The Institute for Applied Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering (RPK) acts as a broker between computer science, on the one hand, and mechanical engineering, on the other. As a member of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany the RPK is responsible for the education of master degree students in applied computer sciences, CAD/CAM/PDM/VR, information and communication technologies etc.

The RPK considers its duty to supply concrete contributions in the areas of research, academic teaching and technology transfer. Three research areas are dedicated to the above subjects: Lifecycle Engineering, Collaborative Engineering and Virtual Engineering.

Frigoglass Group is a leading world-wide manufacturer of commercial refrigerators and packaging materials, with production facilities in eleven countries: Greece, Norway, Spain, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Russia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and S. Africa. In these countries, Frigoglass manufactures its products at 22 production sites employing about 4.600 people.

The main activities of the Frigoglass group are the manufacturing of glass-door merchandisers and freezers, industrial and tableware glass, plastics, crowns and closures, PET resin, and flexible pack-aging materials and labels. Products are addressed to soft drinks, juices, water, tea, dairy industries (milk and ice-cream), beer, wine and food products as well as pharmaceutical and body care. Main customers of the Frigoglass group are: Coca-Cola Company, Heineken, Guinness, Schweppes, Delta-Danone, Fage, Yoplait, Lipton, Mars, etc. The acquisition of Norcool Holdings by Frigoglass was a very significant investment for the 1999 fiscal year. At the company’s principal plant in Kato Achaia, Greece, Frigoglass produces 100,000 units each year across the full range of coolers and freezers.

VINCENT INDUSTRIE designs, builds and installs high technology equipments for assembling and forming, unique processes and control systems in small and medium series. Consolidated by the VINCENT DEVELOPMENT group Vincent Industrie is part of a network of European compa-nies with a total of ca. 100 employees. The manufacturing companies V.S.M. France and V.S.M. Romania assure to Vincent Industrie the necessary flexibility for the elaboration of their machines. The sales company SYSTEMATION, based in Switzerland, distributes these equipments all over the world. The research and development activities of Vincent Industrie are mainly engaged in the fields of energy, medical and communications. Based on highly developed and realized technologies, the activities of Vicent Industrie for 25 years allow her to be placed on a high European level.

PSI develops and integrates software solutions for challenging tasks in network, production and information management. As a leading control systems software producer in the German-speaking market, their core business consists of providing control systems for energy suppliers, industry and public institutions. Through customer relationships spanning decades, PSI has acquired a unique know-how from their customers’ value-added processes. This understanding of processes is com-bined in products and systems with the cutting edge technology developed by PSI.

Fatman Oy, formed 1991, is a company that provides facility knowledge- and automation based systems. It performs real estate consultation and offers ASP-wholeservices. Fatman Oy offers planning, testing, inspection and surveillance services of facility technology and also develops facil-ity management software. Fatman Oy's know-how is based on the facility-technical know-how of its staff, a 30 year long experience and the development and use of the latest computer applications in the field. Fatman Oy has investigated facility management, energy consumption and saving pos-sibilities in over 2000 facilities, of which most have been official, commercial or industrial.

The Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation (LMS) of the Department of Me-chanical Engineering and Aeronautics, in the University of Patras, Greece, is under the supervision of Professor George Chryssolouris. LMS is involved in a number of EU funded research projects in a variety of disciplines, and it has ca. 70 researchers organised in different research groups. Particu-lar emphasis is given to the co-operation with European industry. LMS performs Research and De-velopment (R&D) work related mainly to the following areas: Innovative Manufacturing Processes, Advanced Human-Centered Design Techniques including Virtual Reality, and Production Systems Planning, Control and Networking.

The FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik an der Universität Karlsruhe (Research Center for Informa-tion Technologies) is a non-profit contract research organisation that concentrates its efforts on novel in-formation technologies for providers of investment and consumer products, of production or business products and of information services, and supports the development of innovative appli-cations, primarily in engineering, on the basis of recent but already proven techniques. The re-search group Process- and Data Management in Engineering (PDE) has its main field of activity in the analysis, the planning and the introduction of information technology applications on the basis of integrated enterprise models.