User Groups
Five Questions Friday with Rachel York of Applied Robotics, Inc.
Name: Rachel Diane York
Title: Mechanical Draftsman
Job description: Responsible for routing and completion of Engineering Change/Support Requests submitted to the Engineering Department.
Company: Applied Robotics, Inc. Applied Robotics is a leading global provider of specialized end-of-arm tooling and connectivity solutions designed to meet unique application and market needs, and bringing new levels of flexibility and efficiency to bear on the industrial material handling process.
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
1) Why do you choose to do the work you do?
I grew up the only child of a man who could fix anything, almost to the point I would want to break things just to watch him work his magic. Watching him tear things down and build them back up to something even better made me want to take everything apart, just to see how it worked. Worse case scenario: Dad could fix it.
My mother encouraged my curiosity; whenever something broke, a can opener, garage door opener, radio, lawn mower, whatever it was, she would always give me the chance to mend it before it was deemed a lost cause and handed off to my dad. My favorite part of what I do is seeing the ‘insides’ of machines and applying what I know about how one works to fix and improve, or even help create another. The greatest challenge of all is wanting to be a part of creating something that can’t be improved, simply because it was perfect the first time – come on, it could happen!
... ContinuedSolidWorks User Group Network hits 200 groups!
I copied and pasted this from Richard Doyle’s blog on the SolidWorks forums. For those of you who haven’t met him, Richard is the SolidWorks User Group Network coordinator, and all-around great guy. I know he’s really excited about this.
... ContinuedA Little Over 10,000
A few years ago (2006 actually) we started looking total attendance at user group meetings as a yardstick to gauge interest. I'm not sure the numbers mean that much, other than to look at the overall trends. As I was compiling the data from 2009, I
... ContinuedSWUGN Year in Review – June 2009
Top Story Just over 100 people attend the SWUGN Summit – Happy Valleyin State College, PA. The amazing thing about this Summit event is how far people travel to attend. SolidWorks users from Pittsburgh (140 miles),Philadelphia (190 miles), even Rochester, NY
... ContinuedA Year in the Life….
Wayne Tiffany knows how to please his KSWUG members with unique presentations, and uses enticing titles and descriptions when he announces them. Last year, Wayne brought in Aukse Kalantaite, Marketing Programs Manager at SolidWorks for a session titled "What's the Deal with SolidWorks Marketing?" "What's
... ContinuedCut Them in Half
What do you do when your expecting 45 at a user group meeting and 93 show up? That was the dilemma facing Devon Sowell and the MiraCosta College SolidWorks User Group last weekend. The answer was simple – cut the sandwiches
... ContinuedA Ten Year Celebration in Austin, Texas
More than 70 people came out last Thursday night to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Central Texas SolidWorks User Group. It was CTSUG's largest meeting ever, and featured a visit from Rich Welch, SolidWorks VP of Customer Service
... ContinuedJim Lowery Retires
In September 2005, four years ago this month, Jim Lowery was elected President of the San Antonio SolidWorks User Group. Jim had some very large shoes to fill, taking over for SWUGN Lifetime Achievement recipient Lila Theis. You could tell
... ContinuedGabi Tries Her Hand at….Speaking
If you've ever met Gabi Jack, you know she's a woman of few (spoken) words. That will have to change on September 9th as Gabi is scheduled to present at the Tri-Valley SolidWorks User Group meeting in Dublin, California. The
... ContinuedAn End of Summer Ritual – A Lot of SolidWorks User Group Meetings
It's hard for me to accept that summer is coming to an end. Sure, my kids went back to school yesterday, but it's forecast to be 103 degrees here today, with little or no relief in sight. Something I have come
... ContinuedThe Longest Presentation I've Ever Done – and Nobody Fell Asleep
When EISWUG leader Brandy Tyler told me I was the only presenter on the agenda for Tuesday's three hour meeting, I was sure it wasn't going to last that long. I put together a Tips and Tricks session with a
... ContinuedHeading to The Hawkeye State
I'm on my way to Iowa tomorrow for a visit to two user groups. I'll start in Davenport on Tuesday with the Eastern Iowa SolidWorks User Group headed up by Brandy Tyler. The second meeting I'll have to leave a mystery as I've
... ContinuedSolidWorks Users in Jacksonville Have "Wonderful Eagerness"
Casey Gorman sent me a note this morning to tell me how well the first SWUGJAX meeting went. Casey reports that the attendees were very enthusiastic about the group, and shared many great ideas on possible venues, session topics, and how to
... ContinuedSWUGN Summit – Columbus
Columbus, Ohio is the next stop on the 2009 SWUGN Technical Summit tour. As many as five (maybe even six) user groups will be represented on July 21st, and the list of presenters is impressive to say the least. Richard
... ContinuedAgenda? What Agenda?
This is the sign that greeted attendees of last night's HOUSUG meeting. A good crowd was there, the food was superb (well done Joe Lance), and Nicole Walden barely got to speak. John Milbery and Ramesh (Jones)Lakshmipathy were on hand and
... Continued