Dassault Systèmes Partners with Convergence Education Foundation to Provide Software to Students

DELMIA and CATIA to be Used in Electric Vehicle Competition

Auburn Hills, MI., USA, April 30, 2008 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has announced an academic partnership with the Convergence Education Foundation (CEF), a coalition of automotive and electronics industrialists and educators, whereby the teams participating in the CEF’s 2008 Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) competition have access to DS’s solutions. The 12 participating high school teams have 20 seats of software, consisting of CATIA for digital product design, and DELMIA for definition of the manufacturing processes, inclusive of teacher and student training.

“We are excited that we can offer such sophisticated tools to our students for this competition,” said CEF Vice Chairman and Executive Orchestrator Karl Klimek.  “The goal of the Innovative Vehicle Design competition is to showcase creative thinking and engineering in vehicle design. Use of Dassault Systèmes’ software will make a huge impact on our student’s ability to be innovative and try different design scenarios within the time constraints of this program.”

This second IVD competition has student teams from Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan designing and producing a fully-driveable, single person, electric-powered vehicle that must operate for 60 minutes on a closed course in early October 2008. Each team is charged with a slightly different project goal in order to better encourage innovation. To help with the project, schools work with sponsors and mentors from the automotive industry. Awards are presented in numerous categories with all of the vehicles being showcased at the Convergence® 2008 Conference and Exhibition from October 20-22 at Cobo Center in Detroit. 

“There is really no car-building program utilizing Dassault Systèmes’s DELMIA and CATIA software at the high school level in the U.S.,” said Roy Smolky, worldwide sales operations services & support, DELMIA, Dassault Systèmes. “We are totally supportive of the CEF’s vision and efforts to get students involved in the excitement of vehicle design at this early stage of their education.  With every automotive OEM using Dassault Systèmes’ solutions, we are providing students with skill sets that give them a jump-start on pursuing an engineering degree or directly entering the workforce.”

Mr. Klimek added that the plan is to continue to grow the use of Dassault Systèmes solutions each year, with a goal of 20 teams participating in the automotive competition in 2009-2010.  The tools will be made available to other CEF project teams, including Mini-IVD Racing, based on the redesign of a 1/8 scale radio-controlled monster truck, and an Underwater-IVD. An aero IVD and Lunar Vehicle IVD design competition will be unveiled in the near future.

The DELMIA Academic Partner Program provides career awareness and preparation by offering educational institutions—ranging from elementary schools to universities—academic partnerships that include special licensing, purchase arrangements, and sharable resources. DELMIA currently has 70 North American academic partners, including institutions such as Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, Penn State, Purdue, Wayne State, Ohio Northern, Kettering University and the University of Alabama-Huntsville.