Author Archives: Marie Planchard
ASEE 2011 Annual Conference and Exposition – the weekend
The annual American Society of Engineering Educator’s (ASEE) conference was held this week in beautiful Vancouver. The event started out with the K-12 Saturday Workshop, sponsored by Dassault Systemes. It amazes me how many teachers take the time on a
... ContinuedAmerican Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2011 Concrete Canoe Competition
Thank you to the University of Evansville for hosting this year's 2011 ASCE Concrete Canoe Competition. SolidWorks was used not only in the 3D computer aided design but also in finite element analysis and fluid flow analysis. The competition featured finalist from around
... ContinuedSolidWorks Sustainable Engineering Design Contest for Students
June is the month to participate in the SolidWorks Sustainable Engineering Green Design Contest. There are great student prizes. More information can be found below. Marie. https://blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2011/06/green-design-contest-in-full-swing.html
... ContinuedLaurentian University Students win NASA’s Lunabotics Competition with SolidWorks
Congratulations to Laurentian University students in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, have won NASA's Lunabotics competition. This eight member student team of 4th year mechanical engineering students won NASA's prestigious competition, where students design remote controlled excavators to dig, collect and deposit as much "lunar" material as
... ContinuedPlastics Engineering Tutorials for Your Classroom
When I taught SolidWorks Design Summer Camp at University of Massachusetts Lowell, I took my young campers to the Plastics Engineering department for a project. I always wished I had a way to show my own students the plastics manufacturing process
... ContinuedNorth Carolina A&T SAE Baja Team Excels
I first met members of the North Carolina A&T Baja team in Rochester at a Baja event. The students were eager to share helpful hints to my husband David, who was trying to get a Baja team going at WPI.
... ContinuedEngineering Education Tour of Ireland with t4
On the last day of my trip to Ireland, I observed the interaction between educators in Ireland’s t4 and Rwanda, I can only look to a great future as t4 has agreed to assist Rwanda in implementing their engineering and
... ContinuedTechnology Education Tour of Ireland with t4
Irish hotels are great to include breakfast. I had breakfast this morning with Remy, Director of Science and Technology in Education for Rwanda. Remy told me his story. As a young boy he moved quickly from village to village to
... ContinuedIrish Education – Creating a Highly Educated Global Workforce
I continue my technology education tour of Ireland with my host Patrick Lynch from t4 and
Seamus Shanahan, Director of Solid Solutions Ireland. Seamus as been involved with the T4 technology, design, and engineering project since 2007. As our SolidWorks Reseller living and working in Ireland, Seamus explained the t4 history. There was a great deal of planning and dedication. T4 wanted all teachers and students to be provided cutting edge hardware, software, and resources to learn through design. The top Irish educators, curriculum developers, assessment coordinators were trained by Solid Solutions Ireland. Then they worked with t4 to help them develop projects in two subject areas Design, Communication Graphics (DCG) and Technology that used SolidWorks as the foundation tool for visualization and geometry. Mathematics or "maths" was one of the core competencies to the t4 programs.
... ContinuedSolidWorks Education in Ireland – First School Visit
I find myself fortunate to be in Dublin today. The purpose is to continue the SolidWorks Rwanda project helping educators achieve their goals to enhance technology education for their country.
What better country than Ireland to be the catalyst for this next generation of Rwandans. The Irish Department of Education organization t4, has opened school doors throughout Ireland to this Rwandan dedication. Having implemented SolidWorks as the technology tool throughout the country in 1800 schools with thousands of trained teachers, the t4 technology and engineering curriculum is one of the best in the world.
... ContinuedFSAE Tips for the Competition – For the Love of Engineering
So the results for FSAE Michigan are in. Congratulations to all the teams that participated in the competition and thank you to all the teams that talked to me during the event. I learned a great deal and want to share some of what I learned with the engineering students that work so hard at this competition and for those schools thinking about starting a FSAE team. After coming home, I reviewed the rules for 2011 and wanted to make a few suggestions.
The events, Design Event, Presentation Event, Cost Event are static. For teams that will participate in 2012 FSAE events, assign team members now . Let's take the Cost report. There are two parts: 1) A copy of the Cost report, due at least 7 weeks before the event. 2) A presentation of the Cost report at the event, at a scheduled time, in front of judges during the event. Some teams lost points just because of their documents being late in the mail. Some teams lost points because they could not answer the judges questions. Engineers must always be early. Engineers must be prepared.
... ContinuedSTEM Education with Ten80, NASCAR(R), SolidWorks and Fun
Many students design cars – all types of cars, but how many teams design the actual sustainable power source? Student from the RC Lions team at R.L. Turner High (M.E.T.S.A) in Carrollton, TX presented the wind turbine they designed
... ContinuedFormula SAE Michigan – Day 4 – For the Love of Engineering
After a heavy thunderstorm, the temperature has dropped. Drivers had to make a gambling tire decision for a wet or a dry track. I continue to find the love of engineering today, first I met the Northwestern team waiting in
... ContinuedFormula SAE Michigan – Day 3 – For the Love of Engineering
Last night the team had dinner at a Jackson restaurant and were greated by thankful cheers from the University of Akron for their SolidWorks sponsorship. We truly considers ourselves fortunate to meet such passionate young engineers. Today we also met members
... ContinuedFormula SAE Michigan – Day 2 – For the Love of Engineering
So it's day 2 of FSAE Michigan and the weatherman predicted rain – except it turned out to be 85F (30C). Dressing in a suit and tie for the design presentation or a fire resistant driving suit for the dynamic
... Continued