San Jose State University (SJSU) plays a major role in powering the innovation of Silicon Valley. The institution’s long connection with this hotbed of technological research and development has influenced SJSU’s rigorous industrial design curriculum, through which many of Silicon Valley’s elite product designers have learned their craſt. Until recently, SJSU’s Industrial Design Department allowed students to use a variety of design, surfacing, and freeform applications, including the Alias ® , Rhino ® , and Unigraphics ® soſtware packages. However, in 2007, the department decided to embrace a single design system as the foundation of a revamped curriculum, according to Associate Professor Leslie Speer. “To cover more ground and beer prepare students for work in industry, we sought to tie in our Foundations class with the courses that follow,” Speer explains. “We wanted to give students the necessary tools to not only visualize a design but also communicate with engineers and work with manufacturing techniques to build their own creations.” Associate Professor John McClusky, who had established the SolidWorks program at Carnegie Mellon University, was keen on standardizing on SolidWorks ® Education Edition soſtware. “Because SolidWorks is easier to learn and use, it serves as the link between industrial design, engineering, and manufacturing technology,” McClusky explains. “With SolidWorks, students can directly correlate what they design with how it’s made.” SJSU also conducted a survey of Silicon Valley design offices to assess industry recommendations. Aſter SolidWorks soſtware came out on top, SJSU’s Industrial Design Department standardized on SolidWorks Education Edition soſtware, making it a requirement for students in the program and establishing it as the foundation of SJSU’s new curriculum in 2008. SJSU chose SolidWorks soſtware because it includes easy-to-use modeling, surfacing, and design-for-manufacturing capabilities that are necessary to support the program. CASE STUDY SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY Preparing Silicon Valley’s future innovators with SolidWorks Education Edition Challenge: Educate industrial design students through a curriculum that supports concept application, promotes creativity, and leads to skills acquisition. Solution: Implement SolidWorks Education Edition soſtware as the curriculum foundation. Results: • Revamped industrial design curriculum • Accelerated student CAD competency and certification • Facilitated designer-engineer collaboration • Advanced sophistication of student projects By standardizing on SolidWorks Education Edition soſtware, SJSU has established a design platform for students in its Industrial Design Program that beer prepares them to utilize real-world engineering and manufacturing processes.
Transcript
San Jose State University (SJSU) plays a major role in powering the innovation of Silicon Valley. The institution’s long connection with this hotbed of technological research and development has infl uenced SJSU’s rigorous industrial design curriculum, through which many of Silicon Valley’s elite product designers have learned their craft .
Until recently, SJSU’s Industrial Design Department allowed students to use a variety of design, surfacing, and freeform applications, including the Alias®, Rhino®, and Unigraphics® soft ware packages. However, in 2007, the department decided to embrace a single design system as the foundation of a revamped curriculum, according to Associate Professor Leslie Speer.
“To cover more ground and bett er prepare students for work in industry, we sought to tie in our Foundations class with the courses that follow,” Speer explains. “We wanted to give students the necessary tools to not only visualize a design but also communicate with engineers and work with manufacturing techniques to build their own creations.”
Associate Professor John McClusky, who had established the SolidWorks program at Carnegie Mellon University, was keen on standardizing on SolidWorks® Education Edition soft ware. “Because SolidWorks is easier to learn and use, it serves as the link between industrial design, engineering, and manufacturing technology,” McClusky explains. “With SolidWorks, students can directly correlate what they design with how it’s made.”
SJSU also conducted a survey of Silicon Valley design offi ces to assess industry recommendations. Aft er SolidWorks soft ware came out on top, SJSU’s Industrial Design Department standardized on SolidWorks Education Edition soft ware, making it a requirement for students in the program and establishing it as the foundation of SJSU’s new curriculum in 2008. SJSU chose SolidWorks soft ware because it includes easy-to-use modeling, surfacing, and design-for-manufacturing capabilities that are necessary to support the program.
C A S E S T U D Y
SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITYPreparing Silicon Valley’s future innovators with SolidWorks Education Edition
Challenge:Educate industrial design students through a curriculum that supports concept application, promotes creativity, and leads to skills acquisition.
Solution:Implement SolidWorks Education Edition soft ware as the curriculum foundation.
and certifi cation• Facilitated designer-engineer collaboration• Advanced sophistication of student projects
By standardizing on SolidWorks Education Edition soft ware, SJSU has established a design platform for students in its Industrial Design Program that bett er prepares them to utilize real-world engineering and manufacturing processes.
Laying the foundationStudents in SJSU’s Industrial Design Program begin using SolidWorks software after the Foundations courses, which introduce students to problem-solving, form generation, drawing, aesthetic principles, and physical prototyping. These concepts serve as the starting point for learning how to use SolidWorks in the context of creating the geometries that drive product design in the courses that follow.
Lecturer Jim Ammon, who teaches the SolidWorks courses, says the new approach accelerates the development of CAD skills and the understanding of design concepts. “With SolidWorks, students get a real jump start on industry tools and methodologies,” Ammon says. “SolidWorks serves as both a learning interface and a tool. The software’s incredibly intuitive and establishes a more practical, parametric paradigm for thinking about design.”
“When students enter my advanced class, they already understand how to model in SolidWorks,” notes Lecturer Misha Young. “This allows us to move right into complex surfacing. It’s very beneficial for the students to have SolidWorks threaded throughout the curriculum. The students have become so proficient with SolidWorks, that we’ve included the Certified SolidWorks Associate certification test as part of our final exam.”
Understanding manufacturingBy standardizing on SolidWorks software, SJSU can build on the foundation laid in initial coursework through the use of SolidWorks to apply that knowledge in subsequent classes, such as its Materials & Manufacturing Processes course. “What’s made the curriculum work so well is that with SolidWorks, all of the courses work better together,” McClusky stresses. “In addition to using SolidWorks to discover how to model organic shapes, students can use the software to learn about how to employ ribs, bosses, variable wall thicknesses, and draft; and utilize different materials and manufacturing techniques.
“By using one design platform throughout the curriculum, the students gain a lot more power to understand and collaborate with engineers in real-world settings,” McClusky adds. “They leave with more than a form background, and can apply their knowledge to the vision that represents the soul of industrial design.”
Elevating quality of student projectsSince implementing SolidWorks software, SJSU faculty has witnessed a dramatic increase in the ambition, complexity, and thoroughness of student design projects. The project that best illustrates this growing sophistication is the Arbor Solar Seating project.
Using SolidWorks software, a group of students developed and built a solar-powered arbor—a covered seating area like a bus stop—in downtown San Jose. The arbor is a modular system of “solar trees” that cover benches, providing protection from the sun while simultaneously harnessing its power to operate lighting, run a wireless router, and provide access to power outlets.
“With SolidWorks, students can undertake more substantial projects,” McClusky notes. “SolidWorks helps students make intelligent decisions more quickly and accurately, and complete projects with a level of detail, refinement, and consistency that we haven’t seen before.”
“It’s very benefIcIal for the students to have solIdWorks threaded throughout the currIculum. the students have become so profIcIent WIth solIdWorks that We’ve Included the certIfIed solIdWorks assocIate certIfIcatIon test as part of our fInal exam.”Misha YoungLecturer
San Jose State UniversityDesign Department/Industrial Design Program One Washington SquareSan Jose, CA 95192-0225 USAPhone: +1 408 924 4320www.sjsu.edu/design/
Since the school implemented SolidWorks Education Edition software, the quality and complexity of SJSU student projects have risen dramatically.
