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During Autodesks 2nd Autodesk Press Day event to showcase their latest
technologies to the world, Autodesks chief marketing officer, Chris Bradshaw,
in an interview with CyberMedia, said: The company had earlier tried to
outsource part of the research work to Indian companies but that didnt work
out. Now we are considering the off-shoring model on our own, said
Autodesk has systematically increased its presence in Indias leading
engineering and design institutions in recent years by setting up Centers of
Design Excellence at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, and
IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Chennai.
We are in talks with other IITs and the network of National Institutes of
Technologies (NITs) to extend these facilities to these institutions too, said
Bradshaw.
The search for global talent is what is driving companies like Autodesk to
the Asian region. In the developed economies of the world, the current crop of
designers are all set to retire in the next 5 to 10 years, and in the emerging
economies where there is a growing demand for design talent, there is a
shortage, said Autodesks vice president (market development), Jon H Pitman.
This is because the education sector works in silos with very little
integration with other disciplines, mainly in engineering institutions, Pitman
added. The engineering education system has to overcome the talent crunch by
moving away from individual performance assessement models to project-based team
performance.
 |
| A Ford Motor executive
displaying the latest car designed fully using Autodesk software |
This, according to Pitman, is the only way to overcome the looming talent
crunch. Pitman pointed out that the worlds Top 2 economiesChina and Indiawill
be setting up enormous urban infrastructure to meet the demands of increased
urbanization in the next 25-30 years. The urban infrastructure set up in the US
in the last 250 years is likely to be accomplished in India and China in just
25-30 years. And India and China do not have the luxury which the US had in
terms of abundance of land, capital, raw materials, energy, and talent, Pitman
said. This provides huge opportunities for companies in the design segment.
The talent shortage could be overcome by evolving new methods of learning.
Companies have already started setting up project-based globally dispersed teams
to access human talent available in various parts of the world. The second part
of it should involve inter-disciplinary work. Innovation is the key and
innovation doesnt happen in silos, said Pitman. What the world is looking for
is T-shaped individuals who have abundant domain expertise in specific verticals
combined with the horizontal expertise and cultures of other related
disciplines.
 |
| AutoDesk CEO, Carl Bass,
delivering the keynote address at the World Press Day 2008 event in San
Francisco |
Further, the future demand for design will be met by digital tools. The
young people today are extremely fluent in working with digital tools. The
students need guidance in making the best out of the latest design technologies.
Autodesk believes that design tools should be embedded into the educational
system, said Pitman.
Autodesk is engaging the student design community in a big way. More than
230,000 students are enrolled in 11,000 educational institutions in 129
countries in using Autodesks latest design tools. The students get the software
free and are encouraged to share their ideas and work with the latest design
environment within the expanding community.
|
Show Time |
| The prominent
product releases made during the World Press Day were 3ds Max, enhancements
to the Revit architecture, and Autocad 2009 versions
A company statement said the AutoCAD 2009
includes a host of new user interfaces in computer-aided design (CAD)
applications. These features will enhance design efficiency for users, and
some of these new tools could even be used by professionals who do not have
a design background.
The AutoCAD 2009 portfolio is designed to
improve the productivity of veteran users and allow new users to become
productive more quickly, said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Platform
Solutions and Emerging Businesses. Autodesk has a long history of helping
our customers make a difference in peoples lives with better design in the
buildings where we live, work and play, the roads we travel and the products
we use. The innovations in AutoCAD 2009 extend to a product portfolio
unmatched for breadth, depth and best-in-class solutions that help our
customers improve and bring to life their design ideas.
The company also announced two new versions
of its Autodesk 3ds Max modeling, animation and rendering software. The 2009
version will enhance the 3-Dimension capabilities of various applications
run by architects, designers and visualization specialists. Besides
increased inter-operability, the new version will have many extra
time-saving animation and mapping workflow tools. It also includes lighting
simulation and analysis technologies.
Every design has a story to tell, explained
Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment.
Entertainment technology enables design professionals to explore ideas,
validate concepts, and communicate design intent. It allows them to
experience their designs before they are real.
Autodesk 3ds Max now comes in two distinct
flavors to better meet the specific needs of our entertainment and
visualization customers, Petit added. 3ds Max 2009 and 3ds Max Design 2009
provide users with tailored online experiences, user interface and
application defaults, tutorials, samples, and more. This simplifies the
learning process and makes it easier for users to find the information
thats most relevant to them.
The third major product release was the
enhancements to the Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, Revit MEP, AutoCAD
Civil 3D, and Autodesk NavisWorks. BIM is an integrated workflow built on
coordinated, reliable information about a project from design through
construction and into operations. Demand for innovation and efficiency in
building design, civil engineering and construction continues to drive the
AEC industrys adoption of BIM, said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president,
Autodesk AEC Solutions. Autodesk is continually working to provide our
customers with technology that provides competitive advantage and design
innovation. Our BIM solutions offer complete, effective design and analysis
tools and continue the revolution in AEC workflow catalyzed by our Revit
platform.
Autodesks 3D modeling technologies are
helping customers understand and improve the performance and operation of
their designs before they are built. Through highly regarded analysis
technology from Robobat, Intelisolve, and NavisWorksall now part of the
Autodesk portfolioAutodesks 2009 BIM solutions help architects, engineers
and designers to make better design decisions earlier in their process. The
updated BIM solutions also improve project collaboration and integration
between the building design, civil engineering and construction disciplines.
The two-day event showcased customer
experiences in using various Autodesk tools in improving building designs,
new product designs of automobiles, cutting edge technologies used in
complicated redesign work of the Bay Bridge connecting San Francisco and
Oakland, one of the busiest bridges in the US.
|
Narayanan Suresh
The author was hosted in San Francisco
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