Flying High

Flying home right now at 3700 ft with wifi, pretty amazing! Will definitely have to go back and edit some of the posts and add on. There are a lot of pictures that will be uploaded along wth what looks to be an amazing video made by one of our reps, Emi Day. Overall great AU experience. Met a lot of wonderful people, especially the reps and got to network with many of the autodesk employees and industry professionals. I know AU has impacted me and encourage you to explore AU Virtual. Hope to continue working with the Education team and creating that connection between them the students and faculty. Thanks Jenee.

One last time.... FANTASY!

Last Night

So the AU final party was alright, lots of food and drink but we were all pretty worn out by time we got there. We all went through the shark reef which was really cool. Saw lots of fish and sharks. Pretty neat aquarium. After we explored the strip one last time. More pictures will come.

AB308-2 Revit Inside: Autodesk® Revit® Architecture for the Interior Designer

Paul Aubin, writer of many of the Mastering Revit books, was the lecturer this morning and covered a lot of valuable and important information. This lecture addressed how "Revit-olution" and Building Information Modeling can aid any interior design firm. The class was filled with a variety of disciplines and experience which was great to see. He covered the basics of walls and grouping to how users can improve their workflow and use a variety of design options and worksets. It was a great session which everyone seemed to benefit from.

Pecha Kucha

One of our fellow reps, Greg Meyers, from GA Tech was fortunate enough to participate in what is referred to as Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha brings together a diverse group of creative thinkers to share their ideas in a unique presentation format: they display 20 images, each for 20 seconds. In those six minutes and 40 seconds, presenters are expected to make a personal connection with their audience. It was a high energy and visual conversation on a wide range of compelling design topics. Greg's focused on the role of technology and the importance of bringing that into the classroom and how that helps foster and develop the necessary skills that can be applied in their professional life.

The Mix

After the education panel, the Autodesk reps and experts were invited to the education reception where we had the opportunity to meet with educators and Autodesk experts that picked apart our brain. We were able to give our insight about how students are using the software and what they would like to see. We even had the opportunity to meet and talk with a Chinese student who had designed a museum that had been destroyed by an earthquake for the government. The reception was held at the Mix lounge in THEHotel which had a marvelous view of the strip.

Education Panel

Autodesk Education brought in several professors and professionals who work with design students from high schools and Universities. One of the professors is Barry Stedman who happens to be an architecture professor from my university, University of Cincinnati. It was great to see how they are engaging students and creating real world opportunities for their students. The gentleman represented Sony Online Entertainment (video games), Manufacturing, and HoK (architecture firm). As a student I found the discussion lively and pertinent to my success as an architect. It was great to hear the educators push the need for students to develop in other areas other than technology. They stressed the importance of becoming a global designer and diversifying ones field of study. It is important for designers to communicate with others and display their personality. The field of design is all about collaboration and it is important that we foster this development in team growth while providing real world experiences. Definitely worth checking out on AU Virtual!

Night on the Town

Chilled out with the other student reps after the Exhibit Hall and then went out on the town. Great night with lots of exploration and winnings at the slots.

Exhibit Hall

I worked the education booth in the Exhibit Hall which was pretty exciting. Met a variety of people from different countries (Australia, Belgium, China) and disciplines. Very cool experience to see how people are designing and the way they are manipulating the software to achieve their designs. Booths showed many new developments and technological resources which are making it easier to visualize our design ideas and how they are enhancing the visitors experience.

Comfy!

Breaks are nice

Tired from last night and going to take a cat nap. You forget your in vegas sometimes during the day but ur always reminded at night!

Education Keynote

Good Lecture by Rick Miller from Olin College. Exciting curriculum and teaching methods. He is trying to implement more collaborative disciplines and create well rounded students. He has created cross disciplinary courses that teach students about design, business(entrepreneurship) and the life sciences. I think this is an important issue that education institutions must address especially in the field of design where we must be flexible and willing to adapt to a variety of situations.
Teachers getting comfortable at AU

KeyNote

Its packed in here. The keynote is in an arena. Carl and Jeff talked a lot about the timing of design and 5 core areas. The future of design is exciting and is coming to everyone. They showed how they are expanding their platform based and encouraging iphone users to even design and communicate with other individuals. Design is going global and much easier and efficient to visualize your designs before they are even done.

Wahoo!

Great first lecture by Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute, who spoke towards the issue of sustainability and designer/engineers need to look at how we design and our process. He was one of Times 100 most influential people too and will be speaking at the Keynote with Carl Bass, Ceo Autodesk. He addressed issues of capital costs and that we must not compromise our design decisions. Excllent Speaker and thought provoking individual. View his lecture at AU Virtual! other lectures of his at rmi.org/stanford.



AU104-6 Advanced Design Integration for Radical Energy Efficiency

Here

We all are here and have been enjoying Vegas. This has been my first time able to connect and class is about to start in 15 minutes. Thought I would get on the ball and at least start with some post. I will try to update as soon as possible and will try to include more pictures and videos. Excited about the keynote today. Should be posting stuff from there. Also dont forget that you can connect through au virtual!