Richards SolidWorks Blog

High Tech and Hands On

  High Tech and Hands On

By Richard Williams aka Corporal Willy

     Education today doesn’t have to be dull, boring, monotonous, unchallenging and just a mental holiday for our students.  It can be a time for inspiration, perspiration and ambitious projects that are done right there in the classroom.  I’ve seen both extremes in education in a few states now and I have to say that for those youngsters fortunate enough to be in a class full of hands on and challenging projects learn better.  Dry studies in the classroom without some wetness to put into motion those things that are being learned will not have the reinforcement of learning the subject matter well.  It’s kind of like a dry barren desert without much vegetation. 

    I have to point out something that might not want to be talked about, but the momentum for educational change is right on the horizon today.  Students live in the world of 2010.  We have been on the moon already and we have plans being worked on to colonize are closest livable sister planet Mars.  Are we going to prepare our students properly and use modern methods to do it with?  I sure hope so.

     Dateline:  Las Vegas Convention Center December 2^nd and 3^rd. The ACTE Career Tech Expo.   http://www.careertechexpo.com 

 
After finding a parking place way in the back of just one of the huge parking lots you get a feeling of being very small after walking through the doors.  It is huge inside and that is not even a good enough descriptor of what I mean.  There is ample room for even the biggest of shows.  I am not writing this to promote the Convention Center, but to let you know that with so many High Tech Education Companies out there, they were able to bring in and set up some very elaborate displays. 

 

 

 

 

Yes that is a youngster learning how to weld on a virtual welding machine.  Incredible don’t you think so and there is no potential hazard of getting burned or having to set up a real shop for welding operations.  A real shop should be done to get the full effect of learning how to weld but believe me this is cool to get the feel and preliminary experience needed.  Check it out at:

                                             http://www.lincolnelectric.com/green

We all know that Robotics seems to be sweeping the tech education today and this was just one elaborate display of what some schools are using to teach those youngsters that will be creating those amazing machines in the future. 

High Tech and Hands On is an educational method that just cannot be beat in my opinion.  If this was available back when I was in school, I most likely would still be in school still trying to figure these things out.  Try going to:   http://www.amatrol.com

Not all Educational Aids were just in hardware alone.  I found the Dassault Systèmes; SolidWorks Company and MasterCAM also there demonstrating ways of teaching our young future work force how to design and then build it.  Down below here is Christine Morse from the SolidWorks Company; Public Relations.

 
 

Another lady from the SolidWorks Company is Mrs. Marie Planchard talking to an interested passerby.  These two ladies mentioned in these last two pictures are instrumental to getting a wonderful program into the hands of children to learn.  It is a real engineering tool.  Mrs. Planchard is the Director of Worldwide Education Markets for SolidWorks.  She is also an engineer and a former School Teacher.

You know as well as I do that the education of our young people takes a very special kind of person that we call a TEACHER.  I did not really understand this until I was out of high school a couple of years and I think it came to me one night when I was in a foxhole someplace on a very lonely  watch, that teachers were indeed very special. 

But with hands on projects like this one being done down below at one of our six high school academies, young people get involved in their education like you would not believe.  The teacher of this class Mr. Angelo Pappano, told me that he starts the class and supervises things, but at a distance.  The youngsters have a yearning to learn and even study on their own at home.  Isn’t that odd to hear about today?  They take the initiative and run with the ball to the graduation gold posts.  I want to congratulate the students for their accomplishments and Mr. Pappano the teacher / engineer that motivated these young people to this level of competence.  Here is my sincerest congratulations for a job well done! 

No, they aren’t toilet seats and they will be for sale I am told.  They also aren’t the Taylor acoustical guitars, but they are a very prominent part of any modern band today; the electronic guitar.

 

Now while we are at it, I want to proudly show you something that I was not only amazed to see myself but something that I really want to boast about (some of the kids who are artists in this school district).  We all know everyone is not going to be a Scientist, a Technologist, an Engineer or a Mathematician and we sure need a lot of youngsters that are gifted with talents to do that.  They will do very well in life because they can do what many of us wish we could. 

Then we have those that are gifted in other ways to be graphic artists and they will have careers in many different industries because they can make ideas come to life.  Walt Disney would be proud of them and so am I.  Let’s give them all the tools they need to keep us entertained and remember this is Las Vegas, Nevada, where shows come to life everyday of the year to entertain the world that comes here. 

Here we have Miss Victoria Pecor working on painting another one of her characters that she has developed.  Victoria is using a Wacom Cintiq Monitor along with Corel Painter which allows the student the ability to paint directly on the screen.

Miss Sarah Darasouk is working on a painting using a Cintiq Monitor.  She is using the clone option in Corel Painter for the activity she is working on.  What fantastic young artists.

 

 

Since getting involved here in my school district and giving up my retirement in the process, I have seen room for improvement in some schools and at the same time I have seen so much improvement in many others that I cannot imagine what else can be done.  Yes I know I am bragging, but I have the children to brag about and the teachers deserve so much of that credit for bringing out their talents.    

Sometimes when I reflect upon how busy I am during this time in my life, I get satisfaction from knowing that there are many more that fight to get different technologies into our classrooms much harder than I do.  One of them is Mr. David McElwain, our Clark County School District Technology Director.  Because of what he and others do we have some great success stories to tell here.  The teachers also deserve a lot of the credit because they train themselves in these new technologies in order to teach students and just look at what they can do.

Here we have Mr. Tyler Horne (Graphic Design II Student, Concept Art and Character development for his Video Game Character SYLAAR.  His concept was created in 3dsMax by a 3D Animation student in another class and printed on a Dimension printer) and Maureen Clark (instructor: Foothill High School)

 

Using Rapid Prototyping technologies these results were obtained from the creations of artists like young Mr. Tyler and we have a bunch of them here.  This is teaching and learning at its very best levels.  It deserves our full support no matter what school district we are talking about.   The 3D Models of characters were developed by various students in the Computer Graphics and Animation classes at Foothill High School using a 3D Dimensions Printer.

 

This is Tyler Horne's SYLAAR and Miss Victoria Pecor's  SARAH Concept Boards for Character Development.  It is amazing to see what was once done in college or industy come down into the high school level.

 

Artistic creativity comes in all kinds of styles.  Yes these young men did these creative works of art and I for one think they are very professionally done.  Had I not been told they did them I would have thought it was done by professionals. 

These Promotional Banners were made to promote the CTE course at our school.  Designed, printed and assembled by our Graphics Design II students.  The students took their own photos of students in the various programs and used Adobe Photoshop to develop their design.  

The three young artists that made the Promotional Banners used to promote the various CTE courses offered at the Foothills high school are from left to right Johan Ramerez, Michael Kim, and “Jyrone”  Aguinaldo Baraoidan.  Really nice art work young men.

A well run machine with regions set up and overseen by people like Mr. Jason Cloyd, the Western Regional Manager, of Americas Education.  He is dedicated to the users of the SolidWorks program in the schools.

 

Here Mr. Chris Miller from the Paton Group; Operations and he is talking to Mr. Steve Rebensdorf of dimension / Stratasys.  Now I know that even our young graphic artists use the 3D Printers to build their prototypes; from their creative minds to real physical objects.

Most of what moves today does so with gears and linkages.  Down below we have Mr. Roger Perry (left side) and Mr. Mark Newby in front of their companies educational display.  http://www.gearseds.com  take a look at their animations page as it is very nicely done and could be very useful in as added information for a classroom setting:     http://www.gearseds.com/flash_lessons.html

 

I was introduced to the CEO of the Inspirtech Company, Mr. Al Whatmough, who makes video tutorials for the SolidWorks MCAD program.  Yes, he brought his father Niel along too.

 

Robotics was well represented there at the show.  It can really grab the attention of young people everywhere and educational success stories are many.   Take a closer look at:  http://www.fanucrobotics.com    Some really amazing technologies for classroom labs.  Want to go back to school?

CNC machining is always a popular item at these shows.  I tried cutting out gears with a scroll saw once and made such a mess out of it that it was embarrassing.  Now students learn how to setup a part for machine operations such as the cutting out of gears and they can be proud of their results.  I hid mine.   Here Mr. Simon Moorhouse walked me through some operations.   http://www.denford.co.uk   I wish I had one of these to make my gears.

 

Not to be playing second fiddle to other categories at the show, the Green technologies were well represented here by others and by the Progressive Educational Systems with all their various displays.  Shown were Wind and Photovoltaic Energy Systems.  Down below here we have the husband and wife team of Mr. and Mrs. Paul and Katie Riddell.

 

What a wonderful Career Tech Expo it was this year.  Many people made a lot of contacts and gathered a lot of information into their tote bags.  I’m still sorting through mine.  In fact I am looking forward to going the next time they are here.  Great dedicated people + great exhibits and demonstrations = a terrific show.  See and some people said I couldn’t do any kind of math.  This is Corporal Willy asking you to get involved in your schools.  Work to make them better.  Work to make students better.  Is there anything more important than our young people who will replace us?  Happy Holidays to Everyone, Everywhere.   

A Much Deeper Appreciation Now

Engineering Profession; I Appreciate It Even More Now.

By Richard Williams, 01/03/2009

          There I was kind of bored while waiting for the show to start at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.  It was held last night on the second of January and we had tickets to see one of the truly great performers of all time hit the stage.  If any of you out there reading this have ever been to the MGM Grand, then you know how big of a place it is.  It is even more so when you have to walk with a cane and you are not into the gambling scene sitting at a machine or table.  Our friends did some of that as my adult son and I walked around to pass the time away until show time.  We looked at the Lions in the Plexiglas enclosure (sound asleep and looked stuffed) and then we looked at many of the stores you buy things at and leave your soul there as the purchase price.  Mr. Niel Diamond was the performer we came to see and I had never seen him do a live show.  We both came out of Brooklyn, New York and he is two years older than me at 67, so I kind of know him and his songs through the decades of his professional career.  No, we never met in person but I knew in advance that it was going to be a really great night and since we live here in Vegas and we know how the seating is arranged we did get some really nice seats.  But Murphy’s Law is always close at hand and plagues me from time to time with things that you would never think about in advance.  At least I would not have imagined these “Laws” happening here at the show but I am really appreciative that some people we call Engineers think of these things.  This is the reason for writing this article to tell all of you Engineers out there how much I appreciate all of your talents.

        The MGM Grand Garden Arena is huge and that is putting it mildly because it sits 16,800 people.   There is a lot of engineering here with air conditioning loads, lighting and the truss roofed ceiling and sound systems.  You can take a look at what I am talking about here by going to their web site at: http://www.mgmgrand.com/entertainment/grand-garden-arena.aspx   It is very impressive to look out at all the numbers of seats and you would be hard pressed to see any empty ones there as people kept on piling on in.   Well, it was scheduled to start at 8 pm but due to the fact that it was a one night only show and that people were still coming in and trying to find their seats it was delayed by a half an hour.  While you are waiting for things to start there are plenty of sales on beer, drinks, foods and of course brochures and DVD’s and tee shirts.  With the exception of the beer, drinks and food items, all proceeds from shirts, DVD’s and printed materials went to help the South Texas area that was very hard hit with the hurricane this last season.  Mr. Diamond announced this on stage and he got a very big applause for doing it.  Now the show was just about getting ready to start and people started to shout loudly and wildly.  Many of us looked at the stage thinking that he had come out from behind the curtain.  That wasn’t what the people were yelling and screaming about.  Ushers there escorted a Master Gunnery Sergeant, decked out in his dress blues uniform with all decorations and awards, but he was in a wheel chair.  Obviously, he was a war casualty but so welcomed by the crowd and MGM, that they moved him right down to the front left side with his guests, where the best seating was available for wheel chaired audience people.  This crowd was primed for tonight whether from the drinks or the expectations of a world class performance.  Roving Camera technicians had already taken up positions covering all four corners of the stage but I know there were others out in the audience too, from viewing the various shots on the two very large bus sized screens.

       The lights went out and an almost ear piercing blast out of the speaker array was punishing all eardrums from every possible angle.  Not mine however; I could turn off my hearing aids to lower the decibel levels.  Spot lights focused on someone way in the back of the stage who was holding his guitar.  Yes, finally everyone saw Mr. Niel Diamond as he sang and walked his way to the front of the stage where he would take up his spot for the next two solid hours of singing.  That was very possibly the first and last time I saw him that evening.  Why you would ask?  Well, his songs are very energizing and sound pretty darn good and when he does those songs he is so famous for, it drives 95% of all the women in the audience and at least 40% of the men to get up out of their seats to sing, shout, scream and DANCE as he performs.  Mr. Diamond tells them to enjoy themselves anyway they can and he tells the audience that he will come closer to wherever the noise is the greatest.  Now truly a lot of this was expected to happen by me and this isn’t the first show we have seen here in Vegas.  But this Garden Arena is designed to have “Bleacher Styled Seating” of that type that can be moved with enough man power for accommodating the many various shows held there.  As the women got up to rock and roll with this music so did the seats and bleachers.  I only paid for one show but I truly got two shows with the women that were gyrating and moving in unexplainable ways all around me.  Everything seemed to be moving with the music and it only stopped when the music did and when these women sat back down into their seats that they bought tickets for but rarely used during the performance.  With my bad leg I would not dare stand up on this vessel that was bouncing on the ocean waves.  Of course I knew every song he sang and so did all the young ladies that were sitting all around us.  It was almost laughable that this was happening like an expected earthquake and but for the fact that I was getting flash backs of the earlier day, with my studies of the SolidWorks Analysis Simulations and all these strange terms like Static, Fatigue, Frequency, Motion, Non Linear and Optimization testing, I might have enjoyed it more.  These thoughts were running through my mind as things were being tested now during this performance.  So my hat is off to all of you engineers out there that design and test these types of ideas before they are actually made and used.  Apparently, those that did design and test these seats out, must have gone to some of these shows where the ladies in the audience did not need the seats they designed.  Salute to the Engineers out there.  J