Sino-French PLM Innovation Center Officially Opened in China

Beijing, China, December 6, 2005 - The official opening ceremony took place today of the new Product Lifecycle Management Innovation Center (PLMIC) at the prestigious Tsinghua University. Attended by Chinese and French dignitaries and representatives from the three partners in the project ─ the French AIP-PRIMECA network, Dassault Systèmes (DS) and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) ─ the ceremony embodied the spirit of cooperation which has brought about this international venture, destined to accelerate PLM innovation in China.

 

The new center, with its state-of-the-art PLM solutions from DS, the latest workstation technology from HP and the teaching support of AIP-PRIMECA, a group of French engineering schools, will give students a world-class education using the very latest PLM applications and providing the best environment for PLM research projects.

 

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) revolutionizes the way companies design and develop their industrial products by offering a 3D vision of the entire product lifecycle, from initial design to maintenance. By teaching PLM to students of all engineering disciplines at Tsinghua and hosting PLM research projects in collaboration with manufacturing industries, the PLMIC will become a source of innovation, contributing to the growth of Chinese industry and enabling it to take a leading position in R&D as well as manufacturing.

 

Gu Binlin, President of Tsinghua University, stated, "The PLMIC will be a center of excellence, giving all our departments access to the very latest PLM technologies. This valuable educational cooperation between France and China in the engineering discipline will give our students a great advantage, increasing their skills and their eventual potential in industry. We are delighted to be partnered by these distinguished and forward-thinking organizations in this project."

 

The center will implement DS's industry-leading V5 PLM software solutions - CATIA, ENOVIA, SMARTEAM and DELMIA - on workstations sponsored by HP. Delivering cost-effective computational and visualization power, HP workstations were chosen to meet the demands of a highly-productive IT engineering environment.

 

"Dassault Systèmes is proud to be part of an initiative that enhances both young people’s education and the future of the Chinese industry," noted Francis Bernard, Executive Committee Advisor and Board Member, Dassault Systèmes. "The design process is where innovation typically takes place, and PLM can give engineering firms a real competitive advantage in today's market."

 

As a founding member of the Sino-French PLM Innovation Center at Tsinghua University, HP's industry leading workstation technology is empowering the next generation of Tsinghua graduates with the skills required to meet the challenges of an increasingly globalized, dynamic and fast-changing engineering industry. This effort, in collaboration with long-time partner Dassault Systèmes, is part of HP's ongoing investments and long-term commitment to the Chinese market.

 

AIP-PRIMECA, a network of French engineering schools (which includes, notably, INPG, ENS Cachan, ENSAM and the Ecole Centrale de Nantes), was entrusted by the French Ministry of Education, who set up this center with the afore-mentioned partners, with the mission of ensuring that the students receive a world-class education in PLM, and will staff the center with a Co-Director and visiting professors.

 

"To be successful in design engineering today, we need to be able to exchange information and collaborate with colleagues anywhere in the world," said Professor Daniel Coutellier, Director of the AIP-PRIMECA Network. "This center creates a new international opportunity. It is envisioned the course offering will expand, and may lead to joint French-Chinese diplomas." Tsinghua University and AIP-PRIMECA's initial educational cooperation will be on developing four training modules in Integrated Design and Manufacturing in Mechanical Engineering, to be taught by the French professors sent over on exchange.