Tuesday, 31 October 2006

Autodesk and Project Form Exclusive Education Partnership

Autodesk has revealed that it will continue to be the exclusive provider of 3D design software for engineering to Project Lead the Way (PLTW) schools for the next five years. Equipped with tools such as Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Revit software products, which are used by engineers, architects and designers, students in more than 1,700 PLTW programs in schools nationwide will have the opportunity to visualise and experience their ideas through model based design projects, the company said.

"Project Lead the Way and Autodesk together have grown an impressive network of schools," said Dick Blais, Vice President of PLTW. "Our formal alliance bodes well for the prospects of further growth for the program."

Student attrition in higher-education science and engineering programs exceeds 50 percent nationally, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. The goal of PLTW is to prepare students to be successful in these programs, resulting in more professional engineers.

"Students who participate in PLTW courses have experience solving engineering problems," said Dr. Gary Ybarra, professor of engineering and Director of Engineering at Duke University. "This allows them to hit the ground running when they enter a college engineering program, so PLTW students are more likely to succeed in higher education."