Australian Teens Win Worldwide Competition Using CATIA from Dassault Systèmes

Triumph underscores success of DS’ support of vocational initiative in high schools Paris, France and Sydney, Australia, January 25, 2006 - Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, and the Re-engineering Australia Forum (REA), a not-for-profit Australian organization promoting engineering careers, today announced that the ‘International F1 In Schools’ competition has been won by a team of Australian school children who designed and built their scale model Formula One racing car using the CATIA product design solution.

The inventive teens worked with DS’ CATIA solution to design and build their F1-style car, which covered 20m in 1.133 seconds at the Australian finals last November. Alexander Nunn, 14, senior car designer of The Stingers, a team of boys from Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne, Australia said, “We won the competition because we did lots of research with CATIA. It was never too complex.” REA supports the use of CATIA in high schools because it is the most widely used software in the automotive, aerospace and other industries that are major employers of skilled engineers. Peter Clinton, the Stingers’ technology teacher added, “Students who tried other systems are enthusiastic about CATIA. Its ease of use allows them to discover new functions and methods by themselves, and the educational version of the software is as complete as the one used by top engineers in world-class projects. It provides an exploration field without limit for a kid’s creativity.”

“The use of CATIA in motivating the teams and structuring their work was more than instrumental in their success,” said Paul Bray, REA Manager. “We are now about to extend the initiative to younger children, since we know that kids’ interest for technology appears before high school. For this next milestone, we will again rely on Dassault Systèmes to provide the technological catalyst for success: this time it will be ‘Cosmic Blobs’, the award winning 3D design software for kids.”

“The globalization of economies triggers numerous regional initiatives to sustain local innovation and high-tech employment through educational projects,” said Philippe Forestier, executive vice president Alliances, Marketing and Communications, Dassault Systèmes. “We are delighted to be REA’s sponsor: it was the best-engineered and most successful project that we have seen so far among such initiatives.”
 

The competition challenged 11-to-18-year-olds to design, build and race carbon dioxide-powered Formula One model cars in an initiative aimed at stimulating the inventiveness of young people. The Stingers beat an international field to take the top prize of engineering scholarships at the finals in London.