Student Competition Encouraged Design Innovation Through Social Community Collaboration

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — January 8, 2012 — Dassault Systèmes (Paris: DSY) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that the winners of the Car Design News-General Motors (CDN-GM) interactive car design competition, co-sponsored by Dassault Systèmes, will be unveiled on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 4:00 p.m. at the Cadillac stand in the General Motors exhibit, at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). Split into two segments – interior and exterior for each of the GM brands -- eight winners will result from the 25 finalists. Each of the winners will have their work displayed at the 2012 NAIAS, and will receive a paid internship with GM, as well as an iPad 2.

The competition is unique in that it relies upon social community and collaboration to enhance original ideas. After submitting their designs, students received feedback from judges, mentors, fellow entrants and observers that helped them to refine and improve their designs as many times as they wanted, up until the final entry date. Automotive industry design leaders from each of the GM brand design teams, as well as from the competition sponsors Dassault Systèmes, Faurecia and SRG Global acted as mentors.

Anne Asensio, vice president, Design Experience at Dassault Systèmes, who served as a CDN-GM competition judge, said, “We believe that collaboration is key to developing innovative initiatives in the design field. We want participants to rethink the experience of vehicle design in regard to Web-based and digital technologies. Communication barriers are removed to enable a new level of creative input. Plus, new talent from otherwise lesser known design schools can be discovered.”

Competition mentor Drè Clemons, CATIA Industrial Design, Dassault Systèmes commented, “It has been exciting to sponsor and participate in this competition, which we see as an excellent way to invest and promote design education, especially in the face of recent educational cutbacks. These students have had the opportunity to receive input from leading industry professionals, helping to evolve their skill sets to a higher level. And, with the role of CATIA in the design of today’s vehicles, supporting a program such as this is a perfect fit for us.”

For background on this competition and a list of the finalist names, visit http://www.cardesigncontest.com for details and to register.

Educators and students interested in the Dassault Systèmes software solutions can visit http://www.academy.3ds.com where products and support are offered at special academic pricing.

About Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 130,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes applications provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, EXALEAD for search-based applications- SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com.

CATIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA, EXALEAD, SIMULIA, SolidWorks and 3D VIA are registered trademarks of Dassault Systèmes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries.

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