CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

03 November 2004

Company News

ENGINEERING.com Prepares Students for Careers in Product Design With PLM Solutions From IBM and Dassault Systèmes

ENGINEERING.com Inc. an IBM Business Partner, today announced the availability of a specially priced version of IBM's PLM Product Lifecycle Management solutions, for the use of North American colleges and universities through IBM's HEAT (Higher Education and Training) program.

The solution, CATIA V5, an IBM PLM Solution developed by Dassault Systèmes , is the world's leading 3D product-development application. Since 1997, HEAT has provided more than 1,000 colleges and universities around the world with technology and curriculum content to implement CATIA V5 training in both graduate and undergraduate programs.

"While critical, the education a university provides is only 75 percent of what it takes to land a desired position in today's competitive job market," commented James Boyd, undergrad student, Oakland Community College. "Real-world experience and skills in the technology that professional engineers use on the job is invaluable. Programs like IBM's HEAT at Oakland Community College remove some of the pressure in finding a job."

By improving their skills on CATIA V5, students will become proficient in the same 3D application that has designed almost 50 percent of the cars on the road today and practically every large aircraft that has been designed in the last 10 years.

"Similar to students needing to differentiate themselves in the job market, universities, particularly community colleges, need to offer a unique selling point to attract students," said Tahir Khan, Professor, CAD/CAE, Department Chair, Oakland Community College. "Without the assistance of corporations like IBM and Dassault Systèmes, manufacturers would struggle to find experienced, innovative talent fresh out of college."

"Only a fraction of the 2,000 schools offering engineering programs in North America are now part of the HEAT program," said John Hayes, President of ENGINEERING.com. "Together with our partners at IBM and Dassault Systèmes, we plan to rapidly increase this number so that future engineering graduates will be educated using the world's leading design solutions."

"By learning to use IBM's open PLM solutions at the university level, engineering students are guaranteeing that they will be highly employable in the workforce," said Christine Lemyze, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, IBM PLM. "IBM PLM has more than 26,000 customers worldwide, including many small and medium businesses, and is the de facto standard in both the aerospace and the automotive industries. By learning their trade on our products, they are gaining skills that will help them to flourish throughout their careers."

ENGINEERING.com is now the distributor of the educational version of CATIA to colleges and universities in addition to being the distributor of the student version of the same product for North America. ENGINEERING.com is an IBM PLM Business Partner selling IBM PLM Solutions including CATIA and PLM Express.

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