OREANDA-NEWS. May 22, 2015. The Ohio State University and Honda celebrated the grand opening of the new Simulation Innovation and Modeling Center (SIMCenter) by inviting other potential industry partners to collaborate at the facility designed to advance product performance and manufacturing processes through computer-aided simulation.

Located in Smith Laboratory and part of the College of Engineering, the SIMCenter was launched as a result of a \\$5 million gift from Honda R&D Americas, Inc., and began operating late last winter. The Center is focused on researching and developing new and improved computational engineering tools for all aspects of vehicle design and manufacturing.

The grand opening event included Honda R&D Americas, Inc. President Frank Paluch, College of Engineering Dean David B. Williams, Ohio Supercomputer Center Executive Director Pankaj Shah, and University of Cincinnati College of Engineering Dean Teik Lim.

"The SIMCenter is a little over one year old, and we have already received significant industry funding, primarily from Honda," said SIMCenter Director Rob Lee. "With ten faculty members actively participating in the center, and an aggressive effort to hire research staff underway, we are now ready to reach out to potential industry partners to help them with their research and development needs."

The SIMCenter seeks to utilize computer-aided engineering to improve the accuracy of virtual testing for new materials and designs. These innovations will save time and resources during development, and can predict outcomes with greater precision.

Since 1988, Ohio State and Honda have continuously partnered on initiatives in education, research, product development, and public service. This latest step in the partnership will accelerate the adoption of virtual engineering methods to enable greater product innovations and benefit future customers.

"Every company has a different vision for the future of mobility, however, we all have a common need to develop ideas into new solutions as quickly, safely, and efficiently as possible," said Paluch. "The collaboration in the research environment of the SIMCenter by talented young engineers trained in advanced CAE methods will help advance the field much more quickly than we could do alone."