VI-grade announces strategic collaboration with Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Marburg, Jun 27th, 2014 – VI-grade, the leading provider of best-in-class software products and services for advanced applications in the field of system level simulation, today announced the establishment of a strategic collaboration with Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan), the largest technical university in Italy. The partnership calls for the installation of a static simulator based on VI-grade technology.

In detail, the driving simulator based on the VI-CarRealTime and VI-GraphSim software technologies, will be used as educational tool for students of vehicle dynamics courses issued by Politecnico di Milano, offering them a proving ground where abilities and knowledge can be tested in a hands-on experience. At the same time, Dynamis PRC, Politecnico di Milano’s FSAE racing team, will use the VI-grade simulator to carry out dynamic tests on the 2014 prototype to optimize suspension layout and setup as well as weight distribution, giving the drivers the opportunity to become familiar with the car and deliver important feedback.

 

“We are proud to introduce the birth of a new partnership between VI-grade and Dynamis PRC, the racing team that represents the Politecnico di Milano in the Formula SAE competitions,” said Prof. Federico Cheli, Politecnico di Milano. “Thanks to VI-grade, our team will have the chance to virtually develop and optimize the prototype of our car, saving time and money usually spent in extensive track testing.”

“We are extremely happy to report another successful installation of our driving simulation technology in the FSAE community”, said Guido Bairati, International Sales Director, VI-grade. “We are looking forward to a fruitful collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and the Dynamis PRC team. FSAE is gaining more and more importance and visibility worldwide and it is very promising that also racing teams in this category will start using driving simulators to develop better cars.”

The STATIC Simulator by VI-grade is a professional solution that allows OEMs, Tier1 suppliers and Research Institutes to use driving simulator to start bridging the gap between physical testing and simulation. The simulator is based on the same VI-DriveSim software package that is used on COMPACT Simulator and on DiM, but is also fully compatible with 3rd party software solutions. This makes it possible to upgrade the static simulator to a dynamic simulator later on, leveraging previous investments. HMI, Vehicle Dynamics, NVH and ADAS are some of the disciplines that could be developed using a static simulator by VI-grade. Cylindrical screen and professional projectors make it possible to reach very high level of realism and to give driver an immersive driver experience. Thanks to the real-time hardware infrastructure, static simulator is also suitable for software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop applications.

About Politecnico di Milano

The Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan) is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 38,700 students. It offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in Engineering, Architecture and Design. Founded in 1863 by Francesco Brioschi, secretary of the Ministry of Education and rector of the University of Pavia, it is the oldest university in Milan. Its original name was Istituto Tecnico Superiore ("Higher Technical Institute") and only Civil and Industrial Engineering was taught. In 1927 the Politecnico moved to piazza Leonardo da Vinci, in the district now known as Città studi (City of Studies), where the main facilities of the University can still be found today. The historical building was designed and built by engineers and architects all graduated in the Politecnico itself. In 1954, the first European centre of electronic computation was opened and in 1963 Giulio Natta received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on crystalline polymers, polypropylene in particular. In 1977, the satellite Sirio, jointly developed by Politecnico and other companies was launched. Since the end of the 1980s, the Politecnico has begun a process of territorial expansion that has resulted in the opening of its satellite campuses. Today the University is distributed over 7 campuses: 2 main campuses in Milan and other 5 satellite campuses across Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

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