NEEDHAM, Mass., Feb. 7 – Continuing with its mission to provide engineering students the opportunity build product development and engineering skills, PTC today announced it is working with Case Western Reserve University and NASA Glenn Research Center to support the Strategic Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (SPACE) initiative.

SPACE brings together global leaders in product development and partners them with colleges of engineering and business to catalyze new partnerships in product development education and research. The partnership will encourage industry and academic collaboration, create meaningful project experiences and foster cross-educational programs focused on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) education.

“The educational community needs to get students interested and then maintain that interest for engineering and technical careers,” said Dr. Michael Grieves, PLM author and expert and a consultant to NASA. “Students that get involved with meaningful projects and the software tools to enable those projects earlier in their education are better equipped to utilize that knowledge in their careers. These are the people who will utilize digital technologies to create, manufacture and get to market the next generation of products.”

"Case Western Reserve prides itself on giving our students an education that combines both theory and practical applications in an integrative curriculum," said Dr. Iwan Alexander, chair of university's department of aerospace and mechanical engineering. "The ability to work with PTC and NASA's Glenn Research Center will help make Case students more attractive to employers because of the opportunity to apply the skills they acquired in design- and manufacturing-related classes to actual problems in the aerospace sector."

PTC will donate PTC Windchill software for PLM requirements and PTC Creo software for CAD design along with computer hardware servers to provide an environment for students to design, test and simulate new products. The PTC donation will form the core of Case Western’s new Product Lifecycle Management Center of Excellence and will be integrated into its Engineering curriculum. Case Western University and NASA’s Glenn Research Center will work together to provide projects for the students to complete, giving them an opportunity to understand and implement best-practices in an actual design and production environment.

“Engineering jobs have changed. The globalization of the design process, increased product complexity and increased regulatory pressure has meant that an understanding of PLM or the importance of collaboration has become a necessary skill for graduates,” said John Stuart, senior vice president, education, PTC. “PTC is committed to supporting individuals and institutions dedicated to delivering a modern product development education.”

The Windchill Academic Platform is administered and maintained jointly by PTC and Case Western Reserve University and offers an on demand, pre-configured, easy to deploy PLM instance for Universities across North America. The platform includes access to PTC Windchill ProjectLink, PTC Windchill PDMLink and PTC Windchill RequirementsLink and will also include a two day professional development program for instructors. This secure web-based platform enables the opportunity to integrate PLM concepts into an existing curricula, capture mechanical engineering data, collaborate across student teams and give students insight into a modern product development environment as used by 27,000 of the world’s leading product development companies.

About PTC

PTC enables manufacturers to achieve sustained product and service advantage. The company’s technology solutions help customers transform the way they create and service products across the entire product lifecycle – from conception and design to sourcing and service. Founded in 1985, PTC employs over 6,000 professionals serving more than 27,000 businesses in rapidly-evolving, globally distributed manufacturing industries worldwide.

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Source: PTC