Graduate And Undergraduate Design Projects Utilizing A Virtual Product Life Cycle Management (Vplm)

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of a product from its conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. It is the cornerstone of a corporation's information technology structure. Boeing LTD is leveraging the Dassault Systemes PLM environment with an integrated set of PLM software and methodologies which are leading to the successful development of new commercial transport aircraft. Aeronautical and astronautical engineering, while undergoing revolutionary change in material innovation and globalization, has been unable to adapt to current advances in PLM due to constraints by legacy educational systems and entrenched processes. As a result, education in aeronautical engineering offers a number of challenges to the constituent participants in the educational process—faculty, students, current workforce learners, and employers of students who are about to enter the workforce. New advances in PLM and competitive pressures in a global business environment have provided a framework for the reexamination of instructional approaches in aeronautical engineering. Georgia Institute of Technology’s (GIT) School of Aerospace Engineering graduate and undergraduate programs have integrated PLM processes, as well as introduced design build methods and tutoring practices in support of a Virtual PLM (VPLM) learning environment. These programs provide students with a new sense of collaborative innovation. A new blended academia–industry partnership model is being used for implementing the PLM education program at the strategic university mentioned above. A description on how the VPLM environment has been created for three design projects to support Boeing LTD and a Dassault Systemes’ new educational research program initiative will be further described in this paper. This initiative will be presented and the emerging results of these collaborative efforts within the framework of project based learning are the focus for this paper.