University Engineering Clubs Get Moving Again
The current restrictions, as a result of the COVID-19 social distancing measures, is shaping and testing a new generation of young professionals in ways that will yield greater resiliency and adaptability in the workplace of the future. The University of California, Irvine Solar Car team is no exception. Like most research university engineering clubs, they have a limited timeframe to complete their objectives, are resource constrained and have their normal coursework to attend to.
These research and development clubs are enriching programs that introduce the next generation of engineers and project managers to the realities of operational, production and budgetary constraints. Having worked with dozens of undergrad and graduate students over the past few years on UC Irvine’s campus — in the areas of innovative research and development, software development and data science — I can confidently say that we have a very bright future ahead of us.
The project manager of UC Irvine’s Solar Car team, Subin Shrestha, is one of those young engineering mavens that is traversing the challenges of our day. In the midst of coordinating and organizing his team’s efforts, completing his coursework and examining his future career prospects during a time of crisis; he is also looking for new ways to reach his audience. One of the ways he is making this happen is with remote productivity solutions like Vusar — a design visualization application that enables the display of computer aided design (CAD) models in augmented reality on mobile devices. This has also given his team the opportunity to improve upon their 3D design capabilities by shifting more of their focus on the use of design software tools. The hope is to improve the continuity and evolution of their design for future members of their student led engineering team.
But even before the shutdown of the economy took place, members of the solar car team were utilizing Vusar to present their design with others by overlaying their 3D design information into the real world, and the impact has been phenomenal. Subin states that, “Vusar’s revolutionary application has allowed our team to test various designs of our work to the scale of our surroundings, without having to spend the time and money on prototyping or the need to construct multiple design mock-ups.” This ability to present a shared-vision of the project enables a more efficient path to consensus amongst the team — saving both time and resources.
In addition to utilizing Vusar in their design review process, Subin also used the application to share one of their solar car 3D designs on LinkedIn in order to gain more engagement and traction with their audience in light of today’s circumstances. By distributing the design link directly from the Vusar app, Subin was able to quickly disseminate his information with ease. The team was also able to attach relevant collateral and media directly to their design for their audience to readily consume. Items such as PDF’s, whitepapers, shared docs & spreadsheets, surveys, demonstration videos, and any other project related URL’s are just some examples of the relevant collateral a user can apply to any one of their design assets.
This has quite literally brought greater dimension to the team’s messaging in their efforts to reach a wider audience of prospective donors, supporters and followers in their community. In a time that has restricted both our free movement and impactful engagement with one another, it is encouraging to see those in our newest generation meeting this crisis head on and adapting to our circumstances with resiliency and ingenuity. Well done UCI Solar Car team, well done indeed.
See how the UCI Solar Car team performed their social design share on LinkedIn:
Step 1
Login to Vusar and upload your design. See here for supported file types.
Step 2
Attach relevant collateral and media to your design through the Vusar dashboard. Attach PDF’s, Videos, URL’s, Shared Docs & Spreadsheets, Surveys, etc.
Step 3
From the Library in the Vusar app, select the ‘vertical ellipsis’ icon of the 3D design asset you’d like to share and this will bring up the Detail Card. Then click the ‘share’ icon in the top right corner of the Detail Card and select LinkedIn from the list from the Share Menu— or Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Slack, etc.
Voila! A new era of presenting, sharing and interacting with design has begun.
