The Engineering School received a $594,000 grant Monday from private software developer Simio LLC. The grant will give University students, faculty members and researchers access to advanced 3-D modeling and simulation software.
Simio's technology includes features that have yet to be implemented in the University's current software, such as object-oriented modeling and 3-D graphics, Engineering Prof. K. Preston White said. In addition, the software has a unique interface with Google's 3-D warehouse, an online database of user-constructed models, Simio Director of Marketing Ian Blyth said.
In general, White said he is encouraged by the "extensibility" - or ability to find more uses for its software - that Simio offers.
"It's just the latest and greatest," he said, adding that it has been difficult to implement many changes with the current software.
The University could begin to see the specific benefits of the grant as early as this summer, White said. In particular, the software will be valuable in the area of initialization bias, an issue that is related to simulation software and has been debated by the engineering community for decades.
Apart from the impact it can have on research, this advanced technology is intended to prepare students for real-world modeling later in their careers, Blyth said.
"What we hope is to provide students with the best simulation software possible, so that when they come out of college they have an understanding of what the future is," he said.
Simio also hopes that the grants it offers to universities will help its software gain exposure, especially as students and researchers discover innovative new uses for the company's products.
"Universities do a lot of research," Blyth said. "They do a lot of new things with our software that we never would have thought about."
Though the new software's impact on the University remains to be seen, Blyth said the product has been well received at other universities - including Georgia Tech, Stanford University, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - that have found the software easy to use and have appreciated its implementation of intelligent objects.
Overall, White said he hopes the software will contribute to the University's educational experience.
"We always want to keep our students moving forward," White said.
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