PACE's Multi-Million Dollar In-Kind Contribution Increases UBC Students' Educational Velocity
18 November 2003 - 8:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
PACE's Multi-Million Dollar In-Kind Contribution Increases UBC
Students' Educational Velocity VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 18
/PRNewswire/ -- The Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative
Engineering Education (PACE) announced an in-kind contribution with
a commercial value of approximately $240 million to the University
of British Columbia (UBC) today. The in-kind contribution, which
consists of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering
software, hardware, and training, is the largest in UBC's history.
It is also the largest initial contribution that PACE has made to a
Canadian university. PACE is a corporate alliance between General
Motors, EDS, and Sun Microsystems that has worked together since
1999 to support key academic institutions worldwide with
computer-based engineering tools to prepare mechanical designers,
engineers, and analysts with the skills to compete in the future.
Michael Grimaldi, president of General Motors of Canada said, "As a
result of PACE's contribution, UBC Faculty of Applied Science
undergraduate students will have the opportunity to use
state-of-the-art computer-aided engineering tools. PACE partners
are playing a key role in fostering innovation in Canada by
enabling students to work with world-class tools and preparing them
for future success as a designing engineer. A highly skilled
workforce will attract additional high tech jobs and investment,
improving the overall economic outlook for Canada." "UBC is joining
a growing international community of leading institutions
participating in the PACE program," said Stephane Boisvert,
president of Sun Microsystems of Canada. "In today's global
competitive marketplace, it is essential that students have access
to industry-leading resources. The implementation of this computing
infrastructure in UBC's classrooms is the foundation of future
innovation." John Dowd, president of EDS Canada, said, "With this
PACE contribution, students at UBC will learn computer-aided
engineering concepts used in a broad range of industry sectors
through a unique combination of hardware, software, and training.
Most important, students will gain hands-on experience applying
those concepts as they work on real-world industry projects." "EDS
PLM Solutions is providing Unigraphics software, enabling students
to gain experience using computer-based design and analysis tools.
Graduates from the University of British Columbia will be able to
'hit the ground running' when working for future employers in any
sector," said Phil Taylor, president of UGS PLM Solutions Canada
(previously EDS PLM Solutions). UBC has installed a new computing
lab to incorporate the contribution. The lab, which enables
students to design, engineer, and validate products in a virtual
world, opened earlier this year. Dr. Martha Piper, president of UBC
said, "We are proud to join the prestigious group of international
institutions participating in the PACE program. The leading-edge
learning tools will have a significant and lasting impact on
engineering education, and help to position UBC as a source of
highly qualified engineers. This in-kind contribution will expand
our research capabilities and give our students hands-on training
in the most advanced computer-aided design and engineering methods
available today." "The PACE in-kind contribution to the Faculty of
Applied Science at UBC creates a world-class environment that will
allow our future engineers to develop the skills most needed by
industry," said Dr. Michael Isaacson, Dean of the Faculty of
Applied Science. "This represents an important investment that will
bring enormous benefits to the Faculty, the University, and
industry, but most especially to the students." Shirley Bond, B.C.
Minister of Advanced Education, congratulated both UBC and the PACE
partners. "You have found an innovative way to expand research
capacity and new knowledge -- which benefits students, society, and
your organizations. Today's announcement shows what can happen when
industry partners with education to address a common need,
something our government strongly supports." To date, 26 academic
institutions in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and China have
been selected to participate in the PACE program. Twenty-four
institutions, including UBC, have formally been announced. The
value of contributions to date is close to $3 billion in total with
almost $460 million donated to institutions in Canada* (UBC,
Dalhousie University, the University of Toronto, the University of
Waterloo, and Queen's University). Canadian universities involved
may also further leverage the PACE contribution through application
to federal and provincial matching fund programs. *Note: all
figures are in Canadian dollars More information about GM of Canada
can be found at: http://www.gmcanada.com/ More information about
Sun Microsystems can be found at: http://www.sun.com/ More
information about EDS can be found at: http://www.eds.com/
Unigraphics is a registered trademark of EDS or its subsidiaries in
the United States and in other countries. More information about
UBC can be found at: http://www.ubc.ca/ More information about PACE
can be found at: http://www.pacepartners.org/ DATASOURCE: General
Motors Corporation CONTACT: Michelle Cook of UBC, +1-604-822-2048,
; Pam McLaughlin of General Motors of Canada Limited,
+1-905-644-2728, ; Shirley Horvat of Sun Microsystems of Canada
Inc., +1-905-513-4856, ; Stephen Heckbert of EDS Canada,
+1-613-787-4664, ; Phil Taylor of UGS PLM Solutions - Canada,
+1-905-212-4513, Web site: http://media.gm.com/ http://www.gm.com/
http://www.gmcanada.com/ http://www.sun.com/ http://www.eds.com/
http://www.ubc.ca/ http://www.pacepartners.org/
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