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The Institute for System Level Integration (which brings together the engineering and computing expertise of four Scottish universities) has been given $500,000 (?350,000) of software to make its students more employable.

ClioSoft Inc, a California-based electronic design automation company that specialises in tools to improve design-team productivity, has given the ISLI 100 floating licences for its design data management system SOS. These can be used throughout the institute by academics, design experts and postgraduates, as well as by companies working with the ISLI.

The system enables teams in different sites to work together on the same project and on the most up-to-date file. The system handles version control through a graphical user interface, which means that every engineer involved in the project gets the same view. This is the first such donation by ClioSoft to a United Kingdom academic institution, and it recognises the ISLI's industrially relevant teaching approach.

Micke Wersall, ClioSoft's European manager, said: "Designers the world over are looking for better solutions for managing their design data and collaboration. It is valuable, then, for students on the institute's masters and doctorate programmes to acquire practical experience of tools such as SOS to help prepare them for real industrial practices."

The ISLI has its own staff, but draws on departments in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Strathclyde universities. It has more than 70 students.