Attendees returning from the conference’s first day keynote address may have been mildy surprised to find a whole crew of youngsters prowling around the LIVE Zone floor. Not to worry, these kids were special guests of Bentley Systems, here on a mission to learn more about the design and engineering profession and to experience an actual technical user conference.
The event had started earlier in the morning when Carol Rieg, Bentley’s Foundation Officer, welcomed 50 high school and middle school students (and teachers) from several local Philadelphia. As part of Bentley’s ongoing support of the national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) educational initiative the objective was simple: give the kids a taste of what it is like to be an engineer or designer attending a technical conference.
To get started the students were divided into two teams. Team Purple was the first to take part in a 40 minute MicroStation 3D hands-on workshop. Instructor Bob Bossler took them through a specially prepared series of lessons to develop a 3d model of a medieval castle. This involved the use of several solid modeling tools which, given that most of these students had never touched CAD before was especially amazing. To ensure all of the students had a positive experience Bentley colleagues Mark Anderson, Bill McNamara and Inga Morozoff provided one-on-one tutoring as needed.
The MicroStation 3D workshop underway.
While Team Purple was busy with 3D workshop, Bentley colleagues Carol Rieg, Janet Doane and Steve Rick escorted Team Orange to the LIVE Zone for a special tour.
In the Visualization ZONE, Bentley colleague Jerry Flynn, gave each small group of students a quick overview of the 3D rendering process followed by a few minutes checking out the latest in 3D display technologies. As you would expect, many of the students were “mesmerized” by this.
Bentley colleague Jerry Flynn describing how the 3D display works.
Bentley colleague Steve Rick looks on as his group checks out a different 3D display technology.
Well, their teacher (in green) definitely is impressed!
"So real you can touch it!"
Elsewhere on the floor another group of students from Team Orange was introduced to several emerging technologies in the aptly named Technology Futures ZONE. Under the watchful “eye” of Bentley colleague Fran Rabuck each student tried out the Kopen Golden-i, a head-mounted computer designed to provide all of the functionality of a contemporary laptop computer while keeping hands and eyes free.
Bentley colleague Fran Rabuck explains how the Golden-i head-mounted computer works.
In another part of the ZONE, Bentley colleague Mark Smith showed off a really cool proof-of-concept application. Using an Apple iPad Mark demonstrated how it was possible to dynamically navigate around and through a virtual 3D model by simply moving the iPad in different directions. It was as if you were viewing the model through a magic looking glass.
Bentley colleague Mark Smith shows off the "magic viewer" iPad app.
Meanwhile, over in the Intelligent Deliverables ZONE, Z Corporation’s Director of Business Development and Channel Programs Olimpio DeMarco, along with Curt Gammer and Laura Bolesta of Solid Technologies took the time to explain how the Z-Corp 3D printer creates physical models from 3D computer designs. Each group was encouraged to inspect several completed examples including one that would later become very familiar to them.
A very special thank you to Olimpio, Curt and Laura for graciously helping out at literally the very last minute!
Olimpio DeMarco explains to the students the operation of the Z-Corp 3D printer.
Olimpio points out several example models (do you recognize the castle?)
Bentley colleague Bill Digregorio next demonstrated the concept of intelligent paper through the use of Xpaper’s smart pen product. Each student was encouraged to sign a seemingly normal paper copy of the US Declaration of Independence. After a quick download from the smart pen of their “markups” the students were truly surprised to see their signatures appear on an electronic copy of the document.
Sorry Bill, didn't quite get you in the frame!
At this point the two teams swapped places, Team Orange getting down to business designing their own 3D castle and Team Purple visiting the LIVE Zones.
Finally, with both teams back in the meeting room, Chris Cerra of Vuzit provided a short but very insightful talk about engineering as a career. Among the many things Chris presented, the one that really caught my ear was his rule #1 of Life: “don’t die…” Definitely two words to live by.
To close out this busy day, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems thanked everyone for coming and imparted some final thoughts of his own on what it means to be part of the engineering community and what’s important to remember as each student prepares for their chosen career.
Before returning to the school bus for the trip home, each student received a specially prepared backpack of goodies with one special surprise. Carefully packed in its own container was a 3D copy of the same castle they created during their MicroStation design workshop! (special thanks to Fran for plotting the models)
As the event coordinator I had the best opportunity to observe the students from a distance and few things quickly became obvious. These kids were very quick at picking up on all aspects of what they saw and did. It didn’t matter what school they came from, they asked questions, they raised their hands and, they understood what they had to do and, most importantly, I think they really enjoyed themselves.
My thanks to the Bentley team members that helped make this happen:
Carol Rieg, Bob Bossler, Janet Doane, Fran Rabuck, Jerry Flynn, Mark Anderson, Inga Morozoff, Bill McNamara, Steve Rick, Bill DiGregorio, Mark Smith.