So much happened during 2017 and the year just seemed to fly by!
If I had to pick the single, most unforgettable, exuberant moment from the year, it would have to be this moment right here; at the opening bell ceremony in New York. As of November 1, Altair is now a public company, trading on Nasdaq under the stock symbol ALTR – a momentous event.

The year began with some very exciting news. Altair won an Airbus Benchmarking competition with HyperMesh® and HyperView® becoming their pre- and post-processing tools and a worldwide employment of HyperWorks Desktop solutions in all Airbus aircraft. Following on the heels of this news was the announcement of a collaboration with Oracle naming PBS Works as the preferred workload management suite providing HPC solutions on the Oracle cloud platform.

A comprehensive Simulation Platform for Innovation™, HyperWorks 2017 was released with key highlights including a Model-based development Suite (solidThinking Activate®, Compose® and Embed®),  electromagnetic analysis and design (Flux™), material modeling and manufacturing (Multiscale Designer), usability and efficient model management, and Multiphysics analysis and performance.

A significant success last year was the launch of the Design the Difference™ initiative, beginning with the Surface to Air film documentary that goes behind the scenes with regard to our teaming with Artemis Racing for daggerboards design collaboration in their quest for the Americas Cup.

Altair completed 4 acquisitions throughout the year.  Focused EDA technology expertise enhanced our product development portfolio with the acquisition of MODELiiS on May 24. With a bold vision for IoT leadership in PLM, Altair acquired the Carriots IoT platform on June 20.

Extending Altair’s leadership in composites simulation, the acquisition of Componeering was completed on September 12. Within the same month, on September 28, Altair acquired Runtime Design Automation, broadening our software portfolio for HPC.

The Altair Partner Alliance (APA) saw some significant growth with the launch of eight new companies and several new software products being added by existing partners. A hearty welcome to Santos Human Inc., Additive Works GmbH, Phoenix Integration, Intelligent Light, Granta Design, Chiastek, Optenni Lab and Tech-X!

In its 5^th year, the Altair Enlighten Award grew in scope as well as outreach. International automotive experts were added to the judges’ panel as well as a new category for ‘Enabling Technology’. FCA, Toyota, Faurecia and APT were the winners last year.

Altair won some awards of its own! We received the 2016 Boeing Performance Excellence Award for outstanding achievement for the fourth year in a row and for the fifth time in the previous seven years.

Altair was also awarded Cray’s 2017 Supplier of the Year at SC17.

The ATC and ATCx, Altair’s signature, premier technology conferences were conducted around the globe including the US, Europe, Africa and Asia. solidThinking’s Converge global series also returned with resounding success in the US, Germany, China and Japan. The PBS Works User Group held in Las Vegas was also a great success, bringing together global thought leaders and experts.

We were part of so many incredible projects and some cool ideas!
Fitting a VW Caddy with a 3D-printed front-end structure, Altair, APWORKS, csi entwicklungstechnik, EOS GmbH, GERG, demonstrated the full potential of industrial 3D printing within the automotive industry with the 3i-PRINT project.

An Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) investment was announced that has enabled Altair’s collaboration with aero engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce plc to support the design of the company’s next generation engine architecture, UltraFan®.

Wilson Golf developed a concept for a television competition, called Driver vs. Driver, to encourage innovation in the golf industry, and enlisted Altair ProductDesign to assist the contestants during the development process due to our extensive design and CAE expertise.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator, launched its elevator system named MULTI, the world’s first rope-free elevator system, conducting a live test from Rottweil, Germany. MULTI’s development is a project that Altair has been a proud collaborator on, developing a multi-stage approach to redesign the supporting structure of the cabin to find a minimum mass solution that didn’t compromise on performance or safety.

Our colleagues in Altair Japan created a generic 2 wheeled self-balancing scooter with a rider to demonstrate a multi-disciplinary design approach applying control systems, electromagnetics, and multibody analysis at a system level evaluation, while Altair India developed a cool technology demonstrator for bicycle tire testing.

Altair has been a proud sponsor of SAE events for over 15 years. Last year, 4 out of the top 5 finishers were sponsored by Altair at the Formula SAE annual competition at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

The United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL) once again raised money for Utica Community Schools thanks to Altair and toggled®. Altair and toggled contributed $11,000 to the UCS Superintendent’s Scholarship Program through its 2017 Brightest Lights Home Run Challenge to support graduates pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

In December, Altair Launched WEYV, a platform that offers unlimited access to entertainment in a Single App Experience.

As featured in Forbes, WEYV has a number of engaging features, making it stand out from the competition!

And now, from around the globe, sharing Altarians’ moments from throughout the year. At the conclusion of another exciting, successful year, we wish you the very best of 2018!