Alibre Launches Educational Initiative With Leading Universities.

University of Delaware, The University of Iowa and Indiana University 

First to Receive Free and Unlimited Use of Alibre Design

RICHARDSON, Texas, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ --

Alibre, Inc., the first company to offer a Web-based mechanical collaborative product development service, today announced an educational initiative that will provide free and unlimited use of the Company's Alibre Design(TM) service to students at select colleges and universities offering mechanical engineering and design curricula. Institutions that are currently enrolled to participate include University of Delaware, The University of Iowa and the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Alibre is committed to investing in education and is actively soliciting other qualified institutions to enroll in the program.

"By providing access to the latest commercial design technologies that take advantage of the Internet, students will be better prepared to enter the job market after college," says Alibre president and CEO, J. Paul Grayson. "We're excited that these leading universities have selected Alibre Design as a part of their engineering programs."

"Alibre Design offers our students a unique opportunity to explore the potential of the Internet for collaborative design and data sharing while also introducing them to state of the art 3D design technology," said Dick Wilkins, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Delaware. "The department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Delaware has a strong history of design projects with industry. Our corporate sponsors are always located remotely, and use a variety of software, so Alibre Design's ability to deliver anytime, anywhere design and data sharing via the Internet will be particularly useful as geographically dispersed teams of students and corporate engineers and managers collaborate on design projects."

As part of the program, students will be able to use all of the features of the Alibre Design service, enabling them to be organized into role-based teams to solve real-world product design scenarios. Through Real-time Team Modeling(SM) and Web-based data management, Alibre Design provides instantaneous design collaboration between geographically dispersed design teams and secure sharing of course-related design data with other authorized classmates and project members. In addition, Alibre Design provides the ability to create complete 3D designs and associated 2D drawings from scratch, as well as collaborate on designs imported from other CAD systems, or to flexibly combine both in a common Web-based design environment.

"Alibre Design is ideally suited for the 'Virtual International Design' program that our Mechanical Engineering department is spearheading," said Professor Karim Abdel-Malek, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Iowa. "The program involves collaborative design projects between teams located in several countries. With Alibre Design, each team member simply needs an Internet connection to enable real-time collaboration and data sharing. Moreover, Alibre's aggressive educational program is making it possible for any of our students to start using the service right away."

As the first mechanical design ASP, Alibre leverages the Internet as a computing platform to provide global manufacturers and their supply chains a collaborative product development service on a subscription basis. Alibre's Web-based technology and business model facilitate the creation of manufacturing and engineering communities by enabling spontaneous and instantaneous collaboration on product designs.

"We have been investigating collaborative technologies that combine Internet connectivity and 3D design for some time," said Douglas C. Acheson, Assistant Professor of Computer Graphics Technology at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI. "Alibre's ASP business model and the Web-centric architecture of its Alibre Design service represent the future of product development. By enrolling in the Company's educational program, we can expose our students to this exciting new service at no cost to the University."

If you would like to learn more about Alibre's educational program to determine if your institution qualifies, please visit Alibre's Web site at: http://www.alibre.com/solutions/educational/default.asp.

About Alibre

Alibre provides the first Web-based mechanical collaborative product development service. The Company's vision is to liberate design and engineering professionals from standalone desktop applications to an interactive, connected Web environment where the service can be accessed securely anytime, from anywhere and computing power is theoretically unlimited. Alibre will change the manner in which geographically dispersed groups of engineers and designers work together, changing design software from a tool focused on the individual to one that improves the flow of design and manufacturing knowledge throughout the enterprise and the extended supply chain.

Alibre was founded in 1997 by former Micrografx CEO and Chairman, Paul Grayson, and is based in Richardson, TX. For more information, visit the Alibre Web site at www.alibre.com or call [phone].

Alibre and Alibre Design are trademarks of Alibre, Inc. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.