PACE real-world competition drives future talent and mobility of 400 students from 40 countries
Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) held its 18th successful year in Toluca, Mexico in July. The PACE partnership between Siemens PLM Software, General Motors (GM), Autodesk, Hewlett Packard, Oracle and other companies supports academic institutions worldwide by integrating design and engineering systems into university curricula. The mission is simple – to establish a formula in which students, faculty, and sponsor companies all contribute to the development of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) team of the future.
The PACE forum’s theme was “Eco Developments – Mobility for all Ages”. Pre-forum, the students took part in a training week where professionals from sponsor organizations led instruction about the latest design, engineering and manufacturing software. Siemens PLM offered NX, Tecnomatix, Teamcenter and Mentor Graphics courses.
PACE began with a welcome activity off-site, as well as keynote presentations, one of which was led by Siemens PLM Mexico leader, Juan Manuel Kuri Vazquez. A major component of the forum included the Personal Urban Mobility Access (PUMA) project, with professionals from sponsor organizations judging categories including design, manufacturing, customer insight and engineering. Many activities took place during the forum, including:
- Training for all students across disciplines
- Keynote presentations by industry leaders about the future of engineering
- A session focused on women in engineering
- The PUMA project competition
- Poster competition
- A tradeshow/HR recruitment event
- Numerous breakout sessions
During the awards ceremony, Jerry Sarfati, strategic academic programs manager, Siemens PLM Software, made closing remarks, along with the director of the Mechatronics Department from Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey and the director of GM’s Toluca Regional Engineering Center. Many teams were acknowledged, with placements of first through third awarded that evening. The overall award winner was Team with students from Politecnico di Torino, Tongi University, Kookmin University and Technische Universitat Darmstadt. The success of the event for Siemens PLM is largely due to the hard work and dedication by the Siemens PLM Mexico team.
The Siemens PLM Software PACE Excellence in PLM Award was presented to Team 5 during the forum. The team was able to demonstrate and communicate the most effective use of NX, Simcenter and Teamcenter software in their vehicles, in support of PACE forum deliverables. Team 5 was able to show how they used NX11 CAD and CAE software to make key design decisions. Their award entry distilled a 200-page PUMA report down to 10 pages in a clear, comprehensive way, which was a deciding factor for the Siemens judges.
The 19th Year of PACE
The industry is under rapid transformation, with sustainability as a key focal point. Next year, the final forum will take place in Detroit, MI. The 19th year promises to be a well-attended event, culminating with the completion of the two-year Personal Urban Mobility Access (PUMA), PACE Global Project.
Over the years, the PACE program and its sponsors have worked with 65 universities worldwide and thousands of students. Read this previous blog post for more information about PACE.
We are committed to increase support for competitions worldwide and are always seeking new opportunities to share our products, vision, and expertise. Do you have competitions you’d like to see Siemens PLM Software participate in? Leave a comment and share your feedback.
