OREANDA-NEWS. Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced its partnership of the master’s degree program on automotive Embedded Lighting Systems (ELS). Three French universities, the Institut d’Optique Graduate School, ESTACA and Strate Ecole de design, in partnership with Renault, Peugeot-Citroen, Valeo and Automotive Lighting, developed the ELS program. Mentor Graphics’ leading front-loading computational fluid dynamics (CFD) FloEFD™ product has been selected as part of the curriculum.

The master’s degree program consists of 14 modules offered in a six-month period, followed by an internship and thesis. Taught in English, the program covers design to production, focusing on technologies and methodologies used for embedded lighting: optics and photonics, systems, simulation, mechatronics and design. Mentor Graphics® FloEFD technology will be featured in the simulation track, used for both education and research. As an industry-leading CAD-embedded solution, the FloEFD product will provide front-loaded CFD so students can evaluate thermal performance early during the design phase. As a fast, feature-rich, and easy-to-use CFD tool, students will learn how to calculate condensation, meshing technologies, radiation modeling using Monte Carlo analysis, and apply reliable physics models to their designs. 

“As a sponsor of this program and a user of Mentor’s FloEFD product, we are pleased to be part of this much-needed master’s degree program,” stated Mohamed L’Baouch, Director R&D at Automotive Lighting France. “This program will help future automotive lighting systems designers understand the complexities and use the most progressive technologies to develop innovative lighting solutions, while seeding the future with new talent.”  

The three universities will provide specialized courses: Institut d’Optique Graduate School will offer courses on optics and photonics; ESTACA will provide transportation engineering instruction; and Strate Ecole de design will cover design. The automotive industry partners supporting this master’s program recognize the importance of this specialty and the training will enable the students to master technical skills in the emerging automotive lighting market. 

“We are very pleased to be involved with this program since it fills a void for automotive systems education,” stated Jean-Paul Ravier, ELS Chair at Institut d’Optique Graduate School. “FloEFD is uniquely positioned as a best-in-class analysis product for automotive lighting design; as a result our graduating students will be able to step in and fulfill the needs of the automotive industry immediately upon graduation.”