UNTiL NOW
Virtual twins were limited to business purposes as tools for operational efficiency and models to design better
FROM NOW ON
Virtual twin experiences make it possible for companies to give back to society and support the next generation of workers, helping to ensure they have the right skill set to tackle global challenges
How can we find new renewable energy sources, combat debilitating diseases or reduce the skills gap in the workplace created by emerging technology? Working collaboratively within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform generates innovative answers to these questions and others. Because we’re resolutely attuned to ever-evolving needs of business and society, along with trusted partners we support and encourage not only today’s visionary thinkers but we’re laying the seeds for those in the generations to come. We believe in leveraging our technologies to bring positive impact to communities. We do this through our 3DEXPERIENCE Centers of Excellence, our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab network and La Fondation Dassault Systèmes.
Mentoring innovators in a vibrant, creative hub
Creating whale-safe fishing, turning crop residues into biochar… these are just some of the more than 70 disruptive projects by startups supported by our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab network. These open innovation centers nurture and empower entrepreneurs and also host events designed for networking, exchanging ideas and encouraging collective intelligence.
Fostering innovation with MESHMERISE
At the heart of innovation lies the spirit of collaboration, a sentiment deeply embedded in the ethos of Dassault Systèmes. Our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in Boston put action behind this philosophy with MESHMERISE, an event to unite visionary minds to incite positive change. First held in our Munich location, MESHMERISE is an annual 3DEXPERIENCE Lab event dedicated to creating strong community ties and empowering sustainable innovation among artists, startups, accelerators and other innovators from all walks of life, including Dassault Systèmes’ largest clients and university professors. The September 2023 Boston event was an evening punctuated with inspiring pitches from startups including LiftLabs, Dynocardia, Smartweave, Augment Health and Behave!, all of whom showcased innovations poised to reshape the world for the better.
MESHMERISE also fostered a rich dialogue on the future of robotics and AI, featuring insightful speakers from MassRobotics and MIT Media Labs and sparking discussions to illuminate the transformative potential of these technologies to enhance work, education and mobility.
Next up: MESHMERISE Paris in fall 2024 where we’ll celebrate the new 3DEXPERIENCE Lab showroom and FabLab with more than 400 square meters featuring a prototyping area (3D printing, machining, robotics, etc.), demo and experimentation spaces and an “innovation showroom” that offers visibility to Lab-supported projects.
Q&A with Jillian Friot
Senior Manager, North America 3DEXPERIENCE Lab
What’s a typical day like at the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in Boston?
Just as the innovative ideas we support in the Lab are unique, so is every day in our facility. Of course, there’s a consistent mission: supporting the entrepreneurs, makers and innovators working to achieve groundbreaking projects aimed at positively impacting society. We regularly host brilliant minds, guiding them on how they can harness Dassault Systèmes technologies and use hands-on access to our FabLab facilities to bring their ideas to life. It’s exciting to work in such a vibrant hub of creativity among forward-thinking people.
How are Dassault Systèmes’ employees involved with the Lab?
In addition to our talented Lab team, I’m proud to share that Dassault Systèmes encourages all employees to dedicate up to 10% of their time to mentoring Lab startups. There’s power in bringing in a spectrum of disciplines to lend different perspectives! We believe this amplifies the impact of our program’s goal to empower startups to solve problems differently.
What’s one project you’re most excited about supporting?
We have an inspiring community of startups in our Boston facilities, helping to solve so many of the world’s top challenges. It’s hard to choose just one startup, but as a New Englander I’m excited about what LiftLabs is doing to support sustainable lobstering and fishing in our area’s waters. Also, I love that the Lab supports art as much as science! Colleagues often come in to create art or to make innovative projects for their homes. It’s especially exciting to watch Chin-Loo Lama and Sal Lama of “Our Next Make” bring their next invention to life in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab!
Supporting entrepreneurial innovators
From inventing alternatives to single use plastics and packaging, to biometric implants, our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab network supports dozens of startups, providing mentoring, marketing and communications and our technology to accelerate the development of their revolutionary ideas. Here are three organizations we supported in 2023.
ATACAMA BIOMATERIALS: Limiting single-use plastics
Plastic is bad for the environment because it can take hundreds of years to break down, and can release harmful chemicals into soil and water. And it’s estimated that around 50% of plastic is used just once. Yet, there are no satisfactory sustainable alternatives to most single-use plastics, leaving industries seeking a low-cost alternative. Atacama Biomaterials is helping to meet this need with Woodpack, a flexible film for packaging made from recycled wood pulp. Woodpack combines the lightweight nature and performance of plastic with the renewable and low environmental impact of paper. With its natural compostability and low-carbon production footprint, Woodpack represents a viable alternative to traditional plastic films.
By replacing it with Woodpack, Atacama Biomaterials believes 30 million tons of plastic waste per year and 263 MMtCO2e can be eliminated. As a member of our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in Boston, the startup provided SOLIDWORKS to test and optimize production for market competitiveness, specifically to simulate thermal interaction and material flow to understand necessary reformulations. Through technology and mentorship of Dassault Systèmes, Atacama Biomaterials was able to scale Woodpack’s operations to be commercially viable.
FLEXPENSER: Reducing spoilage with innovative packaging
The food and beverage industry has always faced a daunting problem: how to counter the spoilage that occurs when a package is opened and exposed to air, leading to contamination or oxidation. Swedish startup Flexpenser has developed innovative dispensing valve technology to address this challenge. Its unidirectional, air-tight membrane keeps liquids inside a leakage-proof container, making it possible to access the content of a package without opening it. This minimizes liquid waste and protects the integrity of liquid and semi-liquids. Flexpenser’s solution also works in laboratories and biomedical settings. Through its participation in the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, Flexpenser uses the modeling, simulation and manufacturing capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and can collaborate to fine-tune designs and products.
CORNEAT VISION: Accelerating revolutionary corneal replacement therapy
A major cause of blindness worldwide is corneal disease, striking 2 million people each year. Unfortunately, surgeries to correct this are hard to come by, and come with potential complications, a long healing time and varying success rates. But there is new hope. Israeli clinical-stage biometrics implants and technology company CorNeat Vision has developed a revolutionary artificial corneal replacement therapy: synthetic, non-degradable artificial corneal tissues can be implanted in a relatively simple surgical procedure to restore full vision to corneal blind patients.
As a member of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, CorNeat Vision used SOLIDWORKS for product and manufacturing design and MEDIDATA for electronic data capture and cloud-based management of medical imaging to run two joint clinical trials. Using virtual twins allowed CorNeat Vision to run unlimited tests of their products and production processes. They plan to extend use of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform by creating a virtual twin of a planned manufacturing facility being constructed in conjunction with international clinical trials – all in all, helping more people restore their eyesight.
Shaping tomorrow’s science and technology talents
La Fondation Dassault Systèmes builds bridges between the education and business communities. In France, it’s enhancing teachers’ familiarity with career opportunities in STEM. In India, this takes the shape of a flagship program to make engineering students “industry ready”.
PROFESSEURS EN ENTREPRISE: Bringing teachers to the office
It’s clear that applying science and technology are essential routes to discovering innovative approaches to address the most pressing global challenges. But is the next generation aware of what this can mean for them and their career options?
Teachers play a crucial part in igniting students’ passion for STEM and guiding them toward studies that can lead to rewarding careers in these fields. But with ever-evolving needs in the professional sector, teachers must have a deep and ongoing understanding of what scientific companies are all about. That’s why, in line with its commitment to fostering STEM education, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes participated in Professeurs en Entreprise (Bringing Teachers to the Office), an initiative that builds bridges between the education and business communities, led by its partner, the CGénial Foundation.
CONNECTNEXT: Empowering Indian students to become Future-Ready
Employability and engineering graduates’ readiness have been important challenges for industry in India. La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is addressing this gap by fostering collaboration between local academia and business communities to create a vibrant ecosystem that helps students learn the skills they need to become “industry ready.”
One form this takes is leading ConnectNext, a program designed to identify and encourage emerging engineering talents across India. Through a collaboratively designed curriculum, hands-on experience and mentoring from industry experts and Dassault Systèmes volunteers, students work on real industrial projects, using the latest innovative technologies from ideation to market delivery to usage. ConnectNext offers participating students a chance to demonstrate engineering skills, showcase projects to catch industry attention and gain proficiency via internship opportunities.
Empowering future innovators and scientists with 3D technology
Q&A with Marie-Pierre Aulas
La Fondation Dassault Systèmes and our partner La main à la pâte conceptualized Made in 3D to inspire students in middle and high school to become future innovators and entrepreneurs. The idea is simple: students create pseudo startups to develop their dream product, which they design, make and promote using 3D design and 3D printing technologies. After successful runs in France and India, in 2023 we also launched the program in the US.
How does Made in 3D benefit students?
With the help of committed Dassault Systèmes volunteers, students are empowered to use creative thinking. They’re given access to professional 3D tools to develop innovative products that make life better. So not only do they gain skills, they’re helping to improve the world around them! In the last edition, for example, students came up with powerful ideas to address inclusion and disability, sustainable housing and recycling, as well as concrete solutions to everyday challenges faced by villagers and farmers in rural areas.
What is the reach of the program?
The program is growing and getting international acclaim. In India, the grand finale was recognized as a G20 event and the top three teams were given the opportunity to present their innovative ideas at the Startup20 Summit. I’m confident that early exposure to 3D tools will result in a new generation of thinkers and entrepreneurs who will, one day, lead the way in sustainable innovation.
IMMERSEA LAB: Fostering ocean education
The effects of global warming are triggering an alarming rise in ocean levels, posing immediate threats to inhabitants of coastal regions. In the face of such challenges, we need a new generation trained in undertaking scientific and technological oceanic research.
That’s the goal of ImmerSea LAB, a program led by the University of Western Brittany as part of ISblue, an interdisciplinary graduate school that brings together key players in marine science and technology with students from universities and engineering schools. La Fondation Dassault Systèmes supports ImmerSea LAB’s innovative teaching approach that provides students with a collaborative learning environment based on 3D, simulation and immersive technology. Students in this program developed ImmerSea RADE, a 3D modeling and simulation of France’s Brest harbor that traces its evolution over the last 12,000 years. This virtual tour provides insight into the changes the harbor and its surroundings have undergone.
From access to data on fisheries, pollution and temperature, to 3D modeling and simulation of coastal and open ocean landscapes, ImmerSea LAB enables researchers and students to collaborate, learn and experiment with ideas and forward-looking scenarios that could result from climate change. And it’s not just educating future marine scientists; it’s also fostering a deeper understanding of the ocean among the public by sharing with them immersive experiences, a crucial step towards better protecting this vital resource.
LIVING EYE VIRTUAL TWIN: Understanding blindness trough virtual twins
Two relatively common forms of blindness occur just behind the eyeball, where the optic nerve connects to the brain. Researchers know that every time the eye moves – a couple of hundred thousand times a day – the optic nerve wiggles a bit, but the potential damage inflicted upon the delicate blood vessels by eye movement over the course of a lifetime is not well understood. To enhance understanding of this organ and make it possible to develop new therapeutic tools to treat blindness, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes has approved a grant to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear hospital for a preliminary study to create a Virtual Twin of the human eye. Led by Dr. Joseph Rizzo, Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, the groundbreaking Living Eye virtual twin project will deepen understanding of this organ by developing a scientifically accurate 3D model allowing researchers to observe the optic nerve in new ways, as current techniques can’t capture the complex dynamics of the eye.
Reducing the skills gaps with lifelong learning
Q&A with Xavier Fouger
We realized that in a world evolving at dizzying speed, employees need new skills to thrive in new jobs, in established fields as well as domains that are emerging such as AI, digital thread and virtual twins. Our 3DEXPERIENCE Edu Centers of Excellence are facilities around the globe dedicated to experiential learning for people of all ages and career stages, through a network of facilities that provide learners with the knowledge they will need to adjust to the rapid transformation of industry.
How do the Centers work with key stakeholders?
We established a charter with 10 essential characteristics to ensure the needs of our key stakeholders are met. Through a tight working relationship with employers, we help educators identify workforce gaps and maintain awareness of emerging skills. With academic institutions, we develop hands-on project opportunities to offer students contextualized experience with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. And we empower learners to gain the knowledge they need about career opportunities and the skills required to get hired.
What makes the Centers unique?
Our Centers combine their own areas of expertise with the power of 3DEXPERIENCE, creating ideal conditions to equip their learners with thorough skillset relevant to transformative work practices. Our Centers use cutting-edge equipment in conjunction with virtual twins to offer relevant learning context in a range of industries. For example, Long Island University in the US focuses on applying 3DEXPERIENCE in the fields of pharmaceutical sciences, precision medicine and digital health care.
Putting 3DEXPERIENCE at the core of collaborative learning models
Hearing regularly from our customers that they were often facing a skills gap when it came to hiring triggered an idea in our Edu group: to partner with various types of institutions – from prestigious research universities, technical colleges and other learning institutions – to create project-based learning models structured around in-demand digital practices. Thus, in 2021, the 3DEXPERIENCE Centers of Excellence program was born.
Students of all ages and levels of professional experience have emerged from their time in our Centers having earned Dassault Systèmes’ certifications to prove their depth of knowledge of 3DEXPERIENCE platform. In 2023, the program grew to include other institutions, such as:
- India’s KLE Technological University, where engineering students can take several novel courses on modeling and simulation including product lifecycle management (PLM).
- University of Southern California’s Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for training on the application of computational tools for data analysis, visualization, modeling and simulation in the Infrastructures & Cities sector.
- Cranfield University in the UK, to aid in the acceleration of the digital and sustainable transformation of the aerospace and defense industry, with courses and projects designed in collaboration with aerospace employers and taught by platform-certified instructors to students and professionals wanting to upskill.
3DEXPERIENCE EDU CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE AROUND THE WORLD