By Christopher Seifert
$313,884,754.
That?s the total commercial value of the in-kind gift of industry-grade computer software BYU is to receive from a partnership of General Motors, EDS and Sun Microsystems.
After announcing the dollar amount of the donation in the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom, Wayne Cherry, vice president of design at General Motors, smiled at the standing ovation from BYU students and faculty.
?Big number, big response,? he said.
The campus-wide gift, the largest single corporate donation BYU has received to date, will most immediately benefit the College of Engineering and Technology.
BYU President Merrill J. Bateman; BYU-Idaho President David Bednar; Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the BYU Board of Trustees; Utah Lt. Gov. Olene Walker; U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, R-UT; and Orem mayor, Jerry Washburn, attended the announcement along with representatives from General Motors, EDS and Sun Microsystems.
In 1999, General Motors, EDS and Sun Microsystems joined to form the Partners for the Advancement of Computer-aided Design/Manufacturing/Engineering Education (PACE). PACE began donating design software to select universities shortly thereafter. BYU?s donation is the largest PACE donation to date.
The strong tie between BYU''s industrial design and engineering programs was what first attracted PACE?s attention, Cherry said.
?Because of this, we see BYU as a role model for other schools.?
Since 1971, General Motors has sponsored an automobile design competition among BYU?s industrial design students, said David Anthony, an associate dean of BYU?s College of Engineering and Technology. Students originally created their designs using clay models, but in 1999, the industrial design program moved from the College of Fine Arts to the College of Engineering and Technology. With the move, a new era of computer-aided design began.
That change, coupled with BYU?s interactive reality auditorium and two supercomputers made BYU a prime candidate for PACE sponsorship.
PACE invited BYU to apply for the donation, Anthony said, and BYU did so in April of 2001. PACE chose BYU as a donation recipient in July of 2001, but did not make the official announcement until now. Eighty-five percent of the donated software is already in place and accessible to students.
The new software will make BYU a prime candidate for industry research, Anthony said, with student mentoring of such research projects emerging as the norm. Engineering and industrial design students will use the new software to work on intensive capstone projects in their respective fields of study before graduating.
As part of the donation, BYU faculty and some students may also receive ongoing design training from the PACE companies.
The new software helps reduce the cost and streamline the flow from a product?s design phase to its production phase using virtual design techniques. Industrial designers design the part, focusing primarily on aesthetics. They then pass the design to engineers who use the software to test the functionality of the design. With Unigraphics and other similar math-based design software, engineers can test the structural soundness of a design without building a prototype. After doing so, engineers return the design to industrial designers for modifications before making a final check and sending it on to production.
Anthony said the software will allow students to more easily design ?a car, a plane, a toaster, a Styrofoam cup, anything? that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
?There?s a certain synergy,? Cherry said at the announcement ceremony, ?between the creative side and the engineering side.?
Thomas Erekson, an associate dean of BYU?s College of Engineering and Technology said the donation will create a type of symbiotic relationship between PACE and BYU. The software will better prepare BYU design and engineering students for the job market, while providing General Motors, EDS and Sun Microsystems with more qualified job candidates.
?I see being named as a PACE recipient really taking the bushel off BYU?s candle,? he said, ?and helping us be recognized around the world.?
As big as the donation is right now, it might get even bigger, said Elaine Chapman-Moore, a manager for PACE.
?This is an ongoing cooperation,? she said, ?so if the university has a particular need in the future, they can submit that request in the future and see if we deem that appropriate.?
Chapman-Moore did say a flat fee will be attached to some of the software, costing the university $3,000 to $4,000 a year ? the cost of shipping the software to BYU.
Elder Eyring expressed gratitude for the donation during his brief remarks at the ceremony.
?I would like, on behalf of the students, to say thank you,? he said, ?because their experience and the experience of generations of students who follow them will be enriched.?
BYU and PACE officials inaugurated the new partnership by signing an electronic print of the Hummer H2. Dean Clay, BYU graduate and current director of small trucks for General Motors, helped design the Hummer H2 and was present for the announcement.
Clay said the PACE donation will only enhance the competitiveness of BYU graduates entering the job market. Of the approximately 180 designers employed by General Motors, Dean said, 10 are BYU graduates.
'The caliber of students that come out of here are the leaders,' he said. 'They have depth of credibility and character.'
On Sept. 26, PACE announced a similar software gift to Purdue University valued at $116.1 million. E. Dan Hirleman, head of Purdue?s School of Mechanical Engineering, said the donation has already benefited Purdue students.
?Certainly, not all our students will work at GM,? Hirleman said. ?Some will certainly work there or intern there, but the fact that they?ve been able to work on this system is a plus regardless of what company they end up working for.?
While the donation will immediately benefit the engineering, technology and industrial design programs, BYU considers this donation a gift to the entire university, President Bateman said. Students from a broad range of majors, including biology, computer science, mathematics, business and fine arts, will benefit from the new software.
Eventually, some of the software will be accessible from the Internet or the campus Intranet, Anthony said.
BYU is the 21st university worldwide to receive such a donation from PACE and the fourth and final U.S. university to receive a donation this year.
Other PACE recipients within the U.S. are Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, the University of Missouri-Rolla, Tuskegee University, Northwestern University, Prairie View A&M University and Virginia Tech University. A handful of universities in Mexico, Canada and China have also been honored. With the announcement of the BYU donation, PACE has now made over one and a half billion dollars worth of donations.