RuleStream Sponsors mPLM - master in Product Lifecycle Management.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

WAKEFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2004

RuleStream's Product Suite and Engineering Knowledge Management Expertise Are Key to the Success of the First Master in PLM at Polytechnic University of Milan

RuleStream Corporation, a design process software company that delivers unbeatable competitive advantage to manufacturers, today announced that it is currently sponsoring the first edition of the post graduate course in "mPLM - master in Product Lifecycle Management" organized by MIP, the Business School of Politecnico di Milano, the Polytechnic University of Milan (http://www.mip.polimi.it/).

The mPLM program is part of the wider collaboration established by RuleStream since its inception with Politecnico di Milano's KAEMaRT (Knowledge Aided Engineering, Manufacturing and Related Technologies, http://www.kaemart.it/) group led by Prof. Umberto Cugini. The main objectives of this collaboration are joint research activities, training, and the promotion of knowledge management in engineering through KBE (Knowledge Based Engineering) and design automation technologies.

"For a leading-edge technology company such as RuleStream, maintaining close relationships with the academic world is a critical component of keeping abreast with product evolution and the market. For this reason, in addition to the Politecnico di Milano, we have a plan to put other collaboration initiatives in place with key research institutes and leading schools in North America, Europe, and Asia to further the adoption of design automation technologies in the marketplace as the keystone for PLM", said David W. Vredenburgh, president and CEO, RuleStream.

The PLM approach provides valuable support to the deep organizational changes in technical operations at manufacturing and engineering companies, including the outsourcing of design, engineering, and production processes, as well as the growing role of collaboration processes and knowledge management. This change of context, methodologies and tools in the industry generates a demand for new professional skill profiles for the role of technical operations managers, who need to be fully equipped with expertise in current methodologies, technologies, organizational structures and management.

"Although some of these skills are sometimes found in the most advanced manufacturing and engineering companies, more often than not, they are acquired on the job, with uneven technical and scientific bases and are developed under the pressure of the immediate needs of the PLM implementation projects, with less than desirable outcomes," said Umberto Cugini, director of the mPLM program. "mPLM is an innovative, structured curriculum aimed at providing, over a relatively short time span, all the know-how necessary to the management roles of the product lifecycle management."

Within the mPLM initiative, RuleStream has made its product suite and its expertise available to the students and faculty, with the support of its Italian business development operation recently opened. The master program began in September 2003 and will run through July 2004. It is targeted to 20 young engineers with multi disciplinary skills, and is developed in collaboration with leading universities in Europe as the Ecole Centrale of Paris, the ENSGI (Ecole Nationale Superieure de Genie Industriel), and the Technical University of Eindhoven. In addition to RuleStream, important sponsors from the industry include IBM Italia, EDS PLM Solutions, Accenture, Autodesk and MatrixOne.

As a result of the program to date, two students have completed theses developing unique and interesting applications for RuleStream and a third student is currently finalizing another thesis. Additionally, a fourth student has recently been issued a three-year grant that will begin in March 2004 and will be used towards a PhD degree focused on research and development in the knowledge based engineering (KBE) and automated design discipline. As the successes of the program continue to be demonstrated, RuleStream will look to further extend its network of universities and research institutions throughout Italy and eventually other countries in Europe, Asia and North America.

RuleStream's suite of powerful, easy-to-use software tools helps manufacturers, engineers, and designers improve and speed up the design process. RuleStream collapses the design process to dramatically improve and accelerate sales, engineering and manufacturing operations. Additionally, RuleStream's powerful architecture provides for direct integration with the SolidWorks(R) modeling environment, as well as with world class PDM systems like SmarTeam(R) and eMatrix(R).

About MIP-Politecnico di Milano

MIP is the business school of the Politecnico di Milano, the most prestigious technical university in Italy. As a consortium, MIP includes, together with the Politecnico di Milano, several industrial and institutional partners. Thus, MIP Politecnico di Milano is able to merge the specialized know-how, coming from its academic component, with the contribution of best practices from the business community.

MIP Politecnico di Milano is an institutional member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).

About RuleStream

RuleStream was founded in 1999 with the mission to provide world-class knowledge-based design automation functionality that is easy to use and available at a price point that every manufacturing company can afford. Since then, RuleStream has developed a revolutionary new software system that enables manufacturers to automate the creation of unique product models based on customer input and a knowledge base populated with rules, design processes, and engineering best practices. For more information visit www.rulestream.com or call [phone].