The Engineers Journey Leads to 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021

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3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 is back!  I am excited to interview my friends, Paul Ventimiglia and Eric Beatty, as they share with you their amazing journey.

Paul is a mechanical designer and seasoned robotics competition winner. Based out of Silicon Valley, he is the owner of Aptyx Designs, a robotics consulting firm providing automation solutions for clients.

He is most widely known for being the Team Leader of “Bite Force”, the most successful current 250 lb combat robot which has won BattleBots championships for the Discovery channel and ABC, including two consecutive undefeated runs.

I first met Paul while he was attending university at WPI.  Paul led the winning team by creating the moon-dirt digging robot “Moonraker” for the NASA Regolith Excavation Challenge, where they took home the $500,000 top prize.

 

He has formerly worked as a mechanical engineer at Boston Dynamics, Double Robotics, and Robby Technologies, utilizing SOLIDWORKS to design and fabricate electro-mechanical assemblies. In his spare time, he has volunteered extensively as a FIRST robotics mentor for high school students, and helped teams 190 and 254 bring home FRC world championships in addition to helping run regional events.

 

Over 15 years ago, I met Eric at SOLIDWORKS World Orlando when I was an engineering professor at Mass Bay Community College and SOLIDWORKS User Group leader for SWUG New England.   We both had a passion for educating students with the great job-ready skills.  He was on the west coast and I was on the east coast.  World brought us together to talk about teaching and learning and of course SOLIDWORKS.

Eric Beatty has over 35 years of mechanical design experience. He began his career on the drafting board and switched to 2D CAD in the mid-1980s. In January 1996, as an educator at North Seattle Community College, he saw a demo of SOLIDWORKS and everything changed. Eric started using and teaching SOLIDWORKS in March 1996 and has used it every day of his professional life ever since. In April 1996, Eric founded SASPUG, the very 1st SOLIDWORKS user group. In 2006, Eric returned to industry and he is currently a Senior Mechanical Designer and the CAD/PDM Administrator for OMAX Corporation, a leading manufacturer of CNC abrasive waterjet machining centers that was spotlighted in the SOLIDWORKS 2020 rollout. Eric resumed leadership of SASPUG in 2017; he is a Certified SOLIDWORKS Expert (CSWE), and was recently honored to be included among the inaugural group of “SOLIDWORKS Champions.

You can register for 3DEXPERIENCE World for free at https://www.3dexperienceworld.com/.    See Paul and Eric in the Plenary session on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

Be well.  Marie

 

 

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