Engineering students prepare for the next generation of design at Designcenter NX Student Day 2025 | Webinar recap
Students, educators and industry came together to prepare for the next generation of design and engineering at the annual Designcenter NX Student Day 4-hour webinar on Wednesday, October 22. They all got to hear from student peers and leaders, industry engineers, a career coach and Siemens Designcenter NX experts. Plus, live webinar participants got a free voucher for the NX Design Associate certification exam, an industry-recognized credential proving competence in Designcenter NX software. With four hours of content, you don’t want to miss this webinar, now available on-demand. Here’s a brief recap of the event with just a few of our favorite highlights.
Designcenter NX Student Day kickoff
We kicked off Designcenter NX Student Day 2025 with an introduction to Designcenter NX and the Designcenter portfolio–the most comprehensive software suite for product development. With Designcenter NX software used in thousands of companies from startup to enterprise, all over the world, we wanted to highlight what makes this student event so special and what our software is used for.
Job search strategies and tips from a University of Cincinnati career coach
Our first guest speaker was Kate Durso, an Assistant Professor and Co-Op Advisor from University of Cincinnati. Kate presented tips for cross-cutting skills, your job search portfolio (your resume and LinkedIn profile), networking and elevator pitches, interviewing and making a great impression. We also had a very informative 15-minute Q&A session that you don’t want to miss in the on-demand, with questions from eager engineering students on how to best impress in the internship and full-time job application process.
An early career engineer’s journey with Designcenter NX from university to industry
Next up, we had Harshil Jain, an HV Battery Design Engineer at Stellantis. Harshil studied Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU), where they teach Designcenter NX software as part of the curriculum. He talked about his story from MSU to Stellantis–starting in New Delhi, India to Auburn Hills, Michigan. Harshil gave us details about his choice to study mechanical engineering and his experiences with Designcenter NX at MSU: first in the classroom and with projects, then at the NASA L’Space Program, then within his internships at Orb Aerospace and LG Energy Solutions, then at the 2023 Siemens Realize LIVE Design Hack, and finally now in his career at Stellantis. He wrapped up his presentation with his lessons learned with the software and advice for future engineers. “[Designcenter] NX was the bridge between my classroom at Michigan State and my design desk at Stellantis. Through every challenge, it reminded me that great engineering starts with a great mindset,” he concluded.
Academic resources for Designcenter NX software
Next up, Mollie Gladden from Siemens Digital Industries Software shared the academic resources we have available for Designcenter NX. Whether you are learning CAD for the first time or trying to learn a new specific workflow, we have resources and guides for you from online learning platforms, to videos, to certification courses to textbooks. You can learn more about our academic program on our website, or if you’re a student, you can check out student-specific resources for building the skills you need to stand out in industry. And of course, the NX Student Edition with CAD and CAM tools is always available for free to download.
How digitalization and immersive design improve engineering workflows for Polipol’s furniture design
Then, Valeri Siemens, Head of Product Development and Digital Transformation Lead from Polipol joined us with his colleague, Milan Rust, Project Manager, Product Development to talk about the importance of digital transformation and Immersive Engineering . Polipol is a producer of high-quality, upholstered furniture based in Germany. They began their presentation introducing Polipol, their core values and the industry challenges of growing diversity, rising complexity and cross-location collaboration. These challenges led them to realize they needed a digital shift, which started their digital transformation journey.
To kick off their discussion about digital transformation, they first talked about the importance of the digital twin, why it’s needed, the benefits of digitalization and why they are choosing immersive technologies and XR to improve their digital engineering processes.
Lessons from the Siemens Immersive Design Challenge with a 2025 winner from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Next up was Suavi Yildirim, a Graduate Research Assistant at the Institute FAPS, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, where he is pursuing his M.Sc. in Autonomous Technologies. Suavi was part of Team NextCycle, the winning team from the 2025 Siemens Immersive Design Challenge, a global challenge that asked students to imagine how they can use Immersive Engineering and Designcenter NX software to make a product or solution more sustainable. Suavi presented on what Immersive Engineering is, his team’s winning project– “BatteryTwin-XR: Transforming the Factory Layout Design for Efficient EV Battery Recycling”, capabilities within Designcenter NX Immersive Designer and then opened up for Q&A. He showed us the purpose of his team’s project and how they used immersive design to align with the EU Battery Passport for sustainability. For the software capabilities, he showed us how his team utilized 3D immersive design, virtual part manipulation, section view and measurement, mechatronics concept design and immersive collaboration within Designcenter NX.
Introducing the 2026 Siemens Immersive Design Challenge
If you’re interested in the Siemens Immersive Design Challenge, the 2025-2026 challenge is open for Round 1 submissions from Novemeber 5, 2025 to January 26, 2026. For Round 1, you and your team will describe and submit an idea for your project. If you move forward to Round 2, you will prototype your idea using Designcenter X NX Academic Edition. If you move forward as a finalist, you will then do physical and virtual training with Siemens experts to prepare for the online final in May, and winners will be invited to final showcase at Realize LIVE 2026 in June, sharing a global stage alongside Siemens experts and industry leaders.
Learn more about the benefits joining the Immersive Design Challenge, details, prizes and more and register now.
Designcenter NX tips and tricks: AI and immersive
We concluded Designcenter NX Student Day with a tips and tricks session from Jimmy Costello, Designcenter NX Customer Success Marketing Co-op at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Jimmy first re-introduced us to Designcenter and what Designcenter NX software is capable of, and then gave us a brief overview of the four strategic pillars that drive the Siemens Xcelerator platform’s evolution: artificial intelligence, the cloud, digital threads and the Industrial Metaverse. In his tips and tricks session, Jimmy focused in on two of those four pillars, AI-enabled design and Immersive Engineering.
In the category of AI, Jimmy showed us overviews and demos of Copilot for Designcenter X NX as well as geometric similarity technologies that enhance and speed up engineering workflows such as Select Similar Faces and Select Similar Edges. Then for Immersive Engineering, he showed the power of Designcenter NX immersive capabilities such as Immersive Explorer, Immersive Designer and Designcenter X NX Immersive Collaborator with live updates. He concludes with reminding us all about the Tips & Tricks series that is available here on our blog, and you can also find all of our videos on YouTube.
We had a info-packed Designcenter NX Student Day 2025 and had a great time connecting with students, educators, industry engineers and Siemens experts throughout the live webinar. It was great to interact with everyone in the chat and throughout each speaker’s Q&A. Check out the on-demand sessions now to make sure you don’t miss out on all the valuable insights that provide you with a digital skillset and digital mindset to prepare for industry.
