RS Components – Free PCB tool used at more than 200 educational institutions worldwide

RS Components has recorded 100,000 users of the educational network licence for the company’s free-for-download DesignSpark PCB design tool. Since the introduction of DesignSpark PCB in 2011, launched simultaneously with the DesignSpark online engineering community, the educational network licence has enabled 100,000 users from more than 200 places of education across the globe, including schools, academies, colleges and universities, to learn, share and use the PCB tool quickly and effectively. The majority of the users of the network licence are students and educators, along with other academic users such as researchers, technicians and laboratory managers. The network licence provides students, and others, with the necessary flexibility to use the tool at their place of education and at home on their personal PC. Before the launch of the licence, the tool needed to be individually installed on each PC within an educational establishment, meaning a significant investment in time for institutions with hundreds or even thousands of PCs. However, this changed with the introduction of the educational network licence, which substantially reduces the time and cost it takes to download and install the tool. In addition, DesignSpark ensures that the network licence is always supported with teaching materials, tutorials and technical support. “Investment in education is critical to nurturing the next generation of engineers,” said Mike Bray, vice president of DesignSpark at RS. “This milestone figure of 100,000 users of DesignSpark PCB via the educational network licence, across hundreds of institutions worldwide, is proof of its value and success. Enabling technicians to download and install the software on multiple PCs, over a short period, is a huge advantage in terms of time and cost.”