CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
10 December 2007
Company News
PTC® Named First Collaboration Sponsor for First Robotics Competition (FRC)
PTC announced that it will serve as a FIRST Collaboration Sponsor for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. This important educational initiative was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen and reaches more than 125,000 students in grades K-12 annually. The goal of FIRST is to design accessible, innovative programs for children that build science and technology skills and interests, as well as self confidence, leadership and life skills.
Through this sponsorship, PTC is offering a hosted version of its collaboration solution, Windchill, to be used by FRC teams to improve collaboration among team members, helping teams work faster and smarter during the intense six week build season in the following ways:
• Create Web-based, compartmentalized project portals and easily self administer team access to content -- Project portals enable everyone to track the project schedule, deliverables, status and associated tasks while personalized subscription and notification capabilities, allowing members to be attuned to the latest changes;
• On-line discussion forums enable teams to keep track of conversations between members and decisions made;
• Web-based portal reduces the need for travel and increases responsiveness to issues;
• Document management capabilities allow teams to manage any documents, as well as special purpose capabilities to manage and visualize CAD data -- Visualization capabilities enable all team members to see designs and take measurements, and markup and add comments without access to the CAD application itself;
• Comprehensive project management and execution capabilities, including the ability to define and manage milestones, tasks, deliverables and resources; and,
• FRC project template pre-loaded with "Getting Started" Guide, online tutorials, and FRC schedule.
More than 150 participating teams have already registered to use Windchill to manage their FRC projects. Additionally, all participating teams are offered the opportunity to use PTC Pro/ENGINEER® and Mathcad® schools editions. Pro/ENGINEER is PTC's integrated CAD/CAM/CAE software that helps companies develop detailed, intuitive and realistic digital product representations, as well as related deliverables. Mathcad® is PTC's engineering calculation software that combines a computational engine, accessed through conventional math notation, with a full-featured word processor and graphing tools. Together these solutions comprise the PTC product development system (PDS), a flexible and scalable configuration of PTC solutions, specifically designed and tested together to give companies the key capabilities necessary for successful product development.
"We're excited to welcome PTC as a sponsor for the FIRST Robotics Competition," said Dean Kamen, founder, FIRST. "PTC's software donation allows the teams to work with collaboration technology throughout all phases of the competition. Additionally, sponsorship provides an exciting opportunity for PTC and its employee mentors to make a rewarding investment in our future technology workforce."
Beyond PTC's software and hosting contribution, PTC has launched an outreach program to the broader PTC ecosystem, including employees, PTC/USER, resellers and customers, to encourage individuals to mentor FRC teams in their local area or volunteer at one of 41 regional competitions.
"For over 20 years, PTC has been solely focused on helping the world's leading manufacturing companies bring great products to market. We are a company largely comprised of engineers developing product development solutions used by engineers throughout the world. PTC is committed to advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education initiatives, and we are proud to be the FIRST collaboration sponsor, "said Jim Heppelmann, executive vice president and chief product officer, PTC . "FIRST ignites students with a passion for learning and applying science and technology skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. These students are the engineers, scientists, technologists, mathematicians, and innovators of tomorrow. The synergy between FIRST and PTC is clear and will benefit all participants."
FRC teams are encouraged to visit http://frc.ptc.com/windchill-signup to register for a project team.
About FIRST
Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With the support of many of the world's most well-known companies, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge for high-school students, the FIRST LEGO® League for children 9-14 years old, and the Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds. To learn more about FIRST, go to http://www.usfirst.org/ .
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