AU 2008: Tippu Sashi from ITTV - Into Tomorrow TV on Vimeo.

Farewell AU

Well, today we left Vegas not on our correct plane but we left eventually left via Salt Lake City. Vegas was an awesome time and AU exceeded my expectations. Last night Autodesk held a dinner party which was full of entertainment and events, an overall pretty good time. Latter in the night I went to a nightclub called Tao, which was amazing with people dancing from wall to wall. Was a great night and even won some of my money back on the slots.

Don’t forget to register at students.autodesk.com if you already haven’t. Hope you have enjoyed the blog. I am looking forward to hopefully attending next years AU, but for now its back to finals week and ensuring I get into a grad school as well as coop for next quarter.

Last Day!

So today is the last day of classes for me and the big wrap-up party is tonight. Yesterday was a long day but eventful one. I worked the education booth which was busy at times and met more people from Autodesk Education and learning, which we then went to a reception at Dos Caminos to relax and drink. They are a fun division I think within Autodesk. I also attended Pecha Kucha where one UC professor, Brigid, and Jeremy got to present of topics of their choices. Brigid discussed how it is necessary different disciplines collaborate while Jeremy discussed how we should be using the current technology as a tool within our design process. Excellent job guys!

Jeremy's Presentation

GO BEARCATS!

The rest of the night was left hanging out with people and going to Tao, which was funny to watch 40-50 year old autodesk employees dancing. We ended with Denny's.

This morning I went to my first lab which was absolutely amazing. It was very impressive. The lab focused on project newport, which is a real-time 3D story building technology for architectural visualization and presentation. With breakthrough game-engine technology, Project Newport is easy to use and enables architects to show their designs in context. They can explore design options, visualize changes instantly, and create vivid, immersive 3D presentations. Overall awesome and strongly encourage it for anyone who gets a chance.



Well its off to lunch, more from AU this afternoon.

Soo Much Too Doo

AU has been exhausting overall, but fun. Your constantly jumping from one place to the next but its only for a week and very exciting. This morning I had to take a break though and went to the pool and jacuzzi which was pretty fun. I have met with quite a few education people who seem to respond positively to the complaints and issues that we deal with. Lunch was also amazing. The food has been awesome, but the drinks have been better. Theres a beer bust tonight which sounds like a big event. This afternoon I spent learning 3ds and am going to the education keynote soon. While walking around I also found Renzo Piano's 3d models of his San francisco Museum which is amazing and I highly recommend you check it out.


I would also like to encourage everyone to sign up on the students.autodesk website if they havent already. Free Downloads*

BTW Hi rob, stein and stunna

Wed

So its been tough getting internet around here so that's why these posts are hard to make, plus we are so busy with many events from 8-10 everyday. Yesterday I left off with an amazing keynote and then the student reps went to lunch, which was delicious. Afternoon sessions proved to be mediocre at best. Curtain walls was too basic, and Taisei proved to not accurately present what they had written in their description. That was the biggest disappointment. Afterwards I had a meeting with Dave Graveline from Miami and discussed where Technology is going and how AU is going.

The rest of the night was spent at the exhibit halls where I met many people and learned about a lot of exciting products.

This morning was spent in recovery and rehearsal for education keynote. More to come hopefully after lunch.

AU Keynote

AU has officially started with a keynote address organized by Carl Bass, President and CEO of Autodesk. Autodesk blew me away with the presentation. They discussed questions of What if? and What else? concerning how we can imporve software, modelling, decisions, and overall bettering design. Tom Kelley from IDEO also gave a speech about how we must act as anthropologists and architects to further our understanding and innovation for new designs. He was an incredible speaker and would highly recommend him as someone to go listen to. Jeff Kowalski, CTO of Autodesk, was phenomenal in his presentation. HE discussed where Autodesk is going in the future and how quickly and rapidly they are developing. He discussed rapid prototyping in terms of 3d printing and showed off some incredible works as well as the largest and most intricate 3d print of life size motorcycle. He also demonstrated how we can take pictures of buildings and a program can generate a 3d model of them from our pictures. It was amazing to see how a simple webcam and 3d mapping allows us to show 3d looking objects that we can orbit around. It was a phenomenal presentation with exciting works and am interested in seeing with how quickly this will become available. It seems like they are interested in pushing algorithmic design and getting computers to start thinking ahead of us and anticipating our decisions. They are truly creating software which allows us to anticipate flaws before we build them.

First Day

So I got into Vegas yesterday morning and had an exciting and fun day meeting new people and joining up with former employers of mine. The Venetian is well equipped to handle this conference it seems of over 10,000 people. It is incredible to see how many people use Autodesk products and the different perspectives on technology and where it is going in the future.

This morning we had an early breakfast and now I am in an interesting class called This is SO Not in the Book!, which focuses on common problems in Revit that are usually not done or answered correctly. It is pretty awesome to see how simple and efficiently we can clean up our projects and make them that much more efficient. The lecturer seems very knowledgeable and has been able to teach quickly yet effectively with the limited time. Once this class is completed I will be attending AU Keynote which sounds very interesting.

Anticipation

So Thanksgiving Holiday is wrapping up and other students are dreading their return to school I am excited about the upcoming week at AU 2009. As the days have been nearing, more and more emails fill my inbox about different events and functions throughout the conference. The excitement is building and I am anxious to see what is ahead. I will be leaving Cincinnati early on Monday morning and getting into Vegas just before lunch. I will hopefully spend the following four days learning much more about Autodesk software, how BIM technology is revolutionizing the future as well as where it should be going, and how we can better incorporate green design into our own projects. I hope to share this knowledge with you over the following several days. But for now, its time to sleep and dream.

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