The last week has been a quite eventful one for me. It all started last Thursday when I attended the New Hampshire SolidWorks User Group meeting. The meeting was held at the Academy for Science and Design. Take a look at this graphic and take notice of the courses being taught:
Now notice in the text that these topics are being taught to 7th - 12th graders! I was amazed to see the caliber of work being done by these students, and was glad to see that they have a school that fosters their interests. The user group meeting had just about 75 people in attendance who got to see two great presentation including one on weldments by Bruce Holway from SolidWorks.
This past Saturday myself and Jeremy Luchini took a trip into Boston to attend the UsFirst Robotics Competition. While walking around the pits we spoke to a few of the teams and it was amazing to see how passionate these kids were about engineering. We would ask them a simple question about their robot, and there was no shortage of information they wanted to talk about. Its great to see these kids so excited about engineering at such a young age.
While we were at the event I got the chance to meet David Planchard who writes what I think is hands down the best SolidWorks Book on the market, and the one that I always urge people to buy. I owe most of my early education in SolidWorks to his book, and it was fun to chat with him.
On Tuesday of this week I flew to Michigan to attend the Western Michigan SoildWorks User Group and do two presentations. The first was an overview of the Certification program at SolidWorks, and my second presentation of the night covered mold design in SolidWorks. The meeting had a great turnout and I got to meet and speak with some very passionate users.
While I was here in Western Michigan, Jason Raak arranged for us to do a series of visits today in the area. The first stop was Gentex Corporation located in Zeeland. Gentex is a manufacturer of multiple products but their main offering is mirrors for cars. They have some very cool technology including auto-dimming rear-view mirrors, rear-view mirrors that have back-up camera screens mounted in them, and also mirrors that will automatically turn off a cars high beams if another car approaches. They design all their assembly line equipment in SolidWorks, and their innovation shows in the quality of their product.
After a quick lunch we were off to Greenville High School to meet with CAD instructor Marc Nelson. Marc had asked me to come speak to his upper level CAD class and give them a brief overview of my Career and to speak about choosing a Career in engineering. It was great to be able to see the passion that these students also had for using SolidWorks and were excited to see all the various industries that SolidWorks is used in. I got the chance to see some of the students working on projects in SolidWorks, and everyone I spoke with was anxious to show off their models they had created in SolidWorks. I would have loved to have had a class like this when I was their age, and from what I could tell, every student in the room was enjoying what they were learning. As a parting gift all 30 students in the class received a SolidWorks Student Design Kit compliments of the EDU team at SolidWorks. One student even asked if they could turn in an assignment after the weekend just so they could use the new home install they had just received.
Our final stop of the day was at Wolverine World Wide who is using SolidWorks to design a wide array of shoes. We got the chance to see some of the modeling techniques they use to create the soles of their shoes, and how they have used SolidWorks to improve the speed of their design. First stop when I get home will be to pick up a pair of Wolverine Shoes!
Now while it probably wasn't the best idea to come to Michigan in the middle of a cold spell, the trip was completely worth it. Certainly one of the highlights of this trip was getting to speak with the students and I wish I could have had an entire day to speak with them and see what they were doing in SolidWorks. I can see exactly why Marie Planchard loves her job as much as she does!
Mike,
So inspired by your post, I covered it in the Educators Corner on my site. Keep on man!
Posted by: Rich Hall | March 18, 2009 at 11:03 PM
Great trip Mike, thanks for sharing.
Devon
Posted by: Devon T. Sowell | March 15, 2009 at 11:41 PM
Excellent Post! Thanks again for taking the time to come out to West Michigan and visit our industries and Greenville High School.
Posted by: Marc Nelson | March 15, 2009 at 06:50 AM
It was my pleasure to meet you and Jeremy Luchini in Boston last Saturday at the UsFirst Robotics Competition. It is great to see some many young kids (and some old ones) so excited about engineering and team work. Keep up the good work in the Certification area! I hope to see you and Jeremy this May.
Dave
Posted by: Dave Planchard | March 14, 2009 at 08:48 AM
great post mike!
i had a great time spending the day with you and seeing how solidworks is used in the greater west michigan area.
thanks for everything that you did and you are always welcome to come out to us again (maybe next time during the summer). thanks again and i look forward to hopefully seeing you later this summer.
jason raak
Posted by: jason raak | March 12, 2009 at 07:08 AM