April 22, 2008

In cooperation with China's Ministry of Education, Autodesk has launched China Student Design Community to provide free digital design tools to Chinese students.

China Student Design Community is the latest program that Autodesk has offered in support of China's digital design innovation and engineering education. Previously, the company has made investments in China's education field, including the establishment of joint labs in five Chinese universities of Tsinghua University, Tongji University, Harbin Institute of Technology, South China University of Technology and Shanghai Jiaotong University. The company has also sponsored China's Development and Design program through which it has reached partnership with Beijing Software and Information Service Promotion Center, providing software and development tools to Chinese designers.

"Autodesk has a clear strategy in pushing forward China's design and engineering education, and we are committed to making advanced digital design technology more accessible to students and educational professionals and assist them through cross-disciplinary education," says Ken Bado, senior vice president of Autodesk Asia Pacific in a press statement from local media, "We'll help China create a large group of new designers with international competitiveness through coordination with China's Ministry of Education and this is good for increasing China's competitiveness in meeting the ever-increasing global challenge."

China Student Design Community and the above mentioned joint labs will continue to carry out work under the guidance of China's Ministry of Education.

At present, Autodesk has R&D center in China and offices in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan and Hong Kong with a total of more than 1500 development staff.