SolidWorks EDU team participates in American Society Engineering Education EDGD Mid Year Conference

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As I start my third year at SolidWorks, I want to share with you what the SolidWorks education team does to support educators and students around the world.

I just got back from the American Society of Engineering Education Engineering Design Graphics Division (ASEE-EDGD) mid year conference hosted by Dennis K. Lieu, UC Berkeley.  EDGD members provide guidance for teaching design and analysis at all levels.  https://www.me.berkeley.edu/edgd-midyear/

My computer had a hard drive crash.  First I panicked.  Luckily members of the UC Berkeley’s Formula SAE Race Car Team had three computers to set up and describe their project and talk about their engineering student experience. Check out the video:

This year I was amazed by the variety of engineering graphics presentations being explored.  William “Ed” Howard presented on his summer camp program at Eastern Carolina University that used SolidWorks to show high school student how to understand concepts in math and physics.  When you graph three equations and three unknowns in SolidWorks, you can truly see the one solution.  The mathematical result becomes more relevant than just solving equations on a 2d piece of paper. 

Ron Barr and Tom Krueger from the University of Texas presented on how their freshman students reverse engineer a physical product, dissect it into individual parts, measure and create sketches, build 3D solid models, apply analyses, make rapid prototypes, and produce an analysis reports and final drawings. 

Over two decades ago, Ron presented this concept at an EDGD meeting of what could be and now stated that reverse engineering in a teaching environment can now be extended deeper into design practices that will serve students in later engineering courses and in their professional career.

I’ve belonged to ASEE since 1994, but never have I seen so many students present at an EDGD meeting.  Students from Daniel Webster College, Manchester, NH presented on how their videos and assessments assist fellow students to create detail drawings that adhere to engineering standards.  In addition, juniors from the University of Wisconsin presented on how they provided supplemental training in SolidWorks to help freshman students learn about building quality prototypes – even though SolidWorks is not taught in the classroom, the FSAE team uses SolidWorks and requires students with these skills.

The last night of the conference is always exciting to see the awards.  Congratulations to this year’s Oppenheimer Award, Dr. Claus Putz, Institute of Geometry and Applied Mathematics, RWTH Aachen, Germany, given for his paper, Advanced Instructions – Facilitation of Individual Learning Processes in Large Groups.  I continue to be amazed by the educators who teach engineering graphics courses to 100’s of students at a time. 

Marie Planchard

Marie Planchard

Senior Director, Early Engagement, 3DEXPERIENCE Works at Dassault Systemes
Marie Planchard is an education and engineering advocate. As Senior Director of Education & Early Engagement, SOLIDWORKS, she is responsible for global development of content and social outreach for the 3DEXPERIENCE Works products across all levels of learning including educational institutions, Fab Labs, and entrepreneurship.
Marie Planchard

@marieplanchard1