UMass Amherst Center for e-Design Receives In-Kind Software Grant from Siemens PLM Software

AMHERST, Mass.  – The University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for e-Design in the College of Engineering has received an in-kind software grant from Siemens PLM Software, a leading global provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services. The gift has a commercial value of nearly $2.3 million. The grant was provided by Siemens PLM Software’s Global Opportunities in PLM, a program that delivers PLM technology to more than one million students yearly at more than 11,000 global institutions, where it is used at every academic level – from grade schools to graduate engineering research programs.

The grant includes Teamcenter software, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management system, and NX software, a leading integrated solution for computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE).

The UMass Amherst Center for e-Design is a National Science Foundation supported Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, whose mission is to serve as a nucleus of excellence for the creation and dissemination of a systematic body of knowledge in intelligent e-design and product realization.  

By using the software in their classrooms, UMass Amherst students will work with the same technology that leading global companies and professional engineers around the world depend on every day. This, in turn, enables students to become heavily recruited graduates in the industry.

“The UMass Amherst College of Engineering is most grateful to Siemens PLM Software for this generous grant of advanced engineering software, as it enables our students to better prepare for successful engineering careers,” says Theodore E. Djaferis, dean of the College of Engineering. “By using this technology in the Center for e-Design, our students will now be working with the same tools used by industry experts and gaining important real-world experience during their studies.”

Bill Boswell, senior director, partner strategy, Siemens PLM Software, says, “Partnering with the Center for e-Design once again is certainly a benefit for us because it enables us to have a part in tomorrow’s innovations and work with top design talent. As product complexity continues to grow, students who are able to use PLM technology can expect to be highly recruited upon graduation. UMass Amherst is educating the next generation of engineers and to be part of that effort enables us to support the country’s endeavors to revitalize manufacturing.” 

The grant continues a long association between the Center for e-Design and Vistagy, Inc., which was purchased in the fall of 2011 by Siemens PLM Software and is now the company’s specialized engineering software business segment. In 2009-10, Vistagy, a company co-founded by UMass Amherst alumni Steve Luby and Ralph Verrilli, granted software licenses for the company’s Fibersim portfolio that is used for composites engineering, a very sophisticated and specific piece of software which is integrated into popular 3D (CAD) systems.

“This ongoing partnership with Siemens PLM Software is going to help our center move forward,” says Sundar Krishnamurty, professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and site director of the Center for e-Design. “It’s also going to allow us to extend our work to a multitude of platforms, which is exactly what we were looking for when we started the center. This generous grant from Siemens gives us a unique opportunity to showcase the design framework we are developing and build relationships with technology developers like Siemens PLM Software and technology end users, such as the customers of Raytheon. It also enables us to showcase our work to the eight universities that are members of the Center for e-Design plus about 30 industrial partners we work with frequently.”