Following the success of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in France, Dassault Systèmes have expanded the project to North America, opening a lab in Waltham, MA. Dassault Systèmes announced their plans at SOLIDWORKS World 2017 and in May this year, the lab opened its doors for the first time.
The Opening of the New Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience Lab
Dassault Systèmes opened their new 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in May, an open innovation laboratory and startup accelerator.
The laboratory is designed to nurture and empower disruptive projects, to allow innovation for a more sustainable world. The lab hopes to foster entrepreneurship and bring new experiences to life, whilst strengthening society’s future of creation.
On announcing their plans for the lab at SOLIDWORKS World 2017, Dassault Systèmes said:
“Entrepreneurs, makers and innovators everywhere are invited to join our 3DEXPERIENCE Lab initiative. Our goal is to build a community of intelligent, creative and passionate people, focused on positively impacting society, through the creation of disruptive, groundbreaking projects. Dassault Systèmes is committed to helping them bring those projects to life, with the hopes of unleashing sustainable progress for tomorrow’s world.”
Accelerating Startups
Not only will the lab bring creators together, it will also help startup companies. Startups will have access to the Dassault Systèmes´ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, including powerful tools like SOLIDWORKS and DriveWorksXpress, alongside invaluable resources, technical skills and mentoring. Being part of the Dassault Systèmes worldwide ecosystem will help accelerate the startups’ product launches and international presence.
In collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Bits and Atoms, the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab also has a digital fabrication space with state of the art tools, workbenches, 3D printers, laser engravers and a robotic arm. The Fab Lab space provides start ups with the tools they need to create product prototypes or refine their product ideas.
Success in Europe
Since its opening in November 2015, the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in France has seen successful projects in multiple industries. These include large-scale additive construction using robots, 3D printing of personalized organs for simulation of surgery, open source drones having capabilities of both a helicopter and an airplane, and upstream innovation by sketching in immersive virtual reality.
The Grand Opening
The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab is a really exciting addition to Waltham and will provide a great opportunity for startups, entrepreneurs, students and makers to excel, innovate and make a change in society.
The grand opening gave members of the Dassault community the chance to have a look around the amazing new space and really see its full potential. Engineers, designers, academics and students toured the space and a had a go with some of the equipment it houses.
As a SOLIDWORKS Gold Partner, we were really pleased to be invited to the event and Heather from the DriveWorks team went along to see the facility and equipment first hand and send some photos back for the rest of the team.
It’s clear what a great place the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab will be for everyone, but especially all of those involved in SOLIDWORKS Education and the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network.
We’re really excited to see the fascinating projects that are sure to come from the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab and what a great impact it will have on the industry and society as a whole.
