Preparing engineering students with commercial-grade electronic design automation portfolio

SOUTHPOINTE, Pa., Nov. 3 -- ANSYS, Inc., a global innovator of simulation software and technologies designed to optimize product development processes, today announced its Ansoft Academic Product bundle. The portfolio is designed for teaching and academic research related specifically to radio frequency (RF) microwave, signal integrity (SI) and electromechanical systems engineering. The bundling concept offers full commercial versions of the Ansoft family of products including the industry-standard HFSS, Ansoft Designer and Maxwell software. Similar in structure to the globally available ANSYS Academic Product portfolio, Ansoft Academic engineering simulation software provides incredible value, feature-rich products and scalability -- for both universities and students alike.

"There's no longer the need to choose different product capabilities from a vast list of offerings -- the academic software bundle has been uniquely configured to offer everything the college, department and students require, now, without the need to add other follow-on products later," said Paul Lethbridge, academic product strategy and planning manager at ANSYS, Inc. "In addition, students and researchers can explore beyond the limited scope of a single product capability. This alone encourages multiphysics, multi-scale thinking, leading to innovation -- giving students more real-world experience and, therefore, more value when they move into industry." Lethbridge added that the bundling concept has been designed to simplify logistics, including purchasing, licensing and deployment processes.

The Ansoft Academic Product offering is now available as two options: high-frequency (HF) and electromechanical (EM). The HF bundle, suitable for high-performance RF, microwave, millimeter-wave device simulation and signal integrity applications, includes HFSS, Q3D Extractor, Ansoft Designer and Nexxim technologies. The EM bundle is intended for the design and simulation of motors, actuators, transformers, electromechanical devices, and multi-domain systems that couple thermal, electromechanical, electromagnetic and hydraulic devices; it includes Maxwell and Simplorer software. Both bundles include Optimetrics technology, parallel processing, and import/connectivity to many common MCAD and ECAD tools. An option is available that specifically incorporates the HFSS high-performance computing capability, which allows handling extremely large simulations.

Academic products from ANSYS are used by thousands of universities and colleges in more than 60 countries, with hundreds of thousands of users. For example, Purdue University in the United States applies the Ansoft Academic Product throughout its electromagnetic curriculum. "Having many licenses allows us to start from the basic undergraduate courses, where many students need to login to see visualizations, through to graduate courses, where more advanced problems can be solved in detail with combinations of full-wave analysis and planar/circuit tools," said William Chappell at the university. "Our previous solution greatly constrained how well we could integrate the software into the curriculum."

The Institute of Microwaves and Photonics at the U.K.'s University of Leeds has successfully used Ansoft HFSS software in a wide variety of projects, including the design of microwave filters, antennas, THz transmission lines and waveguides. "The new high-frequency Ansoft Academic HF product bundle is proving invaluable for our research projects," said Ian Hunter of the institute.

The University of Florida in the United States migrated to the new Ansoft Academic Research HF product bundle earlier this year. "We are very pleased with the scope of the capabilities bundled. For example, the inclusion of Ansoft Designer, Nexxim and SIwave with HFSS technologies allows our research group to combine high-fidelity finite element modeling with advanced circuit and signal integrity simulation. The generous bundling offers considerable value and allows us to work beyond our previous limited-simulation-quantity boundaries," said Jenshan Lin at the university.

All of the Ansoft RF/SI or Ansoft EM technology is essentially packaged into a single product license. The floating LAN licenses are available in 1-, 5-, 25- and 50-user increments, and they can also be factored into ANSYS campus-wide solutions for larger-scale deployment together with the ANSYS Academic Product offerings -- which bundles ANSYS Mechanical, ANSYS AUTODYN, ANSYS CFX, ANSYS FLUENT, and ANSYS ICEM CFD software.

For more information about ANSYS Academic Products, visit www.ansys.com/academic.

About ANSYS, Inc.

ANSYS, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANSS), founded in 1970, develops and globally markets engineering simulation software and technologies widely used by engineers and designers across a broad spectrum of industries. The company focuses on the development of open and flexible solutions that enable users to analyze designs directly on the desktop, providing a common platform for fast, efficient and cost-conscious product development, from design concept to final-stage testing and validation. The company and its global network of channel partners provide sales, support and training for customers. Headquartered in Canonsburg, Pa., with more than 60 strategic sales locations throughout the world, ANSYS, Inc. and its subsidiaries employ over 1,600 people and distribute ANSYS products through a network of channel partners in over 40 countries. Visit www.ansys.com for more information.

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Source: ANSYS, Inc.