Aspen Technology, Inc.(NASDAQ: AZPN), a leading provider of software and services to the process industries, announced the establishment of AspenTech Academy, a corporate advisory group of world-renowned university professors. The charter of the AspenTech Academy is to advise and guide AspenTech on the development of next-generation aspenONE software products.

Founding members of the AspenTech Academy are: Prof. Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue University; Prof. Lorenz Biegler, Carnegie Mellon University; Prof. Ignacio Grossmann, Carnegie Mellon University; Prof. Michael Klein, University of Delaware; Prof.Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Marquardt, RWTH Aachen University; Prof. James Rawlings, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Prof. George Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology(Chairman).  AspenTech Academy membership may expand in the future to include leading academics in additional areas of interest to Aspen Technology, and technology visionaries from leading software companies.

Areas of focus for the AspenTech Academy include: new research-based discoveries and technology developments in chemical engineering fundamentals; process optimization; process development, design and engineering; process operations monitoring, diagnosis, planning, scheduling and control; and new computing environments for collaborative workflow in distributed settings of mobile- and cloud-based computing. 

AspenTech Academy is the latest chapter in AspenTech's history of close ties to the academic community. Since the company's founding from an MIT project over 30 years ago, AspenTech has been at the forefront of innovation in software for the process industries.  Today, hundreds of the world's leading universities use AspenTech products as the de facto standard in their chemical engineering curricula. AspenTech Academy will further strengthen this relationship and help to ensure the next generation of engineers is better prepared to enter the process industries' workforce.

 Supporting Quotes

George Stephanopoulos, Arthur D. Little Professor of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chairman of AspenTech Academy  

"AspenTech Academy is an exciting, unique initiative that will enable AspenTech to stay at the forefront of new innovations around the world.  It will be a catalyst for interaction between the world's leading process industry software company and top researchers and educators in the chemical engineering academic community."

Manolis Kotzabasakis, Executive Vice President, Products, AspenTech  

"We are excited to work with a board consisting of world-classthought leaders.  Their experience and connections will be invaluable in helping AspenTech to execute on our vision of transforming the way that process industries optimize their operations." 

Supporting Resources  

• AspenTech Solutions for Universities  
• AspenTech in Academia  
• aspenONE V8  
• AspenTech LinkedIn Page  

About AspenTech  

AspenTech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturing - for energy, chemicals, engineering and construction, and other industries that manufacture and produce products from a chemical process. With integrated aspenONE solutions, process manufacturers can implement best practices for optimizing their engineering, manufacturing and supply chain operations. As a result, AspenTech customers are better able to increase capacity, improve margins, reduce costs and become more energy efficient. To see how the world's leading process manufacturers rely on AspenTech to achieve their operational excellence goals, visit www.aspentech.com