Partnership
The partnership that presents the proposal is balanced between learning centres and small companies and between North and South regions of the EEC. The required skills are not easily found in one country, as can be seen in the complementary experience of the partnership. Partners from highly developed regions complement others in the FEDER program. The consortium also includes 3 small companies. The design of the partnership allows sharing of expertise: P1 to P4 will produce results, disseminate them at the academic level and test them with university students, while P5 to P7 will gather the material and make it available to professionals. P3 also plays a hinge role of publishing monographs in Spanish with wide distribution in Latin America.
Here is a short description of each partner in relation to its role in the project:
The Institut fur Baumechanik und Nymerische Mechanik (IBNM) - Universitat Hannover(acronym IBNM), contributes to the development of Finite Element Software for problems in Computational Mechanics, especially as regards rubber materials, multifield problems and contact mechanics.
The Institute participates in the software development and the teaching activities, transforming its computer programs for finite deformation contact analysis into pieces of software wich are understandable in engineering offices and transfer them to companies involved in the project. Furthemore, it includes include its newest developments in contact discretization techniques and algorithms in teaching courses for last year students in order to have a feedback from the target group according to the plan performed by the promoter and mentioned in the proposal.
The Granada University is a large educational institution that has performed up to 8 projects Leonardo Da Vinci, as a promoter and as a partner. It also has experience in other educational and interchange european projects, such as Adapt, Sócrates/Erasmus y Tempus. Each academic year more than 1,500 foreign students come to the university, and more than 1,200 of its own students go abroad, mostly in European countries.
The tasks of this university is, as a promoter, to manage the administrative work of the project and coordinate the activities. In addition, it works in a part of the algorithm development, in the test phase and in the dissemination.
CIMNE was created in 1987 as a Consortium between the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Technical University of Catalonia with UNESCO's support. It employs some seventy scientists working in the development and application of numerical methods (basically the finite element method) to a wide class of engineering problems. The research activities of CIMNE cover NL analysis and safety studies of structures, shape optimisation in structural and fluid dynamics, computational fluid dynamics for both external and internal flow problems, simulation of material deformation and forming processes and electromagnetism.
The role of CIMNE in this project is to work in the development and application of frictional contact and wear algorithms for problems with interest in vocational and professional training. It also takes an active role in the publication of the outcome of the project and in training students and professionals.
The Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) provides courses in the field of constructions, continuum mechanics and geotechnics for the two Faculty of Engineering and for the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico. In order to favour the development of programmes of permanent education a special consortium (COREP) has been created between the Politecnico and public and private bodies, and personalised courses can be offered on request. The Department is involved in all the above-mentioned teaching activities in the context of its own special role. The Politecnico has actually many international links, based on bilateral agreements. Mixed curricula pathways are emerging with European Universities, which lead to qualifications that are valid at an international level.
In this project, the Politecnico provides both basic and enhanced knowledge related to contact mechanics, support for students at industry and foreign visiting scholars, promote training initiatives, and produce training materials for the courses and seminars.
EnginSoft is a privately owned Italian SME which operates in the field of numerical simulation, covering most of the areas where such technologies can have practical application (including mechanics, fluid-dynamics, acoustics, metallurgy, foundry processes, porous media, environmental engineering and the like). The company is also a research centre for numerical methods in engineering acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of University and Research. EnginSoft was founded in 1984 by a partnership which dates back to 1973 and has developed professional expertise in a wide range of research and industrial projects and related services, supported by joint activities with universities and research centres.
The role of EnginSoft is related to the identification of vocational training requirements shown mainly by professionals at work, and development of corresponding training material and methods, as well as in disseminating the results of the project.
The TCN Consortium has been established in 2001 to promote High-Level Educational Programmes focused on the training of key human resources required to ensure and sustain, through the implementation and management of new technologies, corporations' competitive edge. The TCN Consortium organises training courses, dedicated to young graduates as well as to experienced professionals working within an industrial environment. At present, the Consortium main activities include: a) master programmes focused on the application of the existing numerical simulation technologies; b) specialised courses and seminars aimed at the investigation of specific subjects; c) the set-up of an e-learning environment, the preparation and standardisation of the e-learning contents material.
TCN participates, as a Partner, revising the educational products that the project generates and publishing and distributing the necessary books and monographs necessary for the dissemination strategy and its implementation, according to the plan performed by the promoter and mentioned in the proposal.
NAFEMS is a "not profit making" international membership association, that produces a range of advisory technical documents, as well as training material. It represents the interests of the engineering analysis community in over 25 countries. In particular Nafems has produced (and produces) a series of educational texts in the field of virtual design and testing, whose strength originates from the fact that they are independent from any computer code and are subjected to detailed group review by the appropriate Nafems technical working group. Nafems activities are intended to form an integral part of the ongoing professional development of staff who carry out engineering analysis (virtual design and testing) and are in line with the mission statement: "to promote the safe and reliable use of the analysis technologies". Nafems is continually seeking to create awareness of new analysis techniques, deliver relevant education and training, and stimulate the adoption of best practice and standards.
Using its extensive publishing and training network, Nafems is the most important partner in the dissemination tasks.