Pointwise Interns Win for Muffins Mesh

FORT WORTH, TX, Jul 21, 2009 - Pointwise interns have been named winners in the Intern Hero contest conducted by Little Debbie Muffins. Their winning entry, seeking to answer the question "Are Little Debbie Muffins Aerodynamic?", included a three dimensional model of a muffin created by Pointwise software and a flow visualization. The interns encouraged Little Debbie to send them some of the contest prizes, large muffin sampler boxes, so "physical testing" could be conducted.

Interns who worked on the project were Matt Kijowski, Allison Johnson, Riane Kiraly, Travis Carrigan and Satyam Kondle

"Pointwise is so reliable and easy to use that meshing a Little Debbie Muffin is as easy as eating one," said Carrigan. Carrigan, who graduated Suma Cum Laude this spring with a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, will begin graduate school there this fall. He is focusing his study on the optimization of a helical vertical axis wind turbine using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

"Using Pointwise's built-in database tools, I was able to effortlessly create a three dimensional model of the muffin," said Carrigan. "After the database was created using a series of revolves, the domains on database entities tool was used to create a hybrid type mesh consisting of both structured and unstructured domains."

"Although it originally was developed for solving challenging problems in the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing industries, Pointwise shows its outstanding flexibility by easily meshing the organic shape of a Little Debbie Muffin," said Dr. Richard Matus, Pointwise vice president of sales and marketing.

"I've meshed a truck's intake manifold, UT-Arlington's formula SAE race car and an F-16 fighter jet, but this project was particularly exciting because who has meshed a muffin before?" said Ms. Johnson, an intern with Pointwise since April 2007. She will graduate in December with a BS in mechanical engineering from UT-Arlington.

Ms. Kiraly, a marketing intern at Pointwise, said, "The great thing about this contest, besides winning muffins of course, is that the meshing of a muffin is a fun and unique marketing opportunity for Pointwise. We are able to Tweet and send emails out across the globe about our software and how the interns were able to use it. Current and potential users can get a kick out of our muffin meshing from Israel to Japan."

Ms. Kiraly will start her sophomore year this fall at Indiana University. She is an international studies major with a minor in Spanish and a certificate in liberal arts and management.

Kondle is working on his master's degree in engineering at Texas A&M University, focusing on laminar flow through micro channels with microencapsulated phase change materials. Kijowski is a junior mechanical engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin.

About Pointwise, Inc.

Pointwise, Inc., is solving the top problem facing engineering analysts today - mesh generation for computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The company's Gridgen and Pointwise software generates structured, unstructured, and hybrid meshes; interfaces with CFD solvers, such as FLUENT, STAR-CD, and ANSYS CFX; as well as many neutral formats, such as CGNS; runs on Windows (Intel and AMD), Linux (Intel and AMD), Mac, and Unix; and has scripting languages that can automate CFD meshing. Large manufacturing firms and research organizations worldwide rely on Pointwise as their complete CFD preprocessing solution.

For more information, visit www.pointwise.com.

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See Also

Pointwise website

Additional News

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Mar 29 - Pointwise Partners with 3Dconnexion for 3D Mouse Support
Mar 23 - Pointwise CFD v16.03 Compatible with Win 7
Mar 08 - Pointwise v16.03 Creates Watertight CFD Models from CAD Files
Jan 27 - Pointwise Partners with Go Virtual for CFD Meshing
Nov 16 - Pointwise Celebrates 15th Anniversary
Jul 23 - Pointwise 16.02 R3 Released for CFD Mesh Checking
Jul 21 - Pointwise Interns Win for Muffins Mesh
Jun 19 - Pointwise Ships Gridgen v15.14 for CFD Hybrid Meshing
May 13 - Pointwise to Provide Overset Meshing for US Air Force CFD
Jan 13 - Pointwise v16.02 Released for CFD Mesh Checking
Dec 10 - Pointwise Releases Gridgen v15.13 for CFD Hybrid Meshing
Aug 13 - Lockheed Martin's Beesley to Keynote at Pointwise Meeting
Aug 12 - Pointwise Unveils Gridgen v15.12 for CFD Hybrid Meshing

Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external sources and used as is.