I admit it has been too long since I dazzled readers with literary marvels. I will soon share with you my ideas and current CADD projects at Southeast Community College, but first I would like to introduce you to one of my students: Drake Thege. Some of you may recognize him from SolidWorks World 2011 (its hard to miss him at 6'7" tall.) Those of you who know what it means to put your heart into your career will be moved by the fact that this young man put "SolidWorks World" on his Christmas list, and with some help from an anonymous donation as well as his parents, Drake got his wish.
In thanks for the inspiration and mentoring granted by SolidWorks users, he would like to share with you his SWWorld experience:
"'Failure is not an option'said Gene Kranz with great authority behind his voice. Gene continued to speak about Apollo 13 and the many crises that were involved that April. Gene was one of many keynote speakers at SolidWorks World 2011 which I was fortunate to attend. I am Drake Thege, a current student at Southeast Community College in the Design Drafting program. I had a great opportunity to attend SolidWorks World 2011 and experience a beneficial way to network with industry leaders and designers. I have been a user of SolidWorks for just over a year now; using it both in school and my internships.
"SolidWorks World is something every employee in the design field should attend at least once in their life. It is a technically infested conference that directs beginners and experts with new technology and education. The first overwhelming site to see at World was the amount of people in attendance. I walked into breakfast, full of about 5000 people in one giant area being catered to with 30 buffet tables full of food. Every day there was something new and delicious waiting for us on these tables. After breakfast in the general session, Gene Kranz and Jim Lovell filled the room with excitement and thrill as they gave the story of Apollo 13 as it was happening to them that very second. Throughout the three days of the conference, the general sessions became my favorite part. We were given the great opportunity to hear the CEO Bertrand Sicot of SolidWorks speak, along with Jon Hirschtick, the founder of SolidWorks. After the general sessions, we had time to walk around the Partner Pavilion, loaded with new technologies, including new rapid prototyping machines and the 'New office.' The office was designed in SolidWorks by a community of SolidWorks Users and allowed a designer to sit in a reclining chair and use controls to navigate via tracks from his/her desk to a drafting table, and back to a prototyping machine.
"The days of the conference after general sessions were filled with break-out sessions. We all had a list of classes we could choose from as we registered for World, but could still attend break-out sessions that were open to anyone. Each break-out session was filled with educated people knowledgeable in their area. For example I attended 'Design for Machinability.' Dave Zamora had a background in machining and is now an engineer. Some very important tips I received were using the Z axis as the tool tip axis, just like any cam software would do. I now consider how each product I design will be machined and correspond tool design with the orientation of my part.
"As a student I was honored to attend SWW11. I had an experience of a lifetime getting to network with industry leaders and SolidWork guru's. Seeing Gene and Jim speak in the general session made the trip a success for me. I was motivated after hearing them speak with great power, and sharing their motto: 'Failure is not an option!' I think it is worth attending SWW at some time in a designer’s life, and will recommend it to everyone. Networking, education, and excitement are all things populated at World."
Here we are at the end of a quarter and it has been an exciting one! We had some of the largest classes ever supported at Southeast Community College and it was great to have the opportunity to try some new projects with this large group.
The CADD program has been collaborating more with other programs at SCC and recently worked with both Welding and Electronics.
Students enrolled in the SolidWorks course spent the first 48 hours of class learning the basic tools in SolidWorks and the last 12 hours modeling a smoker/grill combination that will be cut and welded by our welding students next quarter. In addition to standard tools, Students practiced In-Context modeling techniques, Weldment tools, Smart Fasteners, and teamwork. The energy and excitement displayed by students was enough to power a small city! They had customer meetings set up to meet with the welding instructors, pages of notes about the product, and motivation to see the project through to the end. I will be photographing the grill/smoker throughout production and may even snap a few pictures of the succulent ribs prepared on this monster (and by monster, I mean this smoker will weigh over 500 pounds when completed!) Too bad you can't scratch and sniff a blog!
While the Electronics project won't be as tasty, it was just as exciting! The Electronics students are busy programming their robots to complete different tasks while CADD students are modeling and building parts for the robot in our Dimension fused deposition modeler. Students have built such parts as grippers to install spark plugs (as shown) and fixtures to cradle multiple components for the robot's tasks.
So why don't I blog as often as I would like? These were only two of the hundreds of different projects we have going on at SCC. I wish I could share them all with you! I promise there is more to come! If you see me at SolidWorks World 2010, remind me to tell you about the spider boxes!
