Autodesk Research
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One of the projects I've been working on – alongside Simon Breslav, a colleague from Autodesk Research Toronto – is a prototype, web-based client for our IoT back-end. I'll be demoing it next week at the Forge DevCon. It uses Forge's viewer component to provide access to sensor readings from within a 3D model. Here are a few sequences of images to give you an idea of what it does. It's still early days, but we're steadily working towards feature parity with the desktop-based Project Dasher. The first sequence shows how you can view the sensors in a building model:…
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Following up from last week's post, which included a brief video showing where we're headed with generative design, today's post highlights a speech by my colleague in Autodesk's Office of the CTO (OCTO), Maurice Conti. I've mentioned Maurice before: he has an Applied Research team working on Pier 9 that is currently hiring a Machine Learning + Robotics researcher. Maurice gave a speech at TEDx Portland entitled "The Future of Human Augmentation". It looks at how we're being augmented, not only by computational systems (helping us think) but by robotic systems (helping us make) and by a digital nervous system…
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I was just sent this short video that captures the essence of the Dreamcatcher project beautifully. Be sure to check it out if you're interested in what Autodesk Research is up to in the field of generative design. You won't regret it. Exciting stuff!
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We have our annual, internal Technical Summit coming up in a couple of weeks. I'll be heading across to Montreal with 700+ other Autodesk employees to learn more about the cool stuff going on within the company. As I've done in previous years, I'll do my best to report information that I think will be interesting to this blog's readers (and that is ready to be discussed publicly, of course). One of the event's activities is being hosted by my team: the IoT Hackday. We'll have 30+ participants spread across 8 different teams. Each team will get provided some sensors,…
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Last Thursday I received possibly the most interesting job description I've ever seen. A colleague in the Office of the CTO, Maurice Conti, has a team of robotics researchers working in the Applied Research Lab on Pier 9 in San Francisco and is looking to bring Machine Learning expertise into the team. I've talked about the Lab before, and you may also have seen this Guardian coverage of my friend David Thomasson, who works there. I think this might actually be my dream job. There are a few reasons I won't be applying: there's a skills gap (I only have…
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A few days ago, Scott Sheppard wrote an interesting blog post entitled "Why does Autodesk have a Labs?". I tweeted it, as I found it did a good job of describing not only the rationale behind Autodesk Labs, but other important customer touch points such as the Beta program and Autodesk Research. With my completionist hat on I'd probably expand the touch points to include how we connect with Major Account customers – particular via Autodesk Consulting and our Enterprise Support teams – as this is also a way that product features and defined and delivered. In fact, I'd probably…
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Regular readers of this blog will have heard mention of Project Dreamcatcher and how Autodesk Research is using it to explore the future of design. It's a generative design technology that goes beyond the current "state of the art" – which means combinations of tools such as Revit + Dynamo or Rhino + Grasshopper – as it works backwards from goals stated by the user, rather than expanding and evaluating options that have been programmed in. One great way for people with a programming background to "get their heads around this" is to relate it to the world of programming…
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It's been an interesting first week in Autodesk Research. I've had the opportunity to jump into a few projects that are really interesting. One involves the use of generative design tools to perform a number of different analyses on design alternatives for an architectural project, assessing criteria such as maximum team co-location and improving the circulation of people through corridors. One the tools being used for the analysis is Dynamo: something I've been meaning to spend some time with for ages, but finally have good reason to. (Some of you may remember my involvement/interest in the DesignScript project… DesignScript is…
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As part of the restructuring that went on at Autodesk, last week, I have a new role. This isn't a bad thing, thankfully: in fact it's the opposite… it's something I've been working towards for several years. I've been in the AutoCAD team for the last 4 years and was in the Autodesk Developer Network team for my 16+ years at Autodesk prior to that. These were great environments for me, for quite different reasons, but my ultimate interests lie in where the company (and the broader industry) is heading, technology-wise… one reason I've always felt drawn to the work…