Washington State University (WSU) and ITC Infotech, a leading global technology services and solutions provider, have partnered to launch a retail & apparel technology industry-academia program.
The program will teach WSU students how to use the award-winning FlexPLM® retail product lifecycle management (PLM) product from PTC (NASDAQ: PTC), among other products. WSU is a leading research university with academic programs spanning 200+ fields - Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles, Biosciences, Digital Humanities, among others.
ITC Infotech's industry-leading experience of enabling Retail & Apparel clients accelerate time-to-value from technology investments will provide students with a unique learning experience, rooted in real-life simulations and strengthened through R&D and continuous innovation. This will also help students comprehend the importance of the "Digital Thread" better, and its application across the PLM cycle.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for accelerating product design and development. This course is well timed and will help our students be industry ready. ITC Infotech brings in deep expertise of Retail PLM, having worked with major retailers and fashion brands on their digital PLM journey. Students are bound to find tremendous value," said Ting Chi, Professor-Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design, and Textiles, WSU.
"This implementation is just the start of a journey. The curriculum will be scaled across all Departments offering a course in Fashion. In the future, the University will explore opportunities to extend its relationship with PTC and ITC Infotech, to add depth to the current curriculum through combining FlexPLM with industry leading technologies like PTC's Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR) platforms," he further added.
"We are excited to partner with WSU and enable the next-generation of fashion and retail professionals with best-in-class technical expertise. Designing this course along with WSU on PTC's market leading Retail PLM solution has been a very interesting journey. Providing the students with a real-life PLM environment to learn and experiment on, will provide critical PLM experience and a solid foundation to fast track career growth," said Arun Raghavapudi, President - Americas, ITC Infotech.
As part of the current initiative, ITC Infotech has implemented PTC's FlexPLM solution at WSU along with its native integrations with design tool Adobe Illustrator and 3D tool Browzewear. The integrated solution includes industry specific, ready to use data, to create a live environment for academic use. Further, ITC Infotech has trained the WSU faculty on the best practices around using the integrated solution.
Speaking about the project, Bill Brewster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PTC's Retail Business Unit, added "We often hear from people in the retail industry saying they wish they had access to our PLM software when they were in school. By allowing students to use our software, it makes them more ready-to-work for the industry, provides them with vital hands-on experience, and helps them to gain the digital skills needed for a successful career in fashion and retail."
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