Creating "Engineers Of The Future" Is The Goal Of PTC - Georgia Tech PLM Partnership Program

"Product-First" Project to Provide Real-World Educational Environment and Research into Use of Cutting-Edge Product Lifecycle Management Tools

NEEDHAM, Mass. - July 29, 2002 - PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), the product development companyTM, and the Georgia Institute of Technology today announced a strategic relationship that will accelerate the Institute's efforts to provide engineering students with experiences that simulate the product lifecycle management (PLM) processes used by leading companies to develop superior products.

As part of an initiative to create the "Engineer of the Future," the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, the institute's oldest academic program, will partner with PTC to prepare students at all degree levels with a foundation for career success as practicing engineers. Students will receive exposure to real-world scenarios via PTC and manufacturing-company partners, access to market-leading PLM solutions, enhanced PLM education, and exposure to research on the latest trends and advances in PLM practices.

PTC will also provide key support for a new research initiative within Georgia Tech's world class Manufacturing Research Center. This initiative, Information Technology for Integrating Manufacturing Enterprise Systems (iTIMES), will develop collaborative methods and tools to support information-driven, distributed concurrent engineering processes in a multi-vendor environment. For information on the Manufacturing Research Center, see www.marc.gatech.edu. The iTIMES program will have an overarching impact on the education of mechanical engineering students across multiple specialties at one of the nation's top five engineering colleges (as ranked by U.S. News & World Report). The program's broad mission complements that of the International PLM Competency Center, a single-industry initiative recently undertaken by Georgia Tech's aerospace engineering department.

"Our education initiatives are driven by what the students need to enter the industrial design sector. The concept of a single team at a single location working on a single product doesn't reflect reality," said Robert Fulton, professor of mechanical engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology. "Today, most products are being created by internationally distributed teams, comprised of multiple partner companies who are collaborating concurrently. Therefore, it's imperative that we provide students with exposure to the PLM and IT tools, standards (STEP), and processes that lead in advanced collaboration capabilities. We view PTC as the perfect partner in this effort."

"What is especially noteworthy about this partnership is the impact that it will have on product development and companies for years to come," said John Stuart, senior vice president of education and community relations at PTC. "At the core of every great company are great products which are possible only through world-class product development processes. We see this program as a key enabler of discovering and defining the world's best product development methods."

As part of the "Engineer of the Future" program, PTC's PLM solutions, including its Windchill collaboration and data management and Pro/ENGINEER mechanical computer-aided design software, will be taught in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering's popular Computer-Aided Design course for seniors.

The partnership is the latest in a long association between Georgia Tech and PTC. Georgia Tech has been teaching and using PTC software for more than 10 years and has 500 seat licenses available within the College of Engineering.

The Partnership for Innovative Learning is the educational component of PTC's Product FirstTM initiative, which provides product-focused companies with solutions that are critical to the product development process. The partnership provides colleges and universities with its Pro/DESKTOP� and Pro/ENGINEER� design software, affordable teacher training, instructional materials and other resources.

More than 1,500 institutions of higher education worldwide already are using PTC's Pro/ENGINEER and other software applications in mechanical engineering courses, including the top 30 U.S. engineering programs as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

About The Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, is one of the nation's leading research universities, providing a focused, technologically based education to nearly 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Georgia Tech, located in Atlanta, GA, USA, has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked in the nation's top ten public universities by U.S. News and World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Architecture, Engineering, Sciences, Computing, Management, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 50 interdisciplinary research centers that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to America's government, industry, and business.
http://www.gatech.edu/

About PTC

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC) develops, markets, and supports software solutions that help manufacturers get superior products to market before their competitors. PTC is the world's largest software company with a total commitment to product development. The company services more than 33,000 customers worldwide. Further information on PTC is available at http://www.ptc.com. PTC's Partnership for Innovative Learning is helping educators design an entirely new approach to teaching students how to think, create and collaborate in 3D.

 

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