Hello there! Day two at SolidWorks World is underway, following yesterday’s full launch of SolidWorks Industrial Design – expect more announcements, more product updates, and more… just MORE on top of what happened yesterday.
We’re back live in the keynote session – brought to you by the nice folks at Lenovo and Nvidia – so stick the kettle on and get ready to keep pounding the refresh key as we collate all the live goings on, social media, images and video all here in one bursting at the seams blog.
Today we’ll also be interviewing some very special people from SolidWorks, so stick around for that – as everything starts below the line.
Catch up with all the action from DEVELOP3D’s blog from each day of SolidWorks World 2015, here and as it happened:
Day Two – Moon landings with SolidWorks; keynote from Dr Michio Kaku; encouraging female engineers
5.00 – Simplifying the ‘product’ (the software) to make a easier to use conceptual product, and using the social experience to aid collaborative design. “These two products are the catalyst” says Bernard, for driving the future of SolidWorks.
4.55 – SolidWorks is going to create a global network of fab labs, not owned by Dassault, but supported by its technology. We’ll have to find out some more about this – for a start, whether they’ll be connected.
4.50 – The business side of SolidWorks is looking very healthy – big props to Ken Clayton, the VP for Sales.
4.48 – Bernard is here with his message – user experience is key, and it’s critical that Dassault continue to expand the capabilities of SolidWorks.
4.32 – We’re back in the group media session awaiting the arrival Bernard Charles to address us, but this follows a very interesting interview with Rick Chin, director of product innovation at Dassault Systèmes. Having brought the world such things as E-Drawings and SolidWorks Sustainability, he’s now overseeing a Big Data project.
SolidWorks has been collecting (with user consent) data for the last 10 years, limited to things such as key features and keystrokes used (there’s no access to models or anything like that) and have employed a data mining company to delve into this and pull out the useful facts.
This has huge implications for future products, training and generally improving the lives of users. We’ll knock up a full interview soon, but it’s very interesting and admirably open of Rick to sit down with us and talk about the project.
3.22 – SW-ID will require a good graphics card – the better it is, the better the performance. Did we mention that this blog is brought to you by Nvidia and Lenovo?…
3.10 – SW-ID “is the only [CAD software] designed for industrial design and engineers” – GPB
3.08 – SolidWorks Industrial Design – ‘ID is not generic, it’s very specific. Today many more mechanical engineers want to be industrial designers, so the shapes are important to them’.
3.05 – Pricing for SW-ID to be $190/month for 12 months.
3.03 – The SolidWorks sales machine is place, but aim is to build strong software solutions.
3.00 – “In this new world [lower-price tech, shift in manufacturing, new countries rising to power], the opportunities will appear like mushrooms after the rain.” – GPB
2.59 – The question from the floor now is what does going from a sales-experienced CEO to a R&D-experienced CEO mean for the company?
2.50 – For GPB, the big value of cloud is the collaboration element. SW-ID is a bridge to cloud based products once the technology is fully ready to do that.
2.46 – Analogy that SolidWorks is just like a car company – none (other than Tesla) is concentration on one fuel source, every other has gasoline, hybrid and electric models – “We’re the same” – Desktop, hybrid and cloud. Want to be able to solve any type of engineering problem.
2.45 – GPB is back on the MIC – ‘By legacy I speak in terms of technology – SolidWorks proper is going nowhere and is still going to be improved.’
2.44 – Making sure we can leverage new technology that is available to us now – the cloud – improving what they already have, but not one at the expense of the other.
2.42 – Bertrand’s intro now – “I want to go back a little and put things in perspective.” He’s doing exactly that – right back to the beginnings of 3D CAD, right up to the new cloud-era software.
2.40 – Creating the shapes is pretty much already done. The problem is to put together all the other elements to create a business.
2.38 – Have helped engineers to be productive, now we want to help them be more innovative’
2.36 – “Horizontally we want to reach out to more disciplines” – GPB
2.35 – We’re back for an interview with the outgoing and new SolidWork’s CEOs – Bertrand Sicot and GPB – should get an idea of how things are shaking up within the leadership.
10.55 – He’s now destroying quantum theory for me… is nothing safe???
10.54 – If like me you haven’t seen Interstellar yet, Dr K has just wrecked the ending. I’ll be going to watch Penguins of Madagascar instead.
10.49 – Replicators – not the MakerBot – nature can generate a baby in 9 months, we want to take this and understand it to create nanobots (eventually), to build anything you want. Then we move to nano medicine – a cure for cancer is there waiting.
10.43 – As a kid Dr K had a plan: “When I grow up I want to be a physicist, but also to engage the public. It was so frustrating as a kid trying to find responsible information”
#SWW15 In the future, you'll upload memories to the internet; your consciousness will be digitized." pic.twitter.com/9duIz5JoSf
— KennethwongSF (@KennethwongSF) February 10, 2015
10.40 – There’s about a billion earth-like planets out there in our ‘backyard’ of space. Someone might be looking back at you when you stare up there.
10.38 – Physicists never predicted flying cars – cartoonists did – blame them, not physicists.
10.35 – Everything will be digitalised, like everything, your brain, your liver, your toilet. We’re going to be transmitting ourselves to the moon via laser beams, without the need for long distance travel.
10.30 – Q&A time with Dr Michio Kaku – his contact lenses of the future can take engineers to the parts that are broken, and can give you the information on how to fix it.
10.10 – Keynote over, and we’re sad to see Dr Kaku leave the stage.
10.06 – “A new era where the brain will directly communicate with computers”
#SWW15 Dr Michio kaku. This is so exciting. How many business opportunities are there! Or upward social mobility opportunities.
— Oboe Wu (@oboewu) February 10, 2015
#SWW15 @michiokaku says we can make a supersonic transport without a boom thanks to 3D #simulation and #cfd pic.twitter.com/73ZxJzyj99
— Shawn Wasserman (@ShawnWasserman) February 10, 2015
10.00 – NASA is asking major aerospace companies to design supersonic planes without the supersonic boom – already there are three different concepts.
9.57 – “You can bet against technology all you want, but you’ll go bankrupt.” – Dr Kaku
Michio Kaku is simultaneously freaking me out and fascinating me about the future. #sww15 pic.twitter.com/ngwZceu94S
— laurakozikowski (@laurakozikowski) February 10, 2015
9.53 – Robo-Doctor – sound medical advice coming from a scanner with access to the entire internet of medical information – everyone can afford this type of healthcare.
Physics of the Impossible by @michiokaku More than a scientist on stage but also an amazing speaker 🙂 #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/mMzFivbmpq
— Dassault Systèmes (@Dassault3DS) February 10, 2015
9.49 – “We’re talking about the digitalisation of life” Dr Michio Kaku
9.47 – Google glass is being torn apart – in the future we’ll have smart contact lenses, ‘letting college kids cheat in exams’ – and introducing Augmented Reality to mainstream.
9.43 – We’re getting a fun run through of Dr K’s best selling books, and some of his ideas for the future and some good jokey anecdotes.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0NbBjNiw4tk
Michio Kaku is hilarious! Already got loving this speaker! #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/bx5haS0PrN
— Barb Schmitz (@DW_BarbSchmitz) February 10, 2015
Literally have been looking forward to this since speakers announced. Paying attention now. #SWW15
— Elizabeth Kinsey (@eakinsey) February 10, 2015
9.39 – He’s listing creations by physicists – most of them British, might I point out…
9.38 – It’s keynote time now with Dr. Michio Kaku – a physicist on New York Times 100 most intelligent New Yorkers, which he notes Madonna is also on.
9.36 – ‘A word from our sponsors’ once more – it’s HP now.
Send a valentine to the moon! #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/RQb1XOVoHu
— sara larsen (@sararlarsen) February 10, 2015
9.33 – It’s rover is heading one way for the Lacus Mortis area of the moon. Which is cheerily translated as the LAKE OF DEATH. Good luck with that.
El vehiculo de Astrobotic disenado en SolidWorks #sww15 pic.twitter.com/DUXlHh3zHi
— 3DCadPortal (@3DCadPortal) February 10, 2015
9.29 – Some cool vacuum chamber testing for the parts to simulate the moon conditions. The thermal challenge is one of the biggest problems. Aim is the big cash reward of the Lunar X Prize for getting to the moon and driving five metres.
Astrobotic, landing on the moon! #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/FGw6bVGhln
— TPM, Inc (@TPM_Inc) February 10, 2015
9.27 – The challenges of designing things to go to the moon – a ‘super extreme environment’.
9.22 – Now a customer story – and they send things up to the moon! Astrobotics, and its boss John Thornton is here to tell us about what they’re doing.
Looking for a MySOLIDWORKS link? We got you covered: http://t.co/gA0H0FtqR7 #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/8iTy0SFxRT
— SOLIDWORKS (@SOLIDWORKS) February 10, 2015
9.21 – Bringing in ‘self certified content’ – a means of finding the right parts models.
9.17 – My SolidWorks has a ton of good information, tips and tricks – it’s like a search engine but delves behind firewalls for more SolidWorks goodness. They’re launching Manufacturing Network – links you directly to manufacturers and can give you quotes on parts – “It’s like Yelp. It’s all about the comments and ratings”
9.15 – Here comes a badly acted video. It’s all in the aid of promoting My SolidWorks. “WOW! This is amazing!”, erm, yeah…
9.12 – “One of the biggest problems is when people ask you what you do for a living – one of the challenges is letting girls know it’s ok to like engineering” – Bettina Chen, founder of Roominate
Welcome @Roominate Co-founder Bettina Chen to the #SWW15 stage to discuss design from a female perspective pic.twitter.com/cS2jIi6frT
— SOLIDWORKS (@SOLIDWORKS) February 10, 2015
9.10 – We’ve two friends – both female engineers – that have created Roominate, educational engineering toys for girls. It’s still pink.
Find a FIRST Robotics competition near and and see the passion and ingenuity of young students everywhere #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/dECFnOiiSl
— Rich Allen (@richardleeallen) February 10, 2015
9.05 – Marie is going through some of her favourite community groups for getting girls into engineering and design – its an impassioned speech.
9.01 – SolidWorks women in education award goes to Rachel York of Missouri – although it’s not stoping there, the fab labs outreach program is stretching this even further than the US to Africa and Asia.
9.00 – “We need more engineers in this world to solve more problems… I know that women have a different perspective to men.” – Marie Planchard
8.58 – We’re moving on to Marie Planchard, director of education at SolidWorks – and we’re going to have some talk about getting more girls into education.
Holy shit!
— Jeff Mirisola (@JeffMirisola) February 10, 2015
8.57 – Then there’s the SWUG community award – which goes to Jeff Mirisola. He might be from Boston. BWAAAAHSTAAN.
8.53 – It’s a mini award ceremony here for SWUG – the user group of the year is San Antonio SWUG, Leader of the year goes to Denny Bahl from Chicago and Don Glaske of Northeast Wisconsin.
The SolidWorks user group leaders getting. free pizza. at 9am. #SWW15 #yummy pic.twitter.com/tjT3rtvsIA
— SolidSmack (@SolidSmack) February 10, 2015
8.51 – Reasons why you should join a SWUG meeting – including free pizza (which is now being handed out to the crowd)
8.48 – And with that Monica leaves the stage – leaving us with SolidWorks User Group Network’s Richard Doyle – a man very passionate about SolidWorks.
8.47 – “It is the social world that has been opened up… and one thing we’ve anticipated at Dassault Systems. The future of SolidWorks is much more social.”
"We need to design for the consumer journey experiences. Products are no longer enough," Monica Menghini, EVP. #SWW15
— Barb Schmitz (@DW_BarbSchmitz) February 10, 2015
8.43 – The talk is veering into Monica’s talk at the recent Dassault Systèmes US user event – you can read about how that went here.
8.40 – Monica is telling the crowd about her past and the concept of design thinking. “Product experience we all know… The usability, usefulness, the sustainability its all these things.”
8.36 – Monica Menghini is on stage, she’s the chief strategy officer, and is giving the crowd her background.
This year seems a bit more reserved than previous years. That, or everyone in the crowd is hung over. #sww15
— Jeff Mirisola (@JeffMirisola) February 10, 2015
8.34 – A word from our sponsors – Dell. Time to check the bingo card.
8.33 – It’s all about the community today – the CWSE evening last night gets a shout out, along with the bloggers covering this event… Think that’s us included… Possibly…
8.30 – It’s on! We’re being told about the exhibition area – which is lovely.
Suchit Jain breaking down yesterday and the #CSWE event #represent! #SWW15 pic.twitter.com/2ItmBWsNhW
— SolidSmack (@SolidSmack) February 10, 2015
Keynote Speaker – Dr. Michio Kaku, Theoretical Physicist, Author & Professor
Dr. Michio Kaku is one of the most widely recognised figures in science today – as entertaining as he is brilliant.
A theoretical physicist, best-selling author and ‘popularizer of science’ (an American a term as you’ll stumble across), he’s the co-founder of string field theory – continuing Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory that will summarise all the physical laws of the universe.
Additionally, he predicts trends affecting business, commerce and finance based on the latest research in science (which probably pays better).
The author of numerous international bestsellers, Dr. Kaku’s latest book, The Future of the Mind, illustrates the stunning breakthroughs being made in neuroscience, which are finally beginning to unravel the mysteries of the most complex object in the known universe: the human brain.
Kaku was also featured in the full-length feature film, Me and Isaac Newton, in 2001, and beginning in 2008 became a regular host on the Science Channel/Discovery Channel.
Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, where he has taught for almost 30 years. He’s a clever chap.
