Airbus in partnership with key research universities and institutes

Airbus today forged two partnership agreements with two leading U.S. research institutions, the University of Michigan and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). The agreement was signed at the Paris Air Show by Paul Eremenko (Chief Technology Officer of Airbus), Marc Fischer (Senior Vice-President Flight Physics of Airbus), Professor Alec D. Gallimore (Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan) and Professor Laurence Jacobs (Georgia Tech's Acting Dean of Engineering).

As a result of these five-year partnerships, Airbus will have access to new, world class capabilities and design insights in order to support the acceleration of the company's product development cycles.This represents a major opportunity for Airbus to build up knowledge in new design methodologies, while giving the two partner universities the chance to focus their research activities on complex industrial problem statements and to engage their Engineering students.

"We've designed our innovation organization to motivate our people and ensure we're open to new ideas and capabilities that exist outside our current team. That openness is a key principle behind everything we do," said Airbus' Eremenko. "University partnerships like today's help us preserve our tradition of innovation and disruption at Airbus, and serve as examples of our eagerness to work together as we build the future of flight."

Marc Fischer, Senior Vice-President Flight Physics of Airbus: "It is a privilege for Airbus to form strategic partnerships with Georgia Tech and the University of Michigan as this will allow us to embed cutting edge design approaches into our development processes. Our partners will be a strong support to speed up our development cycles and in consequence shorten our time to market."

"This partnership represents the best of what Georgia Tech's Aerospace Engineering School has historically brought to the world: a rigorous, research-rich educational program combined with an aggressive pursuit of industry-relevant concepts, technologies, and challenges," said Dr. Vigor Yang, Chair and R.T. Oakes Professor of Aerospace Engineering. "Airbus's strong commitment to doctoral level research further reinforces our School's longstanding focus on developing visionary thinkers to guide the field forward."

Through our partnership with Airbus, students and faculty members from one of the world's leading aerospace engineering departments will trade expertise with their counterparts on the cutting edge of the aerospace industry," said Alec Gallimore, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan. "Together, we can tackle some of the most challenging and complex problems facing advanced aircraft modelling, analysis and design."