Continuing with its mission to provide opportunities for business and engineering students to develop real world engineering and product/process development skills, PTC today announced it is working with the Florida Institute of Technology to offer its students the same industry technology used by 27,000 PTC global manufacturing customers to design and develop sophisticated products.
PTC will donate PTC Windchill® software for PLM process requirements and PTC Creo® software for CAD design to provide an environment for students to design, test and simulate the entire lifecycle associated with bringing new products to market. The PTC donation will form the core of the Florida Institute of Technology’s Center for Lifecycle and Innovation Management and will be integrated into its management information systems curriculum. The university will provide projects for students to complete, giving them an opportunity to understand and implement best-practices in an actual design, production and management environment.
“Florida Tech’s goal is to be one of the 10 most respected private technological universities in the world,” said Anthony J. Catanese, President and CEO, Florida Institute of Technology. “Delivering this type of quality program to students helps them prepare for business and engineering careers with companies located along the Space Coast as well as around the globe.”
The Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce indicates there will be 2.4 million jobs created in STEM fields in the U.S. by 2018. The need for more graduates in science, technology, engineering and math is felt by many global manufacturers, which makes it critical that universities like Florida Tech are successful in building a qualified work force to fill the pipeline with graduates capable of entering an increasingly technical work world.
In addition to donating software to the university, PTC is providing 20 scholarships for students that want to develop expertise in PTC Creo and PTC Windchill business and system administration.
“The global design process adopted by many manufacturers requires an understanding of Product Lifecycle Management and is a necessary skill for graduating students,” said John Stuart, senior vice president, global education, PTC. “Manufacturers want people that understand all aspects of product design to help them make smarter decisions to build better products. PTC is glad to work with the Florida Institute of Technology to integrate world-class technology into its curriculum to achieve that goal.”
Florida Tech is an international leader in education annually serving more than 16,000 students through its Melbourne campus, extended studies sites across the country and online programs. In 2013, Florida Tech was recognized as one of the top 200 universities in the world by the Times Higher Education of London. The university has been named the third-fastest-growing private nonprofit research institution in the United States by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Florida Tech is also annually ranked a Tier One Best National University by U.S. News & World Report.
