ANSYS turns 40!
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ANSYS turns 40!

I INTRODUCTION:

This month's EDA WEEKLY article by this writer features ANSYS, Inc. [0]



Hello? Are there not at least two paradoxes in that opening sentence?

First of all, how does a series of articles that appears monthly, wherein each article initially gets posted in IBSystems' EDACafe.com for a fortnight, ever get called a “WEEKLY”?

Secondly, this is EDA WEEKLY in EDACafe, right? Isn't ANSYS that hoary old Mechanical CAE finite element analysis software vendor that you write about in your MCAD Commentary every quarter, in MCADCafe.com no less?

The answers, my friends, are written in the wind…but I digress.

The answers to those two paradoxical questions are: (1) I don't know, and (2) Yes and no!

Let's deal with the SECOND, more relevant of the two paradoxes. It is certainly true that ANSYS, Inc. is easily the oldest of the previous five companies [1] singularly featured by this writer since his latest series of EDA WEEKLY articles began to appear last Fall; see Table 1 below:

ArticlePosting DateFeatured CompanyFounded
MAD Progress 12/07/09 Mentor Graphics 1981
Virage Logic –
On the Move!		 12/22/09 Virage Logic 1996
Agilent EEsof
EDA – Part I		 02/01/10 Agilent EEsof 1983
Altium Ltd. –
Focus on the Americas		 03/01/10 Altium, Ltd. 1985
Agilent EEsof
EDA – Part II		 03/29/10 Agilent EEsof 1983
All About EVE 04/26/10 EVE S.A. 2000
ANSYS turns 40! 07/19/10 ANSYS, Inc. 1970
Table 1 Single Software Vendors covered in this writer’s EDA WEEKLIES



But ANSYS, Inc. at age 40 is hardly ready for a rest home! Rather, it is arguably one of the best positioned software & services entities in existence today for enabling modern product development among its customer base via multiple real world engineering simulations.

Gone are the days when ANSYS software tools were aimed solely at Mechanical CAE.


II FOCUS OF THIS ARTICLE:

Because of its age and accomplishments, a full history of an active and robust 40 year old company such as ANSYS, Inc. would take a several-hundred-page book. So the focus in this article is on ANSYS' more recent activities, such as:
(1) Multi-physics engineering simulation, &
(2) The role of the current CEO in leading ANSYS to its remarkable success over the last decade.

Accordingly, the sequel is organized into the following sections:

  1. MULTI-PHYSICS IS KEY
  2. CEO PIVOTAL
  3. ANSYS TODAY
  4. JUST HOW GOOD ARE ANSYS' FINANCIALS?
  5. EFFECTIVE ACQUISITION STRATEGY
  6. COMPETITION
  7. ONE FINAL EXCELLENT MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS
  8. PERFORMANCE RECOGNIZED
  9. ANSYS CEO'S
  10. PROFILE OF JAMES E. CASHMAN III
  11. FOOTNOTES

By the way, the writer of this article has been frequently involved at arms length in one way or another with SASI/ANSYS from 1970 onward, mostly during SASI's first dozen years, but not altogether infrequently since then. See Footnote [2].


[0] Numbers in brackets refer to Footnotes provided at the end of the article.


III MULTI-PHYSICS IS KEY:

The ANSYS transition has occurred by building on the foundation of the company's first thirty years and relentlessly executing over the last ten years a strategy of assembling a powerful collection integrated software tools for real-world simulation of modern industrial products across multiple physical environments, including not only mechanical and structural influences, but also fluid dynamics, electronics, electro-magnetics, thermal, dynamics & vibration, drop testing, etc. ANSYS' breadth across many forms of physics appears truly unique; it's hard to find any other vendor that offers the same range and depth of electro-magnetics, mechanical and fluids physics.

And all these applications are knitted together and organized with user-friendly, enabling software tools, including ANSYS Workbench TM that accelerates the customer adoption curve and integrates the technologies that ANSYS either builds or acquires, and also eases the installation of third-party technologies within ANSYS' customer environments.

A modern automobile is a perfect example of the evolution of a relatively straight-forward, mostly mechanical & structural vehicle design 25 years ago to today's complex product that demands multi-physics for its proper engineering design and simulation. Each bubble in the illustration below requires electrical, electronic, thermal, or fluid dynamics to be correctly considered.




IV CEO PIVOTAL:

The 10-year transition has been carried out by the team assembled and led by CEO Jim Cashman while simultaneously producing along the way what many consider to be spectacular financial growth and profitability.



Skillful selection and absorption of key acquisitions over the last decade combined with vigorous organic growth have also been exemplary, along with deft leveraging of scores of software partners and modern high performance computing resources.


V ANSYS TODAY:

So these days ANSYS, Inc. globally markets engineering simulation software and multi-physics technologies widely used by engineers and designers across a broad spectrum of industries. ANSYS continues to focus on the development of open and flexible solutions that enable users to analyze designs directly on the desktop, providing a common platform for fast, efficient and cost-conscious product development, from design concept to final-stage testing and validation. Each year, ANSYS developers and applications personnel exert a maximum effort to continually “democratize simulation” by improving and simplifying the user interfaces of ANSYS software, so that ANSYS tools that were once the exclusive realm of PhD experts can now be effectively used by a far broader group of senior analysts and design engineers.



ANSYS and its global network of channel partners provide sales, support and training for customers. Headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania with more than 60 strategic sales locations throughout the world, ANSYS and its subsidiaries today employ approximately 1,700 people and distribute ANSYS products through its channel network in over 40 countries.





VI JUST HOW GOOD ARE ANSYS' FINANCIALS?

ANSYS is today one of the fastest growing and profitable companies in the world. (Its financial performance reports have been included in all the quarterly MCAD COMMENTARIES by Henke Associates since 2003).

Here is one illustration that tells the story of the last several years:




In the last three calendar years alone, ANSYS has registered revenues of $385 million in 2007, $478 million in 2008 and $516 million in 2009. Its GAAP net income in these three years was $82.4 million, $111.7 million, and $116.4 million, respectively.

Financial success has continued into the current year. On May 06, 2010 ANSYS announced excellent financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2010.
Total revenue was $136.1 million, with net income of $32.4 million.

Assuming the worldwide economic recovery is not too damaged by the tragedy of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, ANSYS expects the following for the full year ending December 31, 2010: revenue of $560 to $580 million and net income in the neighborhood of $136.1 million.

Such results would mean a compound growth rate (CGR) of ~14.5% on revenue and a CGR of ~18% on net income over the four year period.

ANSYS has been a public company since June 21, 1996. Adjusting for dividends & splits, its stock closed at $3.00 per share on the day of the IPO, and the NASDAQ Composite closed at 1244.42. Exactly fourteen years later, ANSYS stock (ANSS) closed at $43.83 and the NASDAQ at 2309.80. Over the 14 years, ANSS has enjoyed a stock price growth factor of 43.83/3.00, or 14.61; the NASDAQ growth factor over the same period was 2309.80/1244.42, or 1.86.

ANSYS has also achieved excellent balance in its recent revenue generation, with 34% coming from North America, 35% from Europe and 31 % from the rest of the world:





Moreover, ANSYS revenue is also well balanced across industries:





ANSYS also enjoys excellent market penetration today. ANSYS has well over 34,000 total customers, and it counts as customers some 97 of the top 100 industrial companies on the FORTUNE Global 500 list. See for example Footnote [3] about the Volkswagen Group.



And the future bodes well: Fewer than 10% of the world's ~13 million engineers have licenses to use simulation solvers from ANSYS and all competitors combined! And each year another several hundred thousand engineers are graduating worldwide.


VII EFFECTIVE ACQUISITION STRATEGY:

Over the last decade, ANSYS has carried out its acquisitions very effectively, thanks to the discipline of a strict strategy that has been relentlessly pursued. It involves the following minimum criteria for an acquisition candidate:
Meeting these ANSYS criteria have been the following entities since the year 2000 began (Table 2):




The 2008 acquisition by ANSYS OF Ansoft was the most recent and one of the larger ANSYS transactions in the decade just ended. A detailed explanation of the purpose of the deal, and all the particulars are posted on the ANSYS web site at:

http://www.ansys.com/magazine/vol3-iss1-2009-ansys-advantage.asp





VIII COMPETITION:

As one might expect, ANSYS constantly monitors it competition, especially when it comes to providing multi-physics (MP) attributes. On the one hand, it's reassuring to ANSYS management to observe that demand for the marketplace is driving many ANSYS competitors to seek ways to offer some form of MP capacity. On the other hand, ANSYS must focus fresh resources every day to ensure that its MP tools continue to provide best-in-class, most comprehensive and fully-integrated MP capabilities, a position ANSYS believes it is in today.

Currently ANSYS lists about a dozen outside “niche” vendors or “full-service” vendors that offer some level of MP features, against a double-digit list of key MP domains, assessing whether each element in the matrix may be classified as “no capability at all, limited, medium, good or high-level general purpose” in nature. The lists are growing along both axes - vendors and domains. The writer has discussed the current matrix with the ANSYS technical marketing team, and he believes that ANSYS' claim to lead the parade at the present time is indeed credible. While it would be impolitic to identify the outside vendors by name, the current list of domains includes Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Electromagnetics, Explicit Dynamics, Structural Mechanics, Mechatronics, MultiBody Dynamics, Knowledge Management, and more.



As previously mentioned, ANSYS firmly believes that any critical MP domain that it offers must be “high level general purpose”. If such a new domain cannot be organically developed in house, ANSYS believes that the outside entity providing the new domain should be acquired and smoothly folded into the ANSYS organization and software if at all possible. A bare-bones minimum requirement is that a partnership be structured to ensure tight integration of the domain, if the supplier chooses to remain independent.

For more information on ANSYS Multi-physics, click on:

http://www.ansys.com/magazine/vol3-iss1-2009-ansys-advantage.asp



ANSYS employs a similar approach in evaluating itself against competition in all critical areas of software features, functions and user benefits.


IX ONE FINAL EXCELLENT MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS:

The performance of ANSYS equity over the last decade is shown in the following chart. It speaks for itself:





As of June 19-20, 2010, ANSYS' Market Capitalization was $3.97 billion.


X PERFORMANCE RECOGNIZED:

Both ANSYS, Inc. as a company and Jim Cashman as CEO have received massive business and industry recognition and accolades over the years.

Some of these are listed in Footnotes [4] RECOGNITION AND ACCOLADES and [5] ANSYS RECENT PRESS RELEASES.


XI ANSYS CEO'S:

Despite its relatively long history, ANSYS has had only three CEO's. As mentioned, Jim Cashman has been the president and CEO from the year 2000 up to the present time. Jim was preceded by Peter J. Smith, who was CEO till 2000; Peter still serves as Chairman of the Board. Before that, Founder John Swanson held sway until he became the firm's Chief Technologist, and he retired in that capacity in 1999.

Please see Footnote [6] for more background on both John Swanson and Peter J. Smith. Jim Cashman's profile is provided directly below this paragraph.


XII PROFILE OF JAMES E. CASHMAN III:



James E. Cashman III



James E. Cashman III was born in Hamilton OH in August 1953, the only child of James Cashman, Jr. and Marjorie Cashman. (Hamilton is in Southwestern Ohio, only 25 miles due north of the writer's initial Cincinnati home, where he was 12 years old and in the 7th grade in 1953).



Because of the nature of his father's job, the Cashman threesome moved frequently during Jim III's youth, although most of the family's time was spent in either Ohio or Minnesota. Attending many different schools, Jim III also held a variety of part time jobs throughout his elementary and secondary education … jobs that competed with his strong interest in music as well as his ardent participation in seasonal sports like soccer, baseball and basketball. Nevertheless, Jim III prospered academically and placed second in his eventual 1971 graduating class at Colerain High School in Cincinnati.




(Note: While Jim Cashman and the writer had not yet met, the writer's home from 1966 to 1972 was located less than one mile northwest of Colerain High School).

Favoring an engineering curriculum, Jim evaluated lots of colleges, including but not limited to the University of Minnesota, MIT, Purdue and the University if Cincinnati (UC). The latter's 5-year program in mechanical engineering became his ultimate choice, because UC offered both co-op work-study programs and financial assistance for playing Division I soccer. Jim moved to the Cincinnati suburb of Clifton and began college at UC in September 1971.



In a fortuitous happenstance for both parties, Jim joined Cincinnati-based Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) in 1972 for all of his co-op work assignments during his college years. SDRC was only 5 years old at the time; the writer did not know Jim yet, having himself joined SDRC just three years earlier to initiate the company's computer services, executive seminars and software development, to complement the firm's existing dynamic testing consulting practice. (Over the years, many of SDRC's full-time personnel had also been university co-ops; company management strongly believed in college work-study co-op programs).



In typical SDRC fashion, Jim was thrust early on into actual commercial consulting projects like vibration testing and software development, stretching his emerging professional engineering skills, providing a rapid learning curve and building his customer interaction savvy. Since SDRC licensed a variety of commercially-available finite element analysis software codes to help execute its consulting projects, Jim was also exposed to their use in real projects during his co-op periods at SDRC, (including early versions of ANSYS).



On the college front, once again Jim prospered academically, despite the rigorous UC engineering curriculum, playing varsity soccer and other intramural sports, and the very challenging SDRC co-op periods. Along the way, Jim became a member of national engineering honoraries Pi Tau Sigma and Tau Beta Pi. Jim ultimately achieved a 5-year cumulative GPA of 3.98 (out of 4.00), placing him first in his ME engineering graduating class in 1976.




With his co-op experience and his stellar academic record, SDRC was of course anxious to hire Jim full time upon his BSME graduation. But having participated in practice sessions with the team, Jim was leaning toward an offer to play professional soccer with the Cincinnati Comets in the American Soccer League (ASL). However, this issue became moot when the local soccer team folded in 1976, so SDRC became the fortunate beneficiary of Jim's full time talents.



Jim's first post-graduate assignment was in SDRC Systems, the company's sales unit. He was put in charge of SDRC's largest account at the time (Caterpillar), and by leveraging individuals across SDRC, Jim managed to triple SDRC's sales level with CAT in just a couple years. Among the SDRC people Jim tapped to assist was the writer, who was at the time SDRC's president and COO. This led to an ongoing association and friendship between the two men. Indeed, while several inches shorter at 6' 1” and 12 years older, the writer often provided valuable lessons in humility to Mr. Cashman during frequent 1:1 basketball challenges on the outside public courts in Mariemont OH in the late 70's. (Oddly, Jim's recollection of these matches is different, claiming that the writer never won a single game to 10 baskets, despite being spotted 3 baskets to start each game).



Jim Cashman continued his career at SDRC for the next 18 years (1976 till 1994), whereas the writer left SDRC (1969 - 1982) to join Schlumberger Applicon in Boston as EVP in 1982 and then moved permanently to the west coast in 1984:



Henke 1982


Fortunately, despite cross-country geographic separation of 2400 to 2700 miles since 1984, the paths of Jim Cashman and the writer have crossed many times, since we have both been in similar businesses. Moreover, both of us have long been interested engineering applications with coupled phenomena, or multi-physics.

Back to Jim Cashman. Following his CAT assignment at SDRC, Jim moved into SDRC CAE consulting in the late 70's, branched over into the SDRC CAE International emerging software business, then into North American Marketing, then into lead roles in International Sales (essentially Asia minus Japan). Then to Director of SDRC Core Products and ultimately Jim became the GM of the SDRC Data Management business unit.

Jim's latter SDRC position led to the formation of a joint venture with Control Data Corporation (CDC) to form Metaphase Technologies in 1992, with Jim becoming the vice president of Development and Marketing of the new venture for the next two years (based in Arden Hills, Minnesota).

Along the way, Jim also found time (1) to earn a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC (MSME 1978) as well as (2) a Master of Business Administration degree from UC (MBA 1981), (3) get married (1988) and begin a family (1993).

Once the first CDC-SDRC Metaphase merged product was launched in 1994, Jim decided to broaden his experience and in May 1995 accepted a new position of Vice President of Marketing and International Operations at PAR TECHNOLOGY, based in New Hartford, NY. At PAR, Jim gained valuable insight into manufacturing issues, international operations, and ISO quality standards, the while spending much of his time traveling internationally.



Nevertheless, when ANSYS Chairman CEO Peter J. Smith first contacted Jim via an executive search firm in early 1997 about the possibility of joining ANSYS, Jim realized how much he had missed the engineering simulation market and customer base.

After visiting with Peter Smith and the ANSYS management team in May 1997 and again in July, Jim accepted an offer to join ANSYS as Senior Vice President of Operations in August 1997. When he first started at ANSYS, Jim reported directly to Peter Smith.

Jim and his family relocated to the Pittsburgh area in November 1997.

Jim held the ANSYS Senior VP position until April of 1999, when he was promoted to president.

James E. Cashman III, then 46 years old, became ANSYS CEO in February 2000.



ANSYS HQ Canonsburg PA





XIII FOOTNOTES:

[0] Footnote: Throughout the article, the word “ANSYS” appears, to represent either the name of the enterprise “ANSYS, Inc.” or to represent the name of the collection of software also called “ANSYS”. The context of the rest of the sentence in which the word “ANSYS” is used will cue the reader as to which meaning applies.


[1] Footnote: The following articles in the latest series of EDA WEEKLIES by this writer featured multiple companies, not just one as was the case in the articles listed in Table 1 above:
- The Role of Business Planning, posted 11/09/09
- The Economy, Semiconductors, EDA & IP, posted 05/24/10
- WORKS IN PROGRESS: The Economy & EDA, posted 06/21/10


[2] Footnote: SDRC & SASI/ANSYS Interactions

Early contacts were inevitable between SASI and the writer of this EDA WEEKLY. Early in his corporate career, the writer had joined Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC) Cincinnati in March 1969, charged with initiating the SDRC computer operations and services business. Up to then, SDRC had offered consulting and testing services only, and sported all of 20 employees. While SDRC promptly began in mid-1969 developing its own software for static and dynamic analysis of structures, autos, farm and construction equipment, etc., by 1970 the company needed access to more advanced 3D finite element analysis right away to successfully execute its customer consulting projects. Having just arrived in the marketplace, both ANSYS and Cosmic NASTRAN were identified by SDRC and usage licenses quickly arranged.

SDRC also had begun its Engineering Services Activity in 1969, holding scheduled seminars to teach customer executives and engineers the ROI of finite elements and system dynamics. Readers must remember that the use of such analysis software was not widespread in 1969-70. Time sharing networks were rare and large mainframe computers of the day (GE 635, Univac 1108, IBM 7094, CDC 6600) needed for running programs like NASTRAN and ANSYS were also rare and expensive, requiring huge decks of keypunched cards for input and batch alphanumeric printouts for output.

SDRC and its customers were delighted in the early 70's when SDRC (and others) began offering Tektronix storage tubes and Calcomp or Houston digital plotters for input/output. SDRC worked very closely with SASI to not only help implement these capabilities in ANSYS, but also to help John Swanson debug his actual analysis software code. (Bugs in new software were/are also inevitable).

SDRC also began using MSC NASTRAN in the same way, in lieu of the public Cosmic code. While more expensive, MSC NASTRAN was better maintained than Cosmic NASTRAN.

Over the decade of the 70's, SDRC built a fast-growing profitable worldwide company of well over 300 people. SDRC usage of ANSYS grew as well. It was early in the 70's that an intelligent young man named James E. Cashman III was hired by SDRC in as a co-op student from the University of Cincinnati; a person who was later to become very important to ANSYS, Inc., as seen in the main body of this article.

The mutually-beneficial working relationship between SASI (which changed its name to ANSYS Inc. in 1994) and SDRC continued for decades, long after the writer had left SDRC for Boston in 1982. Who knows, the SDRC/SASI usage arrangement may well have survived the 2001 UGS/SDRC merger, and even the 2007 UGS acquisition by SIEMENS.

One other anecdote related to this issue of EDA WEEKLY that is arguably worth mentioning: In 1995-96, the writer was serving on the Board of Directors of the MacNeal Schwendler Corporation (MSC - Los Angeles), when the MSC CEO and the Board asked the writer to determine if the MSC Electromagnetic Division based in Wisconsin might be sold to raise much needed cash for the MSC parent company. It was also desired that the purchaser represent a well-intentioned home for the subject division and its people. To keep the story short: The MSC Electromagnetic Division was sold in mid-1996 for a healthy multiple of its then-current divisional revenue to Ansoft, which at the time was a relatively small independent electronics software company in Pittsburgh PA. The sale followed a successful negotiation between the writer (acting on behalf of MSC)


Henke 1996


and Nicolas Csendes, CEO of Ansoft. Over the intervening years, Ansoft made other acquisitions and grew steadily to a company of $100,000,000 in annual revenue just prior to its 2008 acquisition by ANSYS! Small world.


[3] Footnote: Volkswagen Signs Master Agreement with ANSYS

German Car Manufacturer to Rely on Multi-physics Engineering Simulation Solutions from ANSYS

On February 10, 2010 ANSYS, Inc. announced that Volkswagen AG, one of the world's largest car producers, had signed a master agreement with ANSYS and intends to widen its use of the most comprehensive engineering simulation solution available today. The strategic decision to use ANSYS(R) software was due both to the bandwidth of applications that can be addressed as well as to the innovative ANSYS(R) Workbench(TM) platform that allows for a substantial process compression.

In its research and development, Volkswagen uses structural mechanics, fluid dynamics and explicit analysis tools from ANSYS to perform, among other applications, studies on climate control, headlights and engine internal flow.

"Simulation Driven Product Development(TM) is applied in nearly every industry to drive product development and accelerate time to market," said Dr. Albrecht Gill, regional sales director at ANSYS Germany. "Mere experience and prototyping is not sufficient in today's dynamic environment. Forward-looking companies like Volkswagen are increasing their use of simulation technology to lower their development costs and gain more confidence in designs."





"The automotive market is highly competitive, and technological advances are being incorporated in modern cars at an ever-faster pace. To stay at the top, there is no way around applying simulation tools to drive product development and innovation. Our decision for simulation software from ANSYS is based on the depth and breadth of the solution we needed to cover our simulation needs," said Dr. Ralph Sundermeier, head of the Department for CAE-methods at Volkswagen AG. "The ANSYS Workbench concept is convincing because we can easily do coupled simulations and, in this way, accurately account for the entire range of physics."

Volkswagen AG

The Volkswagen Group, headquartered in Wolfsburg (Germany), is one of the world's leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2008, the Group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 6.257 million (2007: 6.190 million), corresponding to a 10.3 percent share of the world passenger car market. In Western Europe, the largest car market in the world, just over one in five new cars (20.3 percent) comes from the Volkswagen Group. Group sales rose in 2008 to 113.8 billion euros (2007: 108.9 billion). Profit after tax in the 2008 financial year amounted to 4.69 billion euros (2007: 4.12 billion). The Group operates 61 production plants in fifteen European countries and a further six countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Around the world, nearly 370,000 employees produce more than 26,600 vehicles or are involved in vehicle-related services each working day. The Volkswagen Group sells its vehicles in more than 150 countries.


[4] Footnote: ANSYS RECOGNITION AND ACCOLADES

Products from ANSYS are used by innovative companies all over the world in a variety of applications:
ANSYS has been recognized as a strong financial performer by a number of sources:

Stock indexes:

[5] Footnote: ANSYS Recent Press Releases

Go to http://anss.client.shareholder.com/releases.cfm




[6] Footnote: ANSYS: Three CEO's in 40 years


John A. Swanson


CEO #1: John A. Swanson graduated with a bachelors degree and a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University in 1962 & 1963, respectively. He went on to earn a PhD in applied mechanics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966. Swanson began his engineering career in 1963 at Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory in Pittsburgh and was responsible for stress analysis of the components in NERVA nuclear reactors and served as supervisor of the core analysis and methods group and the manager of the structural analysis group.

While at Westinghouse, John used and developed computer codes to model and predict transient stresses and displacements of the reactor systems. By developing a 3-D analysis model, he wished to integrate different computer codes in order to streamline the processing, but he left Westinghouse in 1969 when he was not supported in his endeavors.

Dr. Swanson then founded Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) in his home in Pittsburgh in 1970 to develop, support and market the ANSYS simulation software program he was developing. As we now know, the ANSYS software was to become an industry leader for assisting engineers and designers in optimizing product development processes in the aerospace, automotive, biomedical, manufacturing and electronics industries by simulating how products will function in real life.

Swanson served ANSYS in various roles as president, chief executive officer, director and chief technologist, until his retirement in March 1999.

Swanson was named the 1987 Pittsburgh Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) . In 1990, Swanson won the Computers in Engineering Award for outstanding contributions to the engineering & computing industries. In 1994 he was named one of the Top 5 of the Top 50 R&D Stars in the US by Industry Week and was elected as an ASME Fellow. In 1998, Swanson won the ASME Applied Mechanics Award and received the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering's Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was awarded honorary membership in the ASME in 2003. In 2004, Swanson was awarded the John Fritz Medal, considered the highest and most prestigious award in the engineering profession, from the American Association of Engineering Societies. In 2006 he was awarded the ASME President's Award for significant contributions to the engineering profession, and in 2009 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Swanson serves as a member of the ASME Foundation Board of Directors and is a member of the Board of Trustees. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh since 2006 as well as on the Board of Trustees at Washington & Jefferson College. Swanson also serves consultant and trainer in the field of engineering simulation at ANSYS. Now residing in Florida , he is married to his wife Janet, and has one son, Eric.

At Cornell University, Swanson established the Swanson Fund for Excellence in Undergraduate Education and endowed the Director of the Swanson Laboratory for Engineering Simulation in the Cornell University College of Engineering . He also made two significant gifts in support of the Duffield Hall project, where an atrium was named in recognition of his support, and established the Dorothy G. Swanson Award, in honor of his mother, at the school.

At Washington & Jefferson College , Swanson donated $10 million to fund construction of the John A. Swanson Science Center that primarily houses physics and chemistry departments. Swanson also established the Swanson Wellness Center in the school's Old Gym and the Janet L. Swanson Tennis Center .

Dr. Swanson has also donated tens of millions to the University of Pittsburgh and its engineering school, including a $41.3 million gift in 2007 which, at that time, was the largest single gift ever by an individual to the university. He has also created the John A. Swanson Institute for Technical Excellence, which houses the John A. Swanson Center for Micro and Nano Systems; the John A. Swanson Center for Product Innovation; and the RFID Center of Excellence. He also has established the John A. Swanson Embedded Computing Laboratory in Computer Engineering. In 2007, the university renamed its School of Engineering to the Swanson School of engineering in his honor.

On May 03, 2010 The University of Pittsburgh's (Pitt) Swanson School of Engineering announced it had deployed software from ANSYS, Inc., providing its engineering faculty and students access to world-class simulation tools. Pitt has licensed ANSYS Academic(TM) and Ansoft Academic(TM) product bundles that include tools for classroom demonstrations and hands-on instruction as well as sophisticated products that provide the unlimited numerical capabilities necessary for doctoral and post-doctoral work.

ANSYS Academic product bundles provide universities access to all the features and capabilities available in its industry-standard engineering simulation tools in a value-added, scalable manner that meets the needs of diverse users. Not only can Pitt users access the simulation capabilities in individual engineering disciplines -- structural mechanics, electromagnetics, thermal analysis or fluid dynamics -- but they can take advantage of the technology's multi-physics capabilities to solve complex problems and perform multi-scale engineering simulations. ANSYS recently added Ansoft Academic product bundles to the portfolio, enabling students to address radio frequency, microwave, signal integrity, electromagnetics and mechatronics sectors.

"Our students now have access to the same powerful simulation tools that are used by professionals across the global engineering field. The software provides them with hands-on, real-world experience that will enable them to deliver more value as they move forward in their careers," said Brian Vidic, director of technology at the Swanson School.




University of Pittsburgh


The University of Pittsburgh, founded in 1787, is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. Today, the University serves more than 35,000 full- and part-time students at its 132-acre Pittsburgh campus and four regional campuses. The Swanson School of Engineering's 100 faculty members serve nearly 2,500 students in six departments -- including Bioengineering, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. The School also offers interdisciplinary programs in Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Computer Engineering, Engineering Physics, Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

By the way, Dr. Swanson delivered the commencement address to University of Pittsburgh graduates on May 2, 2010, and he also received from the University an honorary degree of Doctor of Science “Honoris Causa” on the same date.



Peter J. Smith


CEO #2: Mr. Peter J. Smith has been Chairman of the ANSYS Board of Directors since July 1995. Peter served as president from until April 1999 and Chief Executive Officer from until February 2000. Prior to joining the Company, Smith was Vice President of European Operations for Digital Equipment Corporation from November 1991 to March 1994. Previously, he managed Digital's worldwide applications development and marketing activities, including its engineering systems group which focused on CAD and CAM, graphics and general engineering software business.


CEO #3: James E. Cashman III - See main body of the article.



####


Acknowledgments:


The writer would like to acknowledge the sources of data and information for this issue of EDA WEEKLY: Wikipedia, Yahoo! Finance; Google Finance; and multiple persons from ANSYS, Inc. Special thanks to Jim Cashman for taking time for several interviews in May and June 2010, and to ANSYS' Gina Durko, Fran Hensler, Josh Fredberg and Tom Smithyman for their generous assistance. Ongoing support by the team at IBSystems, Inc., including but not limited to Sanjay Gangal, Adam Heller, David Heller, Jon Heller, Nitai Fraenkel, and Sumit Singhal, is also appreciated.

####



About the Writer of this EDA Weekly:

Since 1996, Dr. Russ Henke has been president of HENKE ASSOCIATES, a San Francisco Bay Area high-tech business & management consulting firm. The number of client companies for HENKE ASSOCIATES now numbers more than forty.

Having earned his PhD from the University of Cincinnati, Henke was named a Distinguished Alumnus of UC in 1989. During his corporate career, Henke operated sequentially on "both sides" of MCAE-MCAD and EDA, as a software user and as a CAD vendor. He's a veteran corporate executive from Cincinnati Milacron, SDRC, Schlumberger Applicon, Gould Electronics, Automation Technology Products (ATP), and Mentor Graphics Corporation.


Henke is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and served on the SME International Board of Directors. Henke was also a board member of SDRC, PDA, ATP, and the MacNeal Schwendler Corporation. He currently serves on the board of Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. Dr. Henke is also a member of the IEEE and a Life Fellow of ASME International.


In April 2006, Dr. Henke received the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from the CAD Society, presented by CAD Society president Jeff Rowe at COFES2006 in Scottsdale, AZ. In February 2007, Henke became affiliated with Cyon Research's select group of experts on business and technology issues as a Senior Analyst. This Cyon Research connection supplements Henke's ongoing, independent consulting practice (HENKE ASSOCIATES).


To obtain details of the new "2010 Business Planning Tool Kit Promotion" from HENKE ASSOCIATES, please click on the URL below and scroll to the last entry on that page:


http://www.henkeassociates.net

Since May 2003 HENKE ASSOCIATES has published a total of ninety (90) independent quarterly Commentaries on MCAD/MCAE, PLM, EDA and Electronics IP on IBSystems' MCADCafé and EDACafé. Access to the latest of these Commentaries, along with all the EDA Weekly articles posted to date by the writer, may be gained by clicking on this URL:


http://henkeassociates.net/articles.html

Further information on HENKE ASSOCIATES, is available at http://www.henkeassociates.net. March 31, 2010 marked the 14th Anniversary of the founding of HENKE ASSOCIATES.







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-- Russ Henke, EDACafe.com Contributing Editor.