PTC Congratulates Sponsored, Award-Winning Teams At FIRST® Championship

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company^®, today extended congratulations to its sponsored, award-winning teams at the FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship competition in St. Louis, Mo., April 27-30, 2011. PTC also announced its elevation to FIRST Strategic Partner, the top partner level, recognizing its significant support of and contribution to the mission of FIRST.

Reaching more than 250,000 students worldwide in grades K-12 annually, FIRST has designed accessible, innovative, Mentor-based programs that build Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills. These programs inspire young people to pursue STEM education and career opportunities as well as helping to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.

"Sponsorship of FIRST^® Robotics (FRC^®) Team #74 (Team Chaos) from Holland High School, Mich., has been a priority for Haworth for the past 17 years,” said Ken Platteschorre, FRC Team 74 Mentor and Engineering Designer in the Global Seating group for Haworth. "The skills and life lessons these students learn from competing in FIRST propel many to careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). We are happy to have had PTC co-sponsor Team Chaos for the past two years.

PTC sponsored teams received the following awards at the FIRST Championship:

• FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FRC^®), Championship Inspire Award, Team 4466, Robots and the Brain Bots, from Waltham, Mass;
• FIRST Robotics Competition, Dean’s List Award, to Cody Wall from Team 987, The High Rollers, from Las Vegas, Nev.;
• FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC^®), Curie Division Award Winner, Team 987, The High Rollers, from Las Vegas, Nev.;
• FIRST Robotics Competition, Newton Division Award Winner, Team 233, The PINK Team, from Rockledge/Cocoa Beach/Viera, Fla.; and
• FIRST Robotics Competition, Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen, Team 2169, KING TeC, from Prior Lake/Savage, Minn.

With millions of dollars already committed to FIRST, Strategic Partner status designates PTC as providing the highest level of Sponsorship available at FIRST through its cumulative support of teams, annual in-kind donations, resources, technology, design and collaboration software, training, and employee involvement as well as contributions across the FIRST family of programs. PTC had been a Crown Supplier to the FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC^®) for the fifth consecutive year and the official CAD and Collaboration Sponsor to the FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC^®) for the third year, providing free software, including Creo^™ Elements/Pro^™, Creo Elements/View™, Mathcad® and Windchill^®, to participating teams.

"FIRST is pleased to recognize PTC as a Strategic Partner,” said Jon Dudas, president of FIRST. "PTC has demonstrated a long-term sustainable commitment to STEM initiatives through its support of FIRST over the past five years. Its comprehensive FIRST program serves as a model. PTC has dedicated employee resources, encouraged others to volunteer, supplied software and associated curriculum, co-sponsored teams with their customers and partners, and provided college scholarships for FIRST students. They have supported and promoted the FIRST Tech Challenge program in India, China, and Romania.

"Being elevated to a FIRST Strategic Partner is very meaningful to PTC,” said Robin Saitz, senior vice president, solutions marketing and communications and FIRST Executive Sponsor, PTC. "FIRST is the flagship program of our ‘Engineer of the Future’ initiative and is aligned with creating shared value with our customers, partners, employees, and the community. The benefits of supporting FIRST are far reaching, ultimately supporting the workforce development needs of our customers.”

At this year's FIRST Championship, PTC's booth in the ‘pit area’ was the focus of an exciting design competition where team members were able to show their design skills by submitting designs for a robo-rescue concept development contest. The contestants were given a 15 minute segment to show their skills on PTC Creo™. The winner, Chris Vincent, FRC Team 3539, designed this robot model and received an Apple iPad for his efforts.

In addition, the PTC booth showcased many of this year’s robots modeled and managed with PTC’s solutions. Visitors learned how teams could use PTC software to quickly build a more competitive robot and communicate more effectively among team members. This is the same PTC software that is used by over 25,000 leading manufacturing companies around the world.

Teams sponsored by PTC at the final competition at the FIRST Championship included the following FTC teams: Team 369 from Virginia; Team 1369 from Florida: Team 3621 from Missouri; Team 3539 from New Jersey; Teams 2864 and 3896 from New York; Team 4187 from Colorado; and Teams 4140 and 4644 from Minnesota. FRC teams sponsored by PTC at the Championship included Team 175 from Connecticut; Team 1622 from California; Team 74 from Michigan; Team 1519 from New Hampshire; Team 987 from Nevada; Team 1739 from Illinois; Team 525 from Iowa; Team 233 from Florida; Team 1772 from Brazil; Team 1690 from Israel; Team 3824 from Michigan; Team 1099 from Connecticut; Team 3466 from Massachusetts; Team 573 from Michigan; and Team 766 from California.

About FIRST^®

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST^® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from three out of every five Fortune 500 companies and close to $15 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST^® Robotics Competition (FRC^® ) and FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC^® ) for high-school students, FIRST^® LEGO^® League (FLL^® ) for 9 to 14-year-olds, (9 to 16-year-olds outside the U.S. and Canada) and Junior FIRST^® LEGO^® League (Jr.FLL™) for 6 to 9-year-olds. Gracious Professionalism^™ is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

About PTC (http://www.ptc.com)

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company®, develops, markets and supports product development software solutions and related services that help companies achieve their product development strategies and optimize their processes. Using the company's tightly integrated CAD and enterprise PLM solutions, organizations are better able to create and manage product information throughout the lifecycle for optimal product development success.

PTC, the PTC logo, The Product Development Company, Creo, Elements/Pro, Elements/View, Mathcad and Windchill are trademarks or registered trademarks of Parametric Technology Corporation and its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

FIRST^®, the FIRST^® logo, FIRST^® Robotics Competition, FRC^®, FIRST^® Tech Challenge, and FTC^® are registered trademarks of the United States Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST^®). LEGO^® is a registered trademark of The LEGO Group. FIRST^® LEGO^® League, Junior FIRST^® LEGO^® League, FLL^® , and Jr.FLL™ are jointly held trademarks of FIRST and The LEGO Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2011 FIRST. All rights reserved.