Archive for July 8th, 2008
July 8th, 2008 | 
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This year’s Create the Future Design Contest is now open for entries. I must confess that, up until this day, I had never heard about it, but it looks like something really neat. According to their webpage, the contest was launched in 2002 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation. Ever since, the annual event has attracted more than 5,000 product design ideas from engineers, entrepreneurs, and students worldwide. This year, the contest is presented by NASA Tech Briefs and SolidWorks Corporation, and co-sponsored by other companies like COMSOL, Hewlett Packard and National Instruments. Among the prizes for this year are 6 HP Workstations, fully equipped with everything a designer or engineer could possibly need and 20,000 dollars for the lucky first place winner. There are several different categories for entries, such as machinery, equipment and component technology, medical, safety and security, transportation, and sustainable technologies.
So, if you have any great ideas for a product in any of those categories, why not give it a try? You never know, you may end up winning first prize or, at least, having a great time at the contest.
I wish I had known about this contest earlier. I don’t think I could come up with something so quickly, but if I could, I think I would like to create some sort of product to aid families of children with disabilities. Both my sons had a speech delay, which is now only a slight lisp, but for a while the smallest one was believed to have Apraxia and Hypotonia. It was all a mistake, thanks God, but one that provided me with the rare opportunity to peek into the life of many families whose children do live with all kinds of delays and disabilities, and I realized how tough it is for them to do the things we often take for granted.
So, anyway, to learn more about the contest visit their webpage at www.createthefuturecontest.com . Good luck!
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Do you have something (SolidWorks related) that you think would be interesting and useful for other users in the community? Do you know any tricks or techniques that may help others in their everyday use of the software? Are you comfortable speaking in front of an audience? Well, this is your chance to contribute and share your knowledge with hundreds of other SolidWorks users as a speaker at the biggest SolidWorks event of the year: SolidWorks World. Yes, that’s right! They are calling for papers for SolidWorks World 2009 right now! To learn more about it and to submit your own proposal go to their Call for Speakers page. Good luck!
