Cal State L.A. Students Tour Dassault Systemes/Woodland Hills
Virgil Seaman, Dept. Chair Department of Technology, California State University, Los Angeles

On May 12th, 18 students and one faculty member from the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles participated in a field trip to Dassault Systemes in Woodland Hills, CA. The students, who are enrolled in an advanced solid modeling class during the Spring Quarter 2004 at Cal State L.A. made the visit to the North American headquarters for Dassault Systemes and were hosted by Mary Collier, Director of Human Resources and Alvin Santos, an application engineer who is an alum of the Department of Technology at CSULA.

The day began with a walk through tour of the facilities, a welcome and overview of Dassault Systemes including Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) by the Manager of the Competency Center followed by a presentation on SMARTEAM by Brian Lau. During lunch, students were treated to more demonstrations and case studies of how Application Engineers are working with aerospace and automotive companies around North America to integrate CATIA V5, DELMIA, SMARTEAM and ENOVIA. Alvin Santos provided a machining demonstration related to a part on a commercial aircraft, bringing the part from the assembly into the machining workbench. After lunch, Mary Collier provided an overview of internship opportunities and requirements for full time employment.

The trip to Woodland Hills greatly enhanced student's understanding of PLM and brought more relevance to what they are learning in the classroom working with CATIA V5 R12. Cal State Los Angeles is a member of the IBM HEAT program and a DELMIA Academic Partner.

Q. W. (Buz) Nowicki
CATIA Higher Education an Training (HEAT) Program Manager
Product Lifecycle Management Solutions
18000 West Nine Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075
(248) 552-5981 IBM Tie Line 896-5981 Fax (248) 552-6886
e-mail qnowicki@us.ibm.com