DELMIA Sponsors Bloomfield Hill's International Academy FIRST Robotics Team; Robotic Software Made Available to All Michigan Teams

AUBURN HILLS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2006--Dassault Systemes (NASDAQ:DASTY)(BOURSE:DSY)(EURONEXT:13065), today announced that DELMIA is sponsoring Bloomfield Hills International Academy's FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team. The school is employing the DELMIA V5 Robotics suite as part of its software solution in the competition. Additionally, DELMIA has offered a free limited license of its software to the other 100 Michigan schools participating in the FIRST Robotics event with 10 high schools to date taking advantage of this opportunity.

The International Academy Team, consisting of 17 students, will be competing in regional events at Eastern Michigan University, March 9 - 11 and at Wayne State University, March 16 -18 before heading to The Championship Event on April 27 - 29 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Students in this program are committed to a minimum of 12 hours of participation over three days during every week from program kickoff on January 7 until the final competition. "Access to sophisticated design software is teaching our kids to problem solve in 3D, on and off the computer," said Gail Alpert, coach of the International Academy team.

"The goal of the FIRST Robotics program is in line with the DELMIA Academic Partner Program (DAPP) goal," said Roy Smolky, DELMIA Worldwide Academic Relations. "We want to encourage young people to pursue technical careers by providing them access to real world tools. We know from experience that hands-on programs are crucial in capturing students attention and enthusing them to enter engineering and technology careers."

The FIRST Robotics program charges teams of high school students -- sponsored and assisted by mentor designers, engineers and programmers -- to design, assemble and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams. Remote-controlled robots, piloted by students, go head-to-head in short ball games, battling it out to earn points during a two minute round. In 2006, the competition will reach over 28,000 high-school aged young people on over 1,125 teams in 33 regional events with teams participating from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K. and almost every state in the U.S.
 

Through its DELMIA Academic Partner Program, DELMIA software is being used as part of the curriculum at 20 universities, colleges, high schools, technical schools and other academic institutions throughout Michigan. The DAPP program has shown that students are more likely to get hired into the workforce when they are already trained in the latest computer-aided digital design and manufacturing software programs, which are increasingly being implemented by today's manufacturers.