Dassault opens additive manufacturing center with Wichita State, NIAR

Airbus and Dassault Systèmes sites held grand openings at Wichita State University on April 27, commemorating the official residency of the global corporations on Wichita State’s Innovation Campus development.

"This is the beginning of a new era at Wichita State University – an opportunity for students to work alongside experienced professionals, gaining knowledge about the tools and processes used by industry," John Bardo, Wichita State President, said. "We see these partnerships as a model for future partnerships in areas such as business, education, health professions, arts and sciences."

"Higher education institutions like Wichita State University play an absolutely critical role in economic development,” said Dennis Alvord, deputy assistant secretary for regional affairs for the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA). “EDA is proud of our strong partnership with WSU; a partnership that has led to $10 million in EDA investment to help establish the impressive Innovation Campus that today is attracting world-class companies to the region and playing a critical role in training the next generation of workers to compete for advanced manufacturing and other in-demand jobs.”  

As WSU Innovation Campus partners, Airbus Engineering and Dassault Systèmes have access to campus support infrastructure, including research labs, meeting facilities, education/training opportunities and boundless collaboration with faculty, staff, students and business entities on campus.

According to Dassault, these advantages were key to the decision to move the Airbus Americas Wichita Engineering Center to WSU’s Innovation Campus in early 2017. Airbus’ two-story, 90,000-square-foot building houses 300 employees working on all Airbus commercial aircraft products, including design work on the next-generation A350 XWB.

Airbus also collaborates with Wichita State to take advantage of the university's applied learning model, which engages students in real-world engineering projects, helps develop critical engineering skills and provides students with experience. 

Dassault, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company and developer of 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, will engage the technology and staff in the new 3DEXPERIENCE Center to advance the use of new technologies such as additive manufacturing. 

The center, a partnership between Wichita State’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) and Dassault, brings together students, researchers and industry, using the  3DEXPERIENCE platform and industry solution experiences to enable 3D advanced product development, virtual simulation and next generation manufacturing.

Key capabilities of the center include engineered new materials development, multi-scale simulation and optimization, Multi-Robotic Advanced Manufacturing (MRAM) and on-demand certification.

Situated on 120 acres,the school's Innovation Campus is an interconnected community of partnership buildings where organizations establish operations and reap the rewards of the university’s resources: laboratories that give students access to real-world applications and the training needed to assimilate into the workforce, a community makerspace that provides access to technology and services that facilitate product development and mixed-use areas that provide everyone with a place to learn, work, live and play.