School gets $4 M software
SDRC gift astounds Milford Wednesday, April 8, 1998BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIAMI TOWNSHIP -- A $4 million donation of software will allow Milford High School students to use technology usually found only in universities and manufacturing plants.
The gift of more than two dozen workstations of I-DEAS software from Miami Township-based Structural Dynamics Research Corp. (SDRC) propels the school into state-of-the-art computer technology, company officials said.
"It's high-tech of a high order," said Tom Sigafoos, manager of SDRC's education consortium. "We want Milford High School, because of our longstanding partnership, to be a flagship high school in introducing this technology."
Milford will be the first high school in the nation to use I-DEAS software throughout its curriculum, Mr. Sigafoos said. One other high school began two years ago to use I-DEAS -- Bradley Central High in Cleveland, Tenn. -- but only to teach graphics courses, he said. The software -- along with the company's offer to teach the high school's staff how to use it and to upgrade it as needed -- was a windfall. "It is not only fantastic, it is unbelievable," said Beth Tope, curriculum director for the Milford Exempted Village School District, where persuading residents to pass tax increases for school money has been difficult in recent years.
Her reaction when approached by SDRC was that the software was too expensive. After viewing demonstrations -- "which leaves you salivating over all it can do" -- she remembers being astounded with what a company official said next.
"She said, "We're going to give this to you,' " Mrs. Tope said. The I-DEAS software -- used by companies such as Xerox Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Lockheed Martin for computer-aided design and manufacturing -- allows a product to be designed, built and experimented with, all on the computer.
The donation to Milford has a commercial value of about $4.2 million, company officials said. Milford will use the software to teach students interested in engineering, design and computer careers. But the software will reach many more Milford students through its use in an introductory computer class for all ninth- and 10th-graders.
SDRC, an international company founded in 1967 by University of Cincinnati professors and graduate students, has been a partner in education with Milford since 1989.
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