Engineering Firm Gives UCI $3 Million

UC Irvine’s School of Engineering was given $3 million Thursday to purchase software.

University officials said the donation by MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. of Los Angeles is part of the company’s long-term commitment to provide software and instruction to UCI engineering students. The company and UCI formed a partnership in 1986.

The donation includes software that the company has given the university in the past three years plus what it plans to contribute over the next two years.

“This exciting and generous gift exemplifies the many benefits that result when the university builds bridges to local industry,” Nicolaos Alexopoulos, dean of the engineering school, said of the gift. “Not only does it enable our students to receive the best possible education, it provides local companies with skilled and valuable employees.”

MacNeal-Schwendler has hired more than 100 UC Irvine graduates for its offices in Costa Mesa and Los Angeles since it began working with the university 11 years ago.

Dave Dimas, the company’s director of support and training, also has taught a computer-aided engineering course at the university for seven years and led a lecture series.

The company is a developer of finite element analysis and modeling software for the engineering field.