Mississippi State University Selects Delmia Corp. as Academic Partner for Automotive Manufacturing

The Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems aims to dramatically reduce vehicle development time

Auburn Hills, Mich., March 26, 2003 - Delmia Corp., a Dassault Systèmes company (Nasdaq: DASTY: Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), today announced the creation of an educational partnership with Mississippi State University (Starkville, Miss.) through which it will provide the university’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) with 100 seats of DELMIA Solutions.

CAVS will be utilizing an extensive array of DELMIA’s digital manufacturing solutions. This will deliver an end-to-end manufacturing solution, with the tools to plan, define, analyze and optimize all areas of the manufacturing process.

DELMIA tools will enable CAVS to pursue its mandate of developing methodologies to reduce automotive product development time, increasing safety and energy efficiency, and studying human factors related to automotive systems. The addition of DELMIA to the center’s existing CATIA® base will also help students to digitally develop and optimize products from early design throughout the production planning phrase.

“The primary goal of CAVS is to dramatically reduce vehicle product development time -- by as much as a half,” said Roy Smolky, DELMIA Academic Partner Program coordinator. “DELMIA will help students and researchers achieve this objective with digital tools for design and analysis of virtual products and virtual manufacturing. This is Delmia Corp.’s largest educational deployment to date and we are excited to participate in a project of this large scope.”

“CAVS wants to develop a closed loop design and training system that is continually evolving,” said Zach Rowland, CAVS manager of Productions Systems and Human Engineering. “We are equipping students with the digital tools they need to enter the modern workforce. In addition, we plan to capture and use the information created during the design process of the product and manufacturing facility to generate content that will be used in training the workforce at every level.”

“For example, modeling of operations is very intuitive with QUEST®, DELMIA’s digital 3D plant simulation environment,” said Rowland. “Users can view each plant workstation individually in the 3D environment. By linking information through a single, common database (the Product, Process, Resource (PPR) hub) and advanced learning management systems, cell operators can see and learn the process, engineers can analyze ergonomic issues, and production managers study system performance. This feedback provides the ability to improve the entire system.”

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CAVS was established at Mississippi State in 2001 with the support of the State of Mississippi to enhance the interaction of the state with the automotive manufacturing community. Two facilities are under construction, a research unit at the Mississippi State University campus and an extension and education operation near the Nissan facility in Canton, MS. Both are targeted for occupancy in August 2003.