Winners of the Global CAD Mechanism Challenge
“It’s a huge skill gap for new engineers to translate words into designs, and that is one of the critical items I’d say differentiates junior and senior design engineers quickly.” John Rogers PMP
Assist 2 Develop allows companies to run challenges to help discover innovative ideas, solve problems or discover talent. As a company, we fell in love with this model because it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, you have a chance to compete and win cash prizes or a job opportunity.
For companies, running a challenge is a great way to qualify and screen engineers. Do they have the skills to perform their job duties?
For up-and-coming engineers, challenges are a great way to get that hands-on experience that every entry level job asks for and you wonder how/where you’re supposed to get that from.
For senior engineers, participating as a mentor/judge in these competitions is a great way for you to give back and pass on your tribal knowledge to the next generation.
As for the challenge, we elicited the support of one of the top SolidWorks influencers Rafael Testai to help us create a challenge that tests participants’ technical aptitude and problem-solving capabilities. Then, we asked a team of four mentors (Chris Aicher, Brad Meador, Grant Dunway, and Aaron Godwin) to judge the competition and provide commentary/feedback. The goal is for the community to improve and grow over time, so we felt the feedback was a critical component.
Here are the results:
Global CAD Mechanism challenge
First place: Andrew Lowe (Canada)
Second place: David Gardner (USA)
Third place: Ahemd Hasan and Prasoon Pradeep (India)
As you can see there is a tie for third place, so if you’re still reading this I need your help. Do we run a competition between Ahmed and Prasoon to determine third place? Or do we let them share the third place prize and crown?
Cast your vote here: https://assist2develop.typeform.com/to/kwgy3wpn
Thanks to everyone who participated. Next up, we will be running a series of regional competitions that will give local employers a chance to see who has the hands-on tangible skills to perform. If you’re looking to hire, and would like to sponsor a regional challenge, click the button below.