The engineering schools of University College Dublin (UCD) and Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT) have acquired 3D computer-aided design product development software to cover 500 students at a time estimated to be worth more than €10m commercially, siliconrepublic.com has learned.
The institutions purchased the mechanical design software of Nasdaq-listed PTC through the company’s Irish reseller and system integrator Honeycomb Solutions. The licenses will give undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and staff unrestricted access to the full suite of PTC’s Pro/Engineer software.
The Pro/Engineer software is regarded as the system of choice for most of the top universities in Ireland and many of the graduates go on to exercise their skills in major technology multinationals. For example, University of Limerick (UL) won the worldwide PTC/user education award in 2004 and in 2003 industrial design firm Design Partners won the PTC user award for its Xbox game controller, which was designed using the software.
“We have high expectations following our decision to standardise on Pro/Engineer,” says Dr William Smith, lecturer at UCD. “We were looking to replace our old SDRC I-DEAS software with a modern, powerful system that offered a totally integrated environment from concept to manufacturing.”
Honeycomb Solutions has also deployed the software at UL, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, Blanchardstown IT, Athlone IT, Tralee IT, Cork IT and Letterkenny IT.
Owen Sinnot, lecturer at ITT said: “We have a need for a powerful CAD system that will allow us to teach students how to seamlessly integrate the design process from concept through analysis and prototype to production in a concurrent engineering environment. We believe that Pro/Engineer will fulfill this need for us.”
According to Dr Gavin Quinlan, director and co-owner of Honeycomb Solutions, Ireland now has 12 third-level institutions that use the software as their CAD teaching tool of choice.
“With colleges and universities fostering future design and engineering talent, Honeycomb Solutions is focused on assisting Irish manufacturing companies to leverage this talent to build sustainable competitive advantage for Irish industry in the global marketplace,” Quinlan said.
By John Kennedy
