A WISE Collaboration This Semester!

By Aliza Wajih

The best part about working at ResPlat is that I get to do a lot of exciting things and work with many amazing people. My proudest achievement so far is building a community with Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)! So far we have worked together for ResBaz, TinkerCAD, 3D printing training and a recent fun end-of-semester de-stress event.

I started collaborating with Jess Vovers the president WISE at the end of last year when she helped me promote my ResBaz training and get as many female designers to join Inventor by advertising Resbaz on twitter, facebook and the WISE newletter. If you would like to read more about it click here.

Yes, she is just a magical as she looks!

Around that time we also organized a TickerCAD and 3D printing class for early March. TinkerCAD was a new software for me this year, but thanks to Vincent’s classes I was able to learn and teach it. I got to work with some amazing and creative women.

Of course, I didn’t do it alone! My team, Vincent and Louise were there as helpers and with their support we did a pretty decent job!

Last week, we hosted a de-stress event at the colab with WISE. with a special guest! Meet the cutest puppy in the world, Toast! 

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It was great to see some new and old faces and build new connections. I got to meet everyone from women doing their PhD in astrophysics to civil engineer and first year science students! We had a great time playing with Toast, bubbles, colouring, talking and eating! Guess who got to meet the president of Women in ICT? Me.

Hopefully we will continue doing great things together with WISE! Here is to a good break and a great next semester! See you all soon :)

Blog awards: April (07/04/16)

The first blog awards for 2016 are here! We’ll be doing these on the first week of every month and recapping our most successful blog posts by our wonderful Research Community Coordinators. 

1. “Before I go, let me tell you a story… “ By Dr. Paul John Michael Mignone
It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to one of our original “first generation” Research Community Coordinators. Paul has been with the ResBaz community from the very beginning & was the lead in kicking off the CADventurer community. A beautiful story by Paul - thank you for everything!

2. “Virtual Surgery using 3D Slicer at the Research Bazaar 2016 Conference” By Louise van der Werff
CADventurer Louise recaps her (hugely) successful 3D Slicer stream at ResBaz 2016! The post contains highlights, recognises the growing community & shares the course notes. 

3. “Autodesk Inventor at ResBaz 2016!” By Aliza Wajih
The CADventurers are on a roll! Aliza’s Autodesk class was majority women (75%) which would definitely make Rosie proud! She recapped the course content and thanked her two wonderful helpers - all in the name of community. 

That concludes our first Blog Awards for April - with the CADventurers out on top! What more can we say but… game on. 

Before I go, let me tell you a story…

By Dr. Paul John Michael Mignone

It was late 2013, and I was invited to David Flanders’ house to discuss this new ‘researcher training initiative’ that ITS Research (now known as Research Platforms) was starting. I had met David the year before at a 3D Printing build party, and had helped him run a University-wide build party in early 2013. Aside from being one of the coolest, most dynamic people I had ever met, David had (and continues to have) the fantastic vision of building a community of researchers that were proficient in data science tools, and were able support researchers to do better quality, reproducible research.

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In The Beginning: The Pre-ResBaz 3D Printing Build Party!

At this point in time, I was at an ‘interesting’ stage in my PhD/life (same thing back then ;-). My PhD was facing some difficulties (to put it mildly), and I was running out of funding. At the same time, I was trying to setup my own initiative to get CAD training integrated into the engineering curriculum at Unimelb (with little success). Having been in the private sector before returning to academia, I felt the engineering students at Unimelb were at a disadvantage by not having basic CAD skills, especially in a tough job market where employers can be ‘picky’ with candidates.

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PhD: Mission Accomplished!

Therefore it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I said YES when David offered me the job to teach CAD as part of this ‘Research Bazaar’ initiative. For me it was an opportunity to teach engineering students and researchers relevant technical skills, while earning some money to finish my PhD (and cover my mortgage!). Back then we started with only six people: Me, Dejan, Steve, Damien, Katie and Grischa. Nearly three years later, I honestly did not expect to see ResBaz where it is now.

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What did ResBaz achieve in under 3 years? Look above…

The journey I’ve shared with ResBaz has been incredibly exciting and highly rewarding. I no longer see CAD as a tool for just designing and 3D printing ‘stuff’, but as a tool to create, manipulate and enrich 3D data. For me, CAD is a tool that is part of the great chain that is data science, and has the potential to be used far more effectively when combined with a dedicated research community, and other data science tools. As ResBaz grew in size (about 30 staff today), I had the opportunity to develop new professional skills by mentoring, leading and managing a team of brilliant individuals (Aliza, Louise and Vincent) under the #Cadventure stream. Today this team, now under the leadership of Dr. Louise Van Der Werff provides community, expertise and training around tools that create, manipulate and enrich 3D data.

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#Cadventure: An amazing team to lead!

ResBaz also provided me with the opportunity to work with a phenomenal group of people. People that were friendly, hard working, frighteningly talented and incredibly passionate about data science tools and their fields of research. A group of people that I count among my good friends today. As I head off overseas to do a postdoc, I realised that very few us in our careers will get the opportunity to work for an organisation where you get to build something from scratch. Something that you’re passionate about, and something that will change the way things are done for the better. To have the opportunity to build #Cadventure at ResBaz was a privilege, and something I will never forget. I would like to thank David, Steven, Nicole and all of the Research Platforms staff (current and former) for making ResBaz the amazing organisation it is today.

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#ResBaz: A phenomenal group of people!

For those interested in seeing my ResBaz story in the blogosphere, you can catch my work here: http://melbourne.resbaz.edu.au/tagged/paul 

If you would like to stay in touch, you can reach me on twitter or my new blog, where I will continue my outreach efforts: https://paulmignone.wordpress.com

As I set towards Ithaca once again, I thank the entire ResBaz community for an amazing adventure :-)

This is Dr. Paul John Michael Mignone, signing off…

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From ResBaz to ResBaz: A Glorious Year for 3D Data!

By Paul Mignone

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Me and Cadventure!

The creation, manipulation and enrichment of 3D data are still fledging spaces in the data science field. However with only a small team, the Cadventure stream at ResBaz has made great strides in building research communities around 3D data tools. Looking back over the past 12 months, I’m truly in awe of what my team achieved in such a short time. Let’s look back on the Cadventure team’s achievements:

  • At ResBaz 2015, I successfully launched a pilot initiative in partnership with Nvidia for students to access graphically intensive CAD software in the cloud. The pilot was highly successful, and has given Research Platform Services valuable information for future ‘Cad in the Cloud’ rollouts in 2016 and beyond.
  • Our most recent hire, Vincent Khau, is now our resident 3D printing and lightweight CAD guru, offering courses in TinkerCAD and Autodesk Fusion 360. Vincent has been hugely successful in engaging Unimelb’s Victorian College of the Arts, offering regular lightweight CAD courses at VCA, as well as engaging them in various research projects.
  • Due to the huge demand and interest in 3D printing over the last few years, The University of Melbourne’s 3D printing showcase was held for the third time at Wilson’s Hall. The massive building was barely large enough for the huge turnout at the 3D printing showcase, which saw over 3000 attendees over a single weekend.  The showcase displayed the latest 3D printing technology, race car challenges, hackathons, community makerspaces, as well as lives lectures and interviews.
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So many achievements…so little time…

Bear in mind ladies and gentlemen, these achievements were all done before the 2016 Research Bazaar conference. By the time the Cadventurers reached ResBaz 2016 they were full steam ahead:

  • Aliza and her helpers successfully ran the Autodesk Inventor stream, which is now a community 400% bigger in size, and with far greater gender representation.
  • The ResBaz Partnership with Carlton Connect continues to grow in 2016. We now have a residence at their Lab-14 innovation precinct, and plan to run more joint events in the near future. Carlton Connect also made an appearance at ResBaz 2016, advising researchers on avenues to commercialise their research.

Looking back, I’m amazed by the number of wins my team has achieved over the last 12 months. I personally couldn’t be more proud! With Louise Van Der Werff taking the helm in April 2016, I have full confidence that the Cadventure team will continue to build the 3D data community, and bring it to the forefront of data science!

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We are part of something bigger…

Autodesk Inventor at ResBaz 2016!

By Aliza Wajih

Oh, what a fantastic experience ResBaz always is, full of fun & surprises! 

Last year it was one of my goals to attract as many female participants to attend Inventor CAD class as I could. Through the year I managed to find a few communities like WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Unimelb and RoboGals and was able to reach it with a 75% majority female class at ResBaz. I was also able to find two brilliant female helpers!

At Resbaz, we had a wonderful group of people from diverse academic backgrounds. We had two artists, Emilie and Tiziana, who plan on using 3D modelling and printing technologies for sculpting. We also had engineers, architects and PhD students. One of our participant, Lisa Giusti, plans on using Inventor to design safety vests for jockeys as an intrinsic case study in the role of design in radical product innovation! Inventor is just the kind of tool she would need!

We were a class of about twenty-four people with five helpers. Having this participant-to-helper ratio allowed us to maintain a collaborative space where we could get everyone talking. There were many questions, no hesitations, and a lot of collaboration and mingling. From my point of view, that is exactly what makes a successful workshop!

The Inventor course covered everything from basic sketching skills to complicated sketch designs and assemblies. This time however, we also focused quite heavily on free form modeling - as this feature in Inventor gives designers more ergonomic design capabilities.

Featured below is our most innovative member, Eve, participating in our Makerspace meditative colouring event!

All in all, ResBaz was another successful event but I could not have done this without my fantastic helpers! Pictured below are Bobby and Vincent , the Inventor training experts from last year, and five brand new additions to our Inventor family: Alison, Melissa, Bentley, Basit and Aston! We had been running intensive training workshops in preparation for ResBaz led by Bobby and I. From the excellent feedback we have received it is evident that everyone’s hard work has paid off.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the participants and helpers for the wonderful experience. I hope Inventor is going to be helpful for you and that you enjoyed this as much as I did!

The Inventor course can be found here.

More workshops will be run for Inventor throughout the year so keep an eyen on the calendar if you have missed out on ResBaz!

What to Expect from Inventor?

by Aliza Wajih

Hey Everyone!

It’s ResBaz time again! If you have chosen the Inventor stream for your ResBaz conference or if you just would like insight into inventor this should be a good read.

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So, What is inventor?

Inventor is a 3D CAD software offering professional-grade tools for 3D mechanical design, documentation and product simulation. If you are doing research on a product that you would like to design and possibly have manufactured, Inventor is the tool you would use to design it!

Its application is largely in engineering. This software helps you easily handle large assemblies and automates advanced geometry creation for intelligent components. You can design using sheet metal, plastic parts, steel frames and rotating machinery as well as tube and pipe runs!

However animation tools and free-form modelling make it a great software for art and free-hand design too!

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Freeform Modelling View

Who is this class for and what do you expect to learn?

This class is for beginners! Don’t worry if you’ve never used 3D modelling software. We will go through it at a pace that will keep everyone on board! If you’re a fast learner there will always be more exercises to keep you busy.

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In our class we’ll be going through basic design element. We will look at how to take a 2-dimentional drawing & make it a 3D model! We will also look at how to work with multiple parts and make more complex geometries further on in the course. We will conclude the session by learning how to do some free-form modelling, as well as 3D printing our final products!

It is going to be a guided session with plenty of helpers and plenty of fun - hope to see you all there! 

Let’s bring our inventions to life with Autodesk Inventor!

Here is a rough timetable we will follow! See you all there :)

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Looking Back at 2015 and the CAD Growing Community!

by Aliza Wajih

It is hard to believe that a small community that started with just 4 initial CAD trainers we have managed to reach a number of over 15 in just under one years!

After our successful Autodesk Inventor training session in August, we successfully made our way into the Engineering Community at the University of Melbourne by working along side professor Colin Burvil.

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CAD Training in August 2015

In our training session we trained six of professor Colins’s most brilliant students who then went on to teach postgraduate students of their cohort! (talk about the snowball effect!)

It makes me very happy to say that the course notes designed by Paul and I were used by the new trainers to teach the Inventor course! In other words our Autodesk inventor CAD curriculum was used to compliment the Masters and Bachelors course work for design subjects offered by unimelb!

This year we were able to help both postgraduate and undergraduate engineering students to develop their projects using Autodesk Inventor by holding a number of weekly drop-in sessions in August and September. Our popular drop-in sessions allowed students to gain knowledge of CAD as well help them refine their projects. Some outstanding work was produced, and here is just a snippet of it!

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Gearbox exploded diagram by Vincent, Bentley and Aston!

All students who came to the drop-in session and hacky hour were given access to our notes. We not only received great feedback but also requests for holding more training sessions! 

This year, at ResBaz, I will be working with a few of our graduate trainers as well as other students from professor Colin’s class!

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My New CADventurers!

I hope this year the CAD community continues to rise exponentially, just the way it has been going! Watch out for more future events and trainings!

My ResBaz CADdventure

Guest post by engineering student Mr.Tony Zahtila. Tony is now employed by Veolia thanks to his ResBaz experience.

Hi! I’m Tony and I was a part of the ResBaz CAD teaching team for 2015.

The CAD skills I learnt as a part of the program have since been helpful in creating virtual constructions of the work I do. The best part of using CAD in my work, it’s how cheap my mistakes have become. Sketching up my work and creating a 3D model allows me to visualise what I’m trying to build in the workshop. If I’ve miscalculated a length, or overlooked a geometry, I just change the design specs and I’m ready to build. A nice short-cut to the laborious task of finding what I’ve ordered doesn’t actually assemble. 

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The software is far-reaching and I can see applications for CAD skills in many fields. If engineers are to become digital blacksmiths, doctors can become digital plumbers. Organs can go flying around on the monitors of health professionals, all towards a better understanding of our bodies, or a doctor’s slightly-alarming idea of fun.. 3D models of the human body would allow for an alternative to the difficult to obtain cadavers with exploded views of our bodies, as well as clarity, versatility, and interaction that’s just not possible with the traditional textbook.

There’s many variations of CAD software and the form it finds itself in use with engineers is not necessarily what the software will look like to other professionals. Pulling and stretching apart, dividing into blocks, sculpting towards roundness, and smoothing coarse materials to see their altered appearance, all of these things can be achieved with CAD software as the focal point.

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I believe that the way of the future is interaction between until-now disjointed fields. The distinct lines between medicine, engineering, law, commerce, art, carpentry, and so on, they’ll blur. Communication between the fields will continue to grow as an integral skill. It’s not compulsory that you have an interest in becoming a CAD expert to gain from the course. Knowing the fundamentals will put you in good stead to clearly communicate with a CAD professional who can advance your work. An artist could have a realistic expectation and understanding as to the how their aesthetic piece could be re-worked into a digital symphony of polygons. The possibilities for experimentation are there and very accessible.

The ResBaz team are very friendly and it’s as much a sharpening of CAD skills for students as it is a festival of ideas between people who see the world with different lenses. I was challenged when I heard a visual artist, who had been taking the course and exchanging ideas as part of the group, ask whether it would be possible to ‘pull out’ a corner of a model. To visualise what was being described, imagine pinching some Playdoh and tugging on it to see how it stretches. I’d never thought of this in my exact and neat world of CAD use, I’d hitherto seen CAD as more of a program for making machine recipes.

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ResBaz is a fun and engaging environment. People are very friendly and I was able to get along with all the smiling faces and people who were excited to share their own work and to learn from others. I’d highly recommend the CAD course to both people who want to develop their skills into a powerful technique to add to their repertoire, as well as, people who want to understand the basics so they are aware and able to work in a team with CAD professionals.

#SharksDen Day 3: Maker’s Make Their Mark

by Paul Mignone

With the #SharksDen attendees now proficient in TinkerCAD, the penultimate SharksDen class focused on translating their ideas into tangible 3D products. In this class, students learned how to use the MakerBot Replicator, and how to convert their 3D model into a printed object.

Research Community Coordinator, businesswoman and medical image processing expert, Dr. Louise Van Der Werff spent and hour demonstrating the MakerBot replicator to the attendees. In that time she taught them how the printers work, printing materials, support structures and many other topics.

What amazed me about the MakerBot replicator was its ease of use. This allows users to focus more on their designs and less on ‘getting the print right’, which is very important in the early innovation stages. This will be very handy during the #SharksDen live hack, as the winning team will need to use second if they are to prevail. Make no mistake, the lead up to the #SharksDen live hack has been exciting, and it’s now caught the attention of MakerBot.

No pressure at all…right?

#SharksDen Day 2: A Day of Design

by Paul Mignone

With four teams set up and ready to go, day 2 of #SharksDen was held in the 3D printing lab of the University of Melbourne’s Engineering Workshop. Vincent Khau, ResBaz’s very own design maestro, kicked off day 2 by giving a crash course to attendees in computer-aided design (CAD) using the software known as Tinkercad. HTML browser-based and easy to use, it didn’t take long for the #SharksDen attendees to start designing their game-changing products.

During this CAD lesson, Vincent performed his ‘tried-but-true’ start-up charades workshop. The workshop brought together the CEO and CMO to look at a picture. The CEO/CMO then had to describe the picture to their CTO, who would then design it in TinkerCAD. The reasoning behind this exercise was to demonstrate the importance of good communication in a team, as well as to highlight the challenges of conveying complex ideas to other team members.

For the second half of day 2, teams continued to work on their product ideas and were challenged to give a three minute pitch by the end of the session. While not compulsory, it was exciting to see all the teams design products that address the millennium project challenges. With still two weeks to go until the 3D printing showcase, one team had already designed a 3D concept for a low cost water filtration system for developing nations!

The four teams pitched their ideas at the end of the day. Some teams used Google presentation, while other teams went for butcher’s paper to present their initial designs. All four teams had to be cut-short as they went over time. This experience gave them all an appreciation for being concise in start-up presentations. Day 2 was definitely a day of hard lessons for the #SharksDen attendees, but it will serve them well at the 3D printing showcase two weeks from now.

#SharksDen Day 1: The Road to (Product) Realisation Begins!

by Paul Mignone

After our hugely successful inaugural SharksDen Innovation Challenge in July, the adventure started again this week on September 16th. Four teams will once again work towards developing products to present to an investor panel on the last day of the 3D printing showcase on October 10th. Before that date, these teams will learn how to design using CAD, 3D printing techniques, as well as work on their project live at the Showcase!

The event started off as a networking session, where individuals enjoyed drinks and nibbles as they got to know each other. There was also a strong turn-out from Girl Geek Academy, Make-Create as well as a number of UX specialists from general assembly. Such a diverse and potent mix of talent can only result in some fantastic products being made by the end of #SharksDen!

In the team building exercise, individuals discussed their strengths and whether they saw themselves fitting into CEO, CTO, CFO, or CMO roles. The participants who gave the best ‘first impressions’ were then nominated as CEOs, and the teams were picked for the upcoming weeks. The teams were then confronted with the ‘infamous’ challenge of redesigning the door. Each team came up various door designs and had to pitch it to the rest of the groups.

The biggest change to the second iteration of #SharksDen will be that teams are encouraged to ‘dream big’, and to develop products that address one of the global challenges facing humanity outlined in the millennium project. With such a strong showing of talent on only day 1 of this event, I’m personally excited to see what these teams can come up with when they dream big!

#SharksDen returns live at the 3D Printing Showcase!

by Paul Mignone

Back by popular demand!

Research Platforms will again be running the #SharksDen Innovation Challenge! This time the stakes are higher with the event running live at the 2015 3D Printing Showcase, and a prize to the value of AUD 1000 awarded to the winning team.  

Before the 3D printing showcase (September 16th - 30th), you will be taught the tools to build, design and 3D print your greatest invention. You will also learn techniques on how to pitch your innovative product to a panel of investors.

You and your team mates will need all these skills at the 3D Printing Showcase (October 8th - 10th), as you will continue working on your designs live during the event. Teams will then pitch their idea to a panel of investors at the showcase. The winner takes the prize and the glory!

#SharksDen is as much of a journey as it is a destination. You will have the opportunity to talk about your design, share your passion with like-minded people, network with professionals at the showcase and learn some valuable professional skills along the way.

The event will be running on the following dates and times:

Pre-Showcase Training

- Day 1 (Wednesday, September 16th, 5:30pm-10pm)

- Day 2 (Wednesday, September 23rd, 5:30pm-8:30pm)

- Day 3 (Wednesday, September 30th, 5:30pm-8:30pm)

3D Printing Showcase Live Hack!

- Day 4 (Thursday, October 8th, 5pm-10pm)

- Day 5 (Friday, October 9th, 9am-10pm)

- Day 6 (Saturday, October 10th, 9am-3pm)

- Click here for a detailed time table.

You will be put into teams on Day 1 of #SharksDen. Each team CEO, CTO, CFO and CMO. At the end of the showcase (October 10th), each team will make business presentations to a panel of investors for the prize. This event is a great opportunity for beginners to get involved and experts to improve their skills.

IMPORTANT! Please read before registering:

- Specific information about the event can be viewed here. Please read this before registering for the event.

- The Shark’s den will be held mainly the engineering workshop, therefore fully enclosed footwear must be worn at all times!

- Please ensure that you are available for all the dates and times listed above!

Please click here to register for the event!

http://go.unimelb.edu.au/7waa

Best Experience Ever #SharksDen - A Reflection


Aliza Wajih

Yes we didn’t win, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of my greatest team experiences ever! Shark’s Den gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people and taught me valuable start-up business lessons such as marketing, management, innovation and the most important of them all, the value of teamwork.

I had the opportunity to work with dedicated teams every Wednesday in July and it was inspiring to see such good work being done. Every team in every session had come up with innovative and unique ideas. Their passion and dedication was truly reflected in all of their work and despite being in a competition everyone mantained a supportive and creative environment.

At the end of every session I would usually have a chat with members of other teams and we would share our thoughts on our projects. Their constructive and positive feedback did not only help me understand different points of view but also helped me make better decisions.

Working with my own team, Team Next-Gen Phone Cover, was itself an excellent learning experience. The support, encouragement and passion of my team allowed me to get through times when, even as a CEO, I began to doubt our decisions. Chris, Guna, Ali and Katie put their heart and soul into finding the idea we were passionate about and bringing it to life. I could not have been prouder nor could I have wished for a better team. I would like to thank you all for all your efforts.

In addition I would like to thank Research Platforms, David Flanders, Paul Mignone and Vincent Khau for giving me the opportunity to participate in this challenge and all the other teams for being friendly and supportive. I would also like to Congratulate Team Fit n’ Click for winning. It was an honour to work with everyone.

My Best Experience Ever #SharksDen - A Reflection

Aliza Wajih

Yes we didn’t win, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of my greatest team experiences ever! Shark’s Den gave me the opportunity to meet amazing people.

Every team in every session had come up with innovative and unique ideas. Their passion and dedication was truly reflected in all of their work and despite being in a competition everyone mantained a supportive and creative environment.

At the end of every session I would usually have a chat with members of other teams and we would share our thoughts on our projects. Their constructive and positive feedback did not only help me understand different points of view but also helped me make better decisions.

Working with my own team, Team Next-Gen Phone Cover, was an excellent learning experience. The support, encouragement and passion of my team allowed me to get through times when, even as a CEO, I began to doubt our decisions. Chris, Guna and Ali put their heart and soul into finding the idea we were passionate about and bringing it to life. I could not have been prouder nor could I have wished for a better team. I would like to thank you all for all your efforts.

In addition I would like to thank Research Platforms, David Flanders, Paul Mignone and Vincent Khau for giving me the opportunity to participate in this challenge and all the other teams for being friendly and supportive. I would also like to Congratulate Team Fit n’ Click for winning. It was an honour to work with everyone.

Shark’s Dens Day 4

By Aliza Wajih

The final day of shark’s den before the big pitch is finally here!  

On day four of the sharks den challenge the teams were fortunate enough to meet Wen Xi who is an Associate at ‪@MAPUniMelb! 

For the first half of the session, Wen gave an excellent crash courses on ‘how to pitch’: helping students tailor their presentations to make a compelling business case and answering some interesting questions in the follow up. Wen gave the team some handy tips on how to create a business model and taught us that contrary to popular belief having competition in the market is a good thing!

  During the rest of the session teams shared their first prototype 3D printed objects and amended designs to build their final product supported by research and further investigation in the market.

The teams also took Wen’s recommendations on board and worked on their final presentation - due to happen on the 29th of July next week!!

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