{"348651":{"#nid":"348651","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Report from co-op student helps spur GM safety recall","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENick Sulimirski fell in love with cars when he was 7 years old, repairing them with his dad in the family\u2019s garage.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe bought his first car, a 1990 Jeep Wrangler, when he was just 13. To make the car more powerful, he removed the engine and replaced it with one from a Chevrolet S10 pickup truck.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis relationship with General Motors continues today. The fourth-year engineering major has completed three co-op rotations with GM and will return to the company this summer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe company flew him to Detroit last month to have lunch with CEO Mary Barra and Jeff Boyer, GM\u0027s vice president of global vehicle safety. They recognized Sulimirski for reporting a safety problem he found in his father\u2019s 2004 Cadillac. That report led to the recall of more than 10,000 older Cadillacs in September.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring lunch, the three swapped stories about co-op experiences, Sulimirski said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cI basically got my dream job as a 19-year-old,\u201d said Sulimirski, now 21.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENick noticed the problem with his dad\u2019s car in 2013. The car stalled at highway speeds, had poor fuel economy and smelled of gasoline. The two men traced the problem to an issue with the fuel pump and fixed it themselves.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI thought this was a pretty serious and dangerous problem and felt GM should know about it,\u201d Sulimirski said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know who to report it to.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy the time Sulimirski returned to GM this past summer, the company had launched Speak Up for Safety, a program that recognizes employees for ideas that make vehicles safer, and for speaking up when they notice issues that could affect customer safety. He completed a form through the company\u2019s internal site and received a response the next day.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve been blown away by how quickly they responded,\u201d Sulimirski said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible to see a large company respond this way.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGM started Speak Up for Safety to provide people with an option to openly report issues of concern, spokeswoman Jennie Ecclestone said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Safety is everybody\u0027s responsibility, not just the people who have safety in their title,\u201d she said. \u201cNick really took that mindset to heart and helped raise an issue that we can now fix for our customers.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe callback was the first initiated through Speak up for Safety, and Sulimirski\u2019s involvement has led to national media coverage. Friends joke he\u2019s filling up their Facebook feeds. People stop him on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor his part, Sulimirski doesn\u2019t think he\u2019s different from any other co-op student.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe\u2019ll return to GM this summer for his fourth co-op rotation, working for GM Racing Powertrain. It\u2019s an ideal assignment for Sulimirski, who drives a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe will graduate in 2016 and hopes to return to Detroit. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cI\u2019d love to get a job at GM,\u201d Sulimirski said. \u201cThat would be my absolute dream. I\u2019ve wanted that since I was 7 years old and working in the garage at home with my dad.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Nick Sulimirski working in his \u201cdream job\u201d while still in college thanks to co-op program"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGM recognized\u0026nbsp; Nick Sulimirski, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major, for reporting a safety problem he found in his father\u2019s 2004 Cadillac. That report led to the recall of more than 10,000 older Cadillacs.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech student Nick Sulimirski filed a report that led to the recall of more than 10,000 older Cadillacs."}],"uid":"27918","created_gmt":"2014-11-24 14:30:54","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:34","author":"Laura Diamond","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-11-24T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2014-11-24T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"348491":{"id":"348491","type":"image","title":"Nick Sulimirski with GM executives","body":null,"created":"1449245682","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:14:42","changed":"1475895071","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:11","alt":"Nick Sulimirski with GM executives","file":{"fid":"200990","name":"gmspeakupforsafety02_1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gmspeakupforsafety02_1_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gmspeakupforsafety02_1_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1183377,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gmspeakupforsafety02_1_0.jpg?itok=mzvUHAo7"}}},"media_ids":["348491"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"106361","name":"Business and Economic Development"},{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaura Diamond\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["laura.diamond@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}