Honda will serve as the host company for the SAE International 2015 World Congress & Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, April 21-23, 2015. Erik Berkman, executive vice president of Honda North America and general chairman of this year's World Congress, will share a series of blog posts leading up to the event.

If innovation is the heart of Honda, racing is our soul. And a critical aspect of winning any race is to be ready at the starting line in order to get off to a great start.

I can't think of a better way to start this year's World Congress than welcoming a futurist, inventor and dynamic speaker like Ray Kurzweil to deliver our opening keynote address.

Mr. Kurzweil is a director of engineering at Google, leading an effort to develop machine intelligence and natural language understanding.  More than that he is an inventor, a world-renowned futurist and one of the leading experts on artificial intelligence in the world. Mr. Kurzweil has predicted that during the first half of this century computer intelligence will overtake human intelligence. His is truly a world of unconventional possibilities.

Daring to explore unconventional ideas in order to break through existing boundaries is a course that was established for our company by our founder, Soichiro Honda. It is a path that has led us to compete on the world's most challenging motorcycle and auto racing circuits … to build our products in America … to advance automobile powertrain technology … and to explore new forms of mobility, including an advanced light jet and humanoid robotics.

Pushing through existing boundaries is what will be required to fulfill our 2015 theme of Leading Mobility Innovation. To inspire us to meet this challenge and get our SAE 2015 World Congress off to a rousing start we are excited to feature Ray Kurzweil's inventive spirit in the opening keynote address.

The start of our race is approaching – let's all be ready at the starting line for a great Congress!