Introducing the 3DEXPERIENCE for Good Hackathon at 3DEXPERIENCE World

3DEXPERIENCE For Good stands for harmonizing product, nature and life with a priority on sustainability. Sustainability can mean many things but in this context, it stands for directly helping people who most need our help. In support of our new friends at the Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation, we are proud to be able to reach into our community to find the best of the best problem solvers to help on a special mission.

Over 12 million people are affected by forearm amputations worldwide. Over the past 15 years, the Ellen Meadows Prosthetic Hand Foundation has delivered 50,000 low-cost, light, durable, functional prosthetic hands based on a pre-CAD design.

We invited 20 standout community members and 10 rock star employees to participate in our inaugural 3DEXPERIENCE For Good Hackathon with the goal to invent the next chapter of the story by incorporating modern tools (xDesign, xShape and collaborative roles on the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform) to improve the design and manufacturability of the Ellen Meadows Foundation LN-4 prosthetic hand while satisfying important constraints.  Each team will be challenged to propose designs that could propel the foundation to achieve more than one million hand donations to the most remote corners of the globe.

We formed five teams, each representing ingenuity, mechanical engineering proficiency, and design thinking capability. Without further ado, we are excited to announce the teams that we are confident will leave a mark on the world.

Team 1:

Aidan Aird is in his second year at the University of Toronto, on a full scholarship, pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has been an avid SOLIDWORKS user since the 7^th grade, winning numerous awards for his innovations including gold medals, a patent award, and an Engineering Institute of Canada award. Achievements that would have not been possible without the opportunities Javelin Technologies provided him to learn this limitless software. For the past 5 years, Aidan’s primary focus has been educating and inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders through his organization STEM Kids Rock. A partnered endeavor with his sister, Keeley, with a focal point on inclusion and fun. To date they have provided hundreds of free outreach events, sharing their love for STEM with over 200,000 kids.

Rob Maldonado is a freelance engineer and Youtuber in South Florida who runs his YouTube Channel: VirtualFlat CAD (also called SolidWorksNerd). He is the founder of virtual-flat.com, a resource, and blog for engineers, geeks, and 3D models! As a self-described SOLIDWORKS generalist, his passions include 3D printing, making cool 3D models, education, and making YouTube videos! His passion for SOLIDWORKS stemmed from his studies at the university where he achieved the Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE) certification before he graduated.

 

Nate Andrews is a mechanical engineer with over 15 years of experience in design, teaching and engineering management. He is a SOLIDWORKS reseller alumni, obtaining certifications as an Elite Applications Engineer, Certified DriveWorks Professional and has 20 years’ experience with SOLIDWORKS. When he’s not creating crazy things in CAD and on a 3D printer, he is volunteering to coach his children’s soccer teams and Scouting activities all while telling a good Dad Joke.

Jade Cromtpon is a Product Designer from Liverpool in the United Kingdom. She is a self-taught SOLIDWORKS user, with 6 years of experience learning through online tutorials, and years of practice. She has used SOLIDWORKS to design and develop her own Ceramics Collections. In 2015 she received a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship for her Masters Degree in Digital Design and Ceramics. She has worked in a range of design industries, from architecture, ceramics and most recently in wooden toy design. Using what she has learnt she now creates her own video tutorials for SOLIDWORKS. Her videos focus on Wooden Toys, Ceramics and Home Accessories, all of which are designed by Jade.

Alessandro Tornincasa has 14 years of industry expertise, teaching, supporting, and demonstrating SOLIDWORKS. His interests are vast: CAD, Simulation, product visualization, virtual reality, and he is looking forward to helping companies enable fully digitized design-to-manufacturing ecosystem. He has authored SOLIDWORKS tutorials for a Mechanical Drafting textbook that is being used in all universities in Italy and more recently SOLIDWORKS MBD tutorials for an international GD&T textbook.

Albert Hernandez joined Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS in 2008 after graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently the QA Director for the core modeling features, sub-D/surfacing, and touch input areas of xDesign and xShape. In his downtime, Albert tries to keep himself busy building or designing things.  This can range from things around the house, designing/manufacturing parts and components for a great cause such as the Magic Wheelchair, or just adding to his ever-growing scale model kit collection on his desk.  He can also be found assisting fabbers as a mentor in the Fab Lab that is located at our headquarters. Albert is up for any interesting design challenge that peaks his interest and will always give it 110 percent.

Team 2:

Isabel Thelen is a senior studying Industrial Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology. As a designer she strives to have fun with her designs and create a unique and playful experience for any user. She studied abroad in Milan, Italy for a semester to immerse herself into another culture of design. This past summer she worked as a 3D Product Design Intern at SOLIDWORKS.

 

A SOLIDWORKS User since 2005, David Antanavige works for ULC Robotics to develop systems used in the service and repair of live gas mains and other utilities using robotics systems. David also currently serves as the Leader of the Long Island SOLIDWORKS User Group and the previous Leader of the Tech Valley SOLIDWORKS User Group. He is an active member in the SOLIDWORKS Community participating in various Hackathons and DASSAULT SYSTEMES events. In addition to his SWUG activities, he also creates SOLIDWORKS training videos for Linkedin Learning (formerly Lynda.com).

 

Cody Umberger graduated from Pennsylvania College of Technology in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in Computer-Aided Product Design. Since then he has focused exclusively on contract design work for many different industries; from food processing equipment to medical devices and consumer products. He loves solving design problems and is thankful for being able to participate as a sole proprietor business owner.

Eric Spurgeon is a design engineer and entrepreneur. Bringing ideas from thoughts into physical reality is one of his biggest passions. With a strong belief that communication is the cornerstone of good design he established his own design firm – Tarhun 3D (tarhun3d.com). Working with clients across 11+ industries, he continues to provide innovative solutions that produce results.

 

Sasi Sithambaram has been in the CAD and CAE software business for the last 10 years, specifically in product management, technical support, pre-sales engineering, and solution consulting. Today, Sasi is a Senior Solution Consultant at SOLIDWORKS, specializing in the simulation products. Sasi has dedicated his career to being a simulation technology evangelist and hopes to see someday every CAD user using simulation tools to validate their designs.

 

David Law joined the SOLIDWORKS Technical Support team in 2016. His background is in Mechanical Engineering and prior to joining SOLIDWORKS he spent 8 years at a company that specialized in liner synchronous motors with applications in small scale assembly automation to large-scale maglev transit and everything in between.  He has experience with concept design, prototyping, machining, and design for manufacturing/production. In 2019 he had the pleasure of being involved in the Magic Wheelchair Tron bike build for Ben, which was one of the most rewarding experiences he’s been a part of.

Team 3:

Ben Hardy is a Mechanical Engineering student at Kansas State University with an Industrial Design emphasis and Leadership Minor.  From the age of six, he has been imagining, drawing and building whatever he could imagine with whatever materials he could get his hands on.  He is driven by the satisfaction of having created something that makes life better for someone and the ability to be versatile in his thinking and agile in his actions.

Eric Haddad is the owner of DiFi3D, a product development and 3D printing firm whose mission is to educate customers and team members on the potential product development has to change the life of an inventor or help improve the state of the world. Eric is also the content creator and Pilot in Command at 3DAeroventures, a YouTube channel where he uses engineering technology and model aviation to inspire viewers, customers, and team members to never stop exploring, never stop questioning, and never stop playing! Eric lives in El Paso, TX, with his wife Betsy, and two children, Sam (7) and Holly (4).

David Stockdale is a Mechanical Designer turned CAD/PDM Administrator.  During his 20 years in manufacturing, he has worked as a CNC Machinist, Mechanical Designer, and most recently a 3D Program Developer and Systems Analyst where he creates automation tools in SOLIDWORKS to boost user productivity.  In his off time he enjoys being with his family, riding dirt bikes, and welding/fabricating.

Jacob Bakovsky

Jacob Bakovsky is an Elite Application Engineer for GoEngineer based in Santa Ana, California. He grew up in the city of brotherly love and graduated with a BSME in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He has worked in the aerospace industry, consumer electronics, industrial electronics and space communications companies all utilizing SOLIDWORKS software before his current employment of over four years at GoEngineer. Jacob has many published videos on Youtube for SOLIDWORKS tutorials through GoEngineer and has several published articles in Design World’s Make Parts Fast journal. He is also a Philadelphia Eagles fan and very much enjoyed watching them beat the Patriots in the Superbowl. His hobbies and interests focus around designing and building cool things, traveling, hiking, camping, as well as casually biking and surfing. He loves animals, that’s why he doesn’t eat them, and lives with his girlfriend, two cats, two fish and a small dog. Quirky/Fun fact about Jacob: He’s been to ten countries, 30 US States and is bilingual as he speaks Filipino (Tagalog) and English.

Jordan Tadic’s love for design started in his high school’s technical drawing class just before it was officially retired and replaced with a CAD class.  He further developed his skills while obtaining a Mechanical Engineering degree, and practiced in the industry as an Automation Engineer.  For the last 11 years, he’s been serving SOLIDWORKS customers, first as an Application Engineer with a reseller, and now as a Senior Solutions Consultant with Dassault Systemes.  He gets his hands on the entire SOLIDWORKS portfolio, but he specializes in our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.  Outside of his career, he enjoys being outside with his wife and three children, making art, and building things.

Kaira Lujan is a SOLIDWORKS Technical Customer Support Engineer. She is a CSWP with five years of SOLIDWORKS experience and has her 3DEXPERIENCE Platform Explorer Associate certification. Kaira has a background in biomedical engineering with experience working on projects ranging from low cost global health care solutions with the MIT Little Devices lab to validation studies for an FDA first-in-human clinical trial with the Dartmouth Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Center.

Team 4:

Nathan Ion is a first-year student at the University of Texas studying Aerospace Engineering in the Cockrell School as a Ramshorn and University Leadership Network Scholar. In high school, he was on a FIRST robotics team. As the Robot Captain, he was tasked to lead a group of high school students through the engineering design process to build a robot to execute pre-specified tasks. That was when he came to know DASSAULT SYSTEMES and the SOLIDWORKS community very well. In college, he turned to the Formula SAE Team Longhorn Racing where they collaborated with other students to build and develop a fully functional race car. He is fascinated and driven by all things related to aerospace and aspires to work on the current efforts to making Moon and Mars expeditions possible.

 

Jumana Joury has a strong mechanical engineering background from Memorial University (Newfoundland) and has recently completed a master’s in rehabilitation sciences, with a specialization in surgical design and simulation, from the University of Alberta. She utilizes her expertise in user-centered design to focus on understanding the user’s needs and developing a solution to meet them. She currently holds two jobs. First at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences In Medicine (iRSM), where she works alongside a team of surgeons, designers and prosthodontists to digitally plan surgeries and design custom surgical tools that translate the digital plan to a physical application in the operating theater. She also works at Granville Biomedical, where she helps create simulation models and education tools for doctors focusing mostly in women’s health.

Alexander Clark acquired most of his SOLIDWORKS experience from his time at school for Mechanical Engineering (of which he did 4/5 years). He did several work terms where he used SOLIDWORKS daily, although the most SOLIDWORKS that he used was as the Suspension Team Lead where the design was changed to a multi-link setup from double wishbone to help save weight and allow for easier repairs.  After nearly completing the degree he instead (we’re simplifying the story a lot here) became a writer for the technology YouTube channel, Linus Tech Tips, where he does things like review laptops, tour science facilities, and does crazy projects.  During his time at Linus Tech Tips he still does a surprising amount of engineering related work, as many of their projects include building something ridiculous to really push the boundaries of what you should do to a computer.

Jaime Andres Soto Kure was born and raised in California, Colombia and moved to Winter Park, Florida two years ago to study Simulation and Visualization at Full Sail University. He looks forward to applying his unique set of skills to this challenge and learning new tools.

 

Andrew Barnes is a Solutions Consultant at SOLIDWORKS. He is a certified expert in all things SOLIDWORKS, but he specializes in weird swoopy shapes and additive manufacturing. If he had to be away from his computer, he would prefer to be on a big mountain, in knee deep powder, strapped into a snowboard.

 

Salih Alani, a SOLIDWORKS Customer Technical Support Engineer, started in 2014. He is a Northeastern University Graduate with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a major in Mechanics and Design. Sal provides technical support to SOLIDWORKS CAD (part, assembly, and drawings), SOLIDWORKS licensing, DraftSight, eDrawings, and leads technical support for 3D Content Central® for both SOLIDWORKS Support and Product Management. Sal is the reference point for the troubleshooting of SOLIDWORKS Online Licensing and Admin Portal issues.

Team 5:

Justin Orr is 26 years old and lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He is a support engineer for Hawk Ridge Systems working out of their main office in Mountain View, California. He has been working there a little over a year now. He has been working with SOLIDWORKS since 2010. He started his career tutoring SOLIDWORKS at community college level. Since then, he has worked with surgical equipment testing & design, consumer product design and software support. As a designer, he constantly thinks about the good he can do in this world. He looks forward to this opportunity and cannot think of a better way to use his skills.

 

Robin Marsh is co-owner of Beyond a Brick, a Knoxville-based STEM Education business, teaching Kindergarten through 12^th grades in robotics, coding and programming by incorporating LEGO^®into the classroom. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.  Robin has been actively involved with FIRST Robotics for the past 12 years and is currently the FIRST^® Senior Mentor in East Tennessee.

 

Matt Phou aspires to inspire people to think consciously and creatively. He loves learning new skills and SOLIDWORKS became one of them. He enjoys modeling things that he can someday print out (in 3D) and put on his desk. In his free time he likes to play mobile games, watch anime, and eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (milk & cookies, if you’re interested).

 

Thomas Veloskey is an innovative product design engineer with over 27 years of experience creating diverse consumer products from flight simulation controllers to automatic pool cleaners.  For the last eight years, he’s worked with Hunter Industries, developing irrigation controllers and architectural lighting products, one of which launched the Holm brand for Hunter. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and is an inventor on 20 patents. His passion for aviation began early on, flying RC models since age 10 and this continues with co-founding Dare to Design It, Inc. to develop an entry for the GoFly Prize, a design challenge to develop a personal commuter aircraft.  This is his fourth Hackathon invitation and he is excited to share his skills and knowledge.

Michel Cloutier is a Mechanical Designer by trade. Before joining the SOLIDWORKS team, he worked in various industries such as pressure vessel design and quality assurance, food preparation and handling systems, and airport ground support equipment engineering. Michel also worked for five years for a SOLIDWORKS Value Added Reseller, as an Application Engineer responsible for pre-sales, training and technical support activities. Michel has now been with the SOLIDWORKS team for the last 14 years, and is currently a Senior Solution Consultant, covering North America. In this role, Michel is responsible for understanding the complex industry 4.0 transformation customers are going thru, and how products can help them get more productive.

Santiago Laverde is from Bogota Colombia and a recognized Industrial Designer from UJTL in Bogota. He has over 35 years of experience in product design, CAD, and CNC machining. He previously worked as Support Specialist Principal for 15 years in the Oil and Gas industry then joined SOLIDWORKS in 2017 as Technical Customer Support Engineer for SOLIDWORKS CAM.

The teams will be supported by a squad of dedicated DASSAULT SYSTEMES SOLIDWORKS employees representing Product Management, Community, Quality Assurance and Business.

The challenge and criteria will be officially announced on January 10^th with the hackathon ending on February 10^th live at 3DEXPERIENCE World so start following this journey now!

Our entire community will be able to participate alongside a stellar panel of judges by casting votes in our 3DEXPERIENCE World Community. The presentations will be posted and the vote will open by February 11^th. Set a reminder and make sure to check back in to affect change!

The best of journeys are those that can be shared with others, and we are humbled by the opportunity to bring opportunities like this to life.