Ever wondered how are objects from our daily lives designed? How can we generate a computer 3D model of a mug, a bottle of Diet Coke, or a Saturn V rocket? What about designing the blades of a jet-engine? A test dummy? How about making an animation of a LEGO house building itself? Or making a realistic render of a bowl of fruit? In this AeroAstro workshop, you will learn the skills to design all of these, and much more! 

Designed for beginners and pro-user alike, this workshop is split into 9 2-hour long sessions, the first half of which will be spent learning new Solidworks skills (a computer-aided design software), the second half of which will see the application of these news skills through in-class activities, with a focus on reverse engineering. In contrast to traditional mechanical design courses, this workshop places greater emphasis on the design process itself, understanding how we can plan and best leverage our available tools to arrive to our desired result. Thus, the sessions are less about following the instructions on an engineering drawing, but about independent thinking and strategizing, reverse engineering an object into a 3D model. 

 Through the workshop’s 9 sessions, the goal is for the student to:

• Have learned all the essential Solidworks skills, enough to be able to pass the industry-standard Mechanical Design CSWA exam.
• Have built a comprehensive design portfolio, in the form of a presentation, to showcase all the different in-class projects and Solidworks skills mastered.
• Feel that it can take any object and exclaim, “I know how to CAD this!”.