to the auto industry are its interdisciplinary curriculum, the learning atmosphere and the broad outlook of students and faculty. It's also benefiting from the convergence of one of its academic strengths -- information technology -- and the rapid development of on-board computers, navigation systems and other technology in today's automobiles.

"The future of the automobile is going to be dominated by information technology, and CMU is the premier place in that field," said Pradeep Khosla, dean of the College of Engineering.

It helps, say former CMU students, that cooperation and teamwork were key components of their education. "I learned ... the value of collaboration," said Amy Ng, a 1999 CMU graduate and a product and design engineer with Ford.

"Here at Ford everything is fast-paced, and you have to be flexible. You have to know and work with people from finance, design, engineering and other fields as well," she said. "And there are experts in each field here that will help you grasp and understand what they are doing. If you do your part and collaborate, you can create a fine product."

Ng got her first taste of the breadth of CMU's curriculum when she first saw the school, she recalled with a laugh. During her visit, a young man came up to her on bended knee and offered her a rose.

"It turned out that some students from drama were dong impromptus as part of their training," she said. "At CMU, everybody crosses one another, and their interests vary widely. An engineer may have a double major that includes studying tuba, for instance."

Barb Samardzich, executive director of Ford's small, front-, and rear-wheel-drive vehicles, agrees that such a balance between theory and practice works well in his industry.

"Some schools go heavily on theory and do not want to get their hands dirty, while others are practical. But I wouldn't be a good engineer without that strong theoretical base I got at CMU."

Samardzich received her master's degree in mechanical engineering from CMU and a master's in engineering management from Wayne State University. She has held positions in powertrain engineering, as chief engineer for commercial trucks, quality director for Ford products in Europe and chief engineer for Ford's automatic transmission operations.

Ng now helps recruit students for Ford on the CMU campus, and Samardzich is corporate sponsor for CMU with Ford. At CMU, Ford also has sponsored design programs, been involved in a new environmental policy program set up laboratories with the mechanical engineering department. Ford executives regularly talks with the faculty, Ng added.

The school will get a chance to celebrate the Mustang team's work on Thursday when the team and the car will be showcased along with other new Ford products on the quadrangle. CMU graduate Hau Thai-Tang, chief engineer for the new Mustang, also will meet with students and faculty and talk to them about skills needed in today's automotive industry.

The types of auto-related projects at the university is extensive, including work with Penn State on microscale fuel cells powered by methanol and the General Motors Collaborative Laboratory that's seeking to develop the next generation of vehicle information technology, known as telematics. GM last year committed $8 million over five years to the so-called "smart car" research, which aims to understand a driver's preferences and adjust the car's responses based on that and on external information such as road and weather conditions available over the Internet.

Meanwhile, some engineering students have designed and built cars to compete against other colleges in Society of Automotive Engineers-sponsored Formula races for university students, said John Wiss, adjunct professor at CMU and a faculty adviser to the SAE student chapter. A similar competition has been held using off-road vehicles designed by students, he said.

CMU hopes to further step-up its auto-related activities by pushing into engine technology and new materials, Khosla said. "The perception of us by the outside world is that we are prominent in information technology. But what I would like to see us do in the future is develop other aspects of the automobile."