UT students will soon get the chance to gain practical engineering analysis skills using technology that companies worldwide rely on to design sophisticated products for aerospace, mechanical, biomedical, and other industries.
The classroom enhancements are made possible through an in-kind software grant with a commercial value of $2.7 million from Siemens PLM Software. The product lifecycle management (PLM) software helps users make better products using complex modeling techniques. The in-kind grant includes FemapTM software with NXTM Nastran® software for finite element modeling.
Students in Civil and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Stephanie TerMaath’s three classes will use the software to investigate fundamental concepts in structural engineering, for example how applying different boundary conditions such as loads and supports to a part affects structural performance.
“This technology allows class to be very hands-on,” said TerMaath. “We can interactively investigate customizable problems very quickly instead of me just showing them pictures in a PowerPoint presentation. Use of this software provides a much improved learning environment by providing the flexibility to explore an unlimited number of configurations in real time based on student questions.”
The software will impact close to a hundred students through TerMaath’s classes and research, and is available through UT’s app to anyone at the university who wants to use it.
TerMaath, who used the technology as an engineer at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Applied Research Associates, said this grant gives students access to technology that companies around the world use every day to develop innovative solutions in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, defense, machinery, medical, and electronics.
Being trained on this software also makes students highly marketable for advanced technology jobs.
“This software is very user-friendly and is widely used by industry,” said TerMaath. “Codes can be very frustrating to learn, and students end up spending more time figuring out which button to push instead of working on their analysis. This software eliminates that problem and allows us to focus on the engineering fundamentals.”
TerMaath also will use the PLM software for her own multidisciplinary research in computational structural mechanics which spans problems in civil, aerospace, mechanical and biomedical engineering.
Siemens’ academic program delivers PLM software technology to more than a million students from grade school to graduate school around the world each year.
“Siemens PLM Software is dedicated to equipping today’s students with the knowledge and skills necessary to serve in the next generation of engineers. UT serves a key role in filling the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics job skills gap and producing highly qualified future employees,” said Bill Boswell, senior director, partner strategy, Siemens PLM Software.
Siemens PLM Software is a leading global provider of product lifecycle management software and services with 7 million licensed seats and more than 71,000 customers worldwide. Femap and NX are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management Software Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and in other countries. Nastran is a registered trademark of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.For more information, visit the Siemens website.
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C O N T A C T :
Whitney Heins (865-974-5460, wheins@utk.edu)
Kim Cowart (865-974-0686, kcowart@utk.edu)