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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News
$70M gift to SEAS is first for Ivy League
Department earns recognition among group that provides computer-based tools
Nandanie Khilall
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The department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics earned a $70 million design-technology package from the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education organization yesterday morning.
Penn, the first Ivy League school to be accepted into this competitive organization, will join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech as members.
"Compared to the many other schools that applied to PACE, Penn Engineering was chosen because it offers the greatest opportunity for collaboration among PACE institutions," said Elaine Chapman-Moore, GM manager of Global PACE Partnerships, which spans 10 countries and includes 43 institutions.
The package from PACE - a philanthropic organization that supports academic institutions worldwide by contributing computer-based engineering tools - consists of comprehensive modeling, simulation and design tools.
"Penn's MEAM department is considered to be in the bottom 20th percentile in terms of program size, so for us to be accepted shows our strength," said MEAM department chairman Vijay Kumar said.
Universities are chosen for their interest in collaborative product development, strength of their engineering and design programs and interest in the automotive industry.
MEAM plans to use these tools to support a departmental campaign to intensify the design content in the engineering curriculum and to help launch a new integrated product-design program.
Projects will include researching the design of more efficient factories, hybrid vehicles and artificial heart valves.
Jonathan Fiene, a MEAM lecturer, has been appointed the director of the PACE program. He intends to start integrating PACE tools as soon as next semester with the freshman MEAM 101 course.
At this time, Penn's focus is on getting the PACE lab up and running, but eventually the goal is to integrate these tools into all six Engineering departments.
Students are excited about the possibilities the PACE package offers.
One of Fiene's independent-study juniors, Laura Anne Cramer, has been familiarizing herself with PACE software over the past month as part of the program's trial.
"A lot of times you go into industry and you spend months, maybe a year, learning how to use different programs to do your job," Cramer said. "It's much more exciting and better for you if you can hit the ground running already knowing those programs."
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