STARS OF THE SCREEN
Manufacturing may not yet have many role models, but new ways of working could begin to tempt back the young says Amina West of Autodesk

If asked to make list of well-known, living product designers or inventors most people could probably stretch to two or three. Maybe, for example, they’d mention James Dyson for his vacuum cleaners, Trevor Baylis for his wind up radio and, of course, Jonathan Ive for the iPod. However, even these exalted few have a very low profile compared to entrepreneurs such as the Bransons or Sugars of this world.
Whether or not this kind of personality-driven celebrity is something our younger generation should aspire to is a matter of opinion. However, it’s clear that in today’s world, the ability to invent, create and produce is not held in such high esteem as, say, money-making in general.
Take the popular TV series The Dragon’s Den. At first glance, this showcases new innovations – so far so good. But, in the interest of compelling television, the powerful money men and women sit in judgement on their candidates (sometimes portrayed as geeks and eccentrics) making them squirm if their idea isn’t up to scratch. It’s a basic fact of business that new products have to sell. Yet, creativity thrives on encouragement rather than humiliation.
It’s only entertainment – but what is it saying to the younger generation? Business equals good but invention can equal foolish? No wonder many students shy away from courses such as physics, maths and engineering in favour of more general topics such as business studies.
Thankfully the industry is fighting back. Events such as IMechE’s Manufacturing Excellence (MX) Awards go a long way towards making stars out of those designing products which push the boundaries in their field.
Consider this year’s overall winner – Wrightbus. Never has a bus company sounded so glamorous as when you learn about their work with hybrid diesel-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the fact that they are supplying not just London, Holland and Hong Kong, but also Las Vegas.
Those connected to education in engineering and design, from school teachers to university professors, are beginning to wake up to the fact that students need to be proactively inspired. They are moving away from traditional teaching methods and instead moving towards those which better reflect how the industry is progressing.
One educational establishment doing its best to ensure that its students are not just taught, but are also enthused and motivated, is the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Its digital design and manufacturing studio is at the razor sharp edge of design engineering, encompassing all the tools needed for digital and rapid prototyping including Autodesk Inventor design software, 3ds Max and VR4MAX for virtual realistic visualisation plus tools for rapid prototyping, 3D scanning and 3D printing technology, laser cutting and CNC machinery. It even contains a stereoscopic projection system.
It is also one of the first universities to make use of a new Creative Curriculum in its teaching. This visionary initiative has been developed by Autodesk in close collaboration with engineers, designers and educational professionals to encourage a more holistic and original approach to product design and engineering with an emphasis on digital prototyping.
As part of this, students are encouraged to find inspitation in art, sculpture or organic form rather than from existing products. For example, they are taught how to look at a creature such as a starfish and evolve its form into a product such as a desktop lamp. Alternatively, they may wish to study the movement of a dancer or athlete, deconstruct this form and flow, identify its structure and translate it into a product such as a table.
Using industry standard software such as Inventor means they can learn and progress very quickly. “We find that students who use Inventor are far more productive than those who have used CAD for much longer, but are using other products. In fact, we now see some of our third and fourth year students switching to Inventor even thought they have more experience in other systems,” says the department’s technical support officer, Dave Cunningham.
Software such as Inventor encourages experimentation and getting a design right on screen before it goes any further because it makes it easy to make changes. The important thing with digital prototyping is being able to feedback observations into the design process and the development of intuitive parametric technology means that this can now be done.
It is this seeing – and even experiencing through simulation and analysis – products on screen before they are real that begins to change the way designers work and are enthused by their creations. Out in the wider world, this is leading to a new breed of product designer who are nothing less than passionate about what they do and their ability to innovate.
One of these is Cameron Treeby of a design consultancy called Hyphen, which specialises in what it calls “human-focused” design. It’s a concept that obviously goes down well with its premier league client portfolio which includes names such as Marks & Spencer, Virgin Mobile, Mattel and Speedo.
“For example,” says Treeby. “Ever had sore eye sockets after wearing swimming goggles? We don’t have to live with these problems; we can design them out. Having compassion for the end user and knowing how to translate this when designing a product is vital to getting it right.”
Treeby is inspired by the integration of high-end visualisation software such as Autodesk Showcase and Inventor. Aware that Showcase is more frequently used for concept design in the automotive industry than for developing products, he is still keen to pioneer its use in his consumer product design. “There’s a lot of excitement surrounding this way of working at the moment. It’s definitely the way forward,” he says.
“Using Showcase and Inventor together provides a straightforward path to creating a single digital model, which can then be taken right through the production process without having to re-create data.
“This gets us closer to the end product straight away, enabling us to better communicate our deisgns, presenting clients with what is actually a digital prototype for their comments and input.”
There’s little doubt that using the latest design and visualisation tools, being able to translate ideas directly onto the screen and to develop a photo-realistic model which can be spun round and manipulated, is light years away from the endless calculations and dry lines and circles of old.
Design engineers are no longer the forgotten heroes of manufacturing success. The fact that they are now using software built on the same platform as that used in many of the latest Hollywood blockbusters tells its own tale.
If anything is going to attract the engineering stars of tomorrow, this could be it.



Industrial Focus July/August 2008