SWUGN Group Leader Spotlight

Malay Desai – North Atlanta SOLIDWORKS User Group (NATLSWUG) – Atlanta, Georgia

“I consider myself as a world citizen. I was born and raised in India and I have spent the early part of my career there before immigrating to Canada. Now I am working for Arol North America, an Italian manufacturer of packaging machines (capping machines.)”

Malay has been using SOLIDWORKS since 2004. “After immigrating to Canada I started working for a packing machine manufacturing company and SOLIDWORKS was the main CAD platform used. I had never heard of it before my interview and my employer gave me a laptop with SOLIDWORKS 2004 on it to learn on my own on the weekends. My employer was 100% correct when he informed me that it’s really user friendly and easy to learn software. I started designing parts in SOLIDWORKS after a couple of weekends.”

Malay lives in Atlanta, where he is the North Atlanta SOLIDWORKS Group Leader (NATLSWUG). There have recently been some changes in the Atlanta SWUG; once it was one large group for the whole city (ran by Tom Ellis for 10 years), but it has since been split into two separate groups, NATLSWUG and South Atlanta SOLIDWORKS User Group. “I am running the user group in the northern suburb of Atlanta. In my user group we have members coming from large corporations, small businesses, educationists, entrepreneurs, developers and students as well.” Malay assumed leadership for NATLSWUG right before SOLIDWORKS World 2016 in Dallas.

The best meeting NATLSWUG has had, in Malay’s opinion, was the very first meeting. “We had around 50+ people in attendance with a presentation from Richard Doyle.”
What has Malay learned from being a SOLIDWORKS User Group leader? “I have learned some tips and tricks as well as new ways to use SOLIDWORKS by attending user group meetings. Perhaps the most important thing I have learned personally from user groups was to make lifelong friends and connect with industry leaders at the meetings.”

When asked which meeting was the worst, Malay kept his positive outlook; “I don’t consider any meeting as a bad meeting since every one gives me a chance to improve and get more people to bring in for my next meeting.”

Why should you join a SOLIDWORKS User Group? Malay says that it’s a great opportunity “to learn new things related to SOLIDWORKS and other products, to network with peers and industry leaders, to learn how others are using SOLIDWORKS in their work area and, most importantly, to make new friends while enjoying good food.”

Since 1996, SOLIDWORKS User Groups have been a valuable resource for SOLIDWORKS users all over the world. The SWUGN Committee and DS SOLIDWORKS provide ample support, but the real stars are the SOLIDWORKS User Group Leaders. Every week or so, we’ll spotlight one of our group leaders and the local user group chapter that they are responsible for leading.

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Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. offers complete 3D software tools that let you create, simulate, publish, and manage your data. SolidWorks products are easy to learn and use, and work together to help you design products better, faster, and more cost-effectively. The SolidWorks focus on ease-of-use allows more engineers, designers and other technology professionals than ever before to take advantage of 3D in bringing their designs to life.