$169 Million In-kind Contribution is Largest Ever Received by UTEP

The University of Texas at El Paso has received an in-kind contribution of software, hardware and training with a commercial value of $169 million from General Motors, EDS, Sun Microsystems, and UGS, which have selected UTEP as the newest member of the companies’ prestigious engineering-education partnership.

Officials from the four companies announced the multi-million dollar gift—the largest in-kind contribution in university history—during an event-filled visit to the UTEP campus today.

The companies selected UTEP to Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE), a worldwide program established in 1999 that prepares students at selected universities for careers in automotive engineering.

“The university is honored to be selected as a PACE institution, and we are excited about the opportunities that these software tools will create for our students and faculty,” said UTEP President Diana Natalicio. “The PACE partners are world leaders in design and engineering. We are extremely pleased that these major corporations recognize the strength of our programs and understand the value of investing in the education of UTEP’s talented engineering students.”

Roderick D. Gillum, GM’s vice president of Corporate Responsibility and Diversity, and officials from other PACE corporations toured UTEP’s engineering laboratories today, visiting with students and faculty.

“General Motors is delighted to invest in tomorrow’s engineers by being part of the PACE program,” Gillum said. “In today’s world, especially in the automotive industry, employees are required to have a firm grasp of computer-based design and analysis tools; GM is proud to be able to help students gain that expertise.”

The corporations selected UTEP as a PACE institution because of the university’s strength in design, engineering and manufacturing curriculum, and its experience and interest in collaborative research and product development.

The PACE donation includes desktop computers and servers, specialized computer-aided design, manufacturing and engineering software, and faculty training.

“Our students will now have access to all of the tools that working professionals have when they do design of very complicated devices,” said Professor Louis Everett of UTEP’s Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. “And we are not limited to only doing design of automobiles. We can allow our students to use the software do design anything that they desire.”

The PACE software, including NX™, Teamcenter®, Tecnomatix and MSC.Adams®, will be used primarily by engineering students and faculty. These powerful modeling and simulation tools will allow students to design projects ranging from more efficient factories to simulated automobile crash tests to the flow of blood through artificial heart valves.

Additional software and training provided by the PACE contribution includes Altair® Hyperworks®, FLUENT®, LS-DYNA™ software from LSTC. Computer workstations from EDS refurbished by Hewlett Packard were also contributed through PACE.

UTEP joins other universities in the United States, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University of Michigan and Brigham Young University as PACE Institutions.

PACE Institutions around the world include universities in China, Germany, Sweden and Mexico.

For more information about PACE, visit www.pacepartners.org

For more UTEP news and information, visit www.utep.edu/horizons

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The University of Texas at El Paso is a major urban research university with a Mexican-American majority student population. UTEP serves more than 18,900 students and is one of only 11 higher education institutions across the nation to receive the “Teachers for a New Era” grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

Media Contacts:
Brandy Merritt, GM
Phone: 586-492-6495
E-mail: brandy.merritt@gm.com

Larry Harrison, EDS
Phone: 313-230-5903
E-mail: larry.harrison@eds.com

Melissa Pereira, Sun Microsystems
Phone: 408-884-4980
E-mail: melissa.pereira@sun.com

Jan Brown, UGS
Phone: 541-465-2028
E-mail: jan.brown@ugs.com