Conference Report - 3DEXPERIENCE World, Engineering Community, and a Lifelong Houston Space Center Dream

When I worked for larger companies, attending a conference meant writing a report when you got back. Share what you learned. Capture what mattered. Make it useful for the broader team.

Now that I work for The Man (me), I’m holding myself to the same rule. Them's the rules.

I just returned from 3DEXPERIENCE World in Houston, one of the largest gatherings of the SOLIDWORKS and product design community, where engineers, designers, and manufacturing teams come together to share how complex products actually get built.

This year I had the privilege of giving a masterclass session titled: "Designing an Artificial Heart: Lessons in Complex System Design.”

The talk uses experiences from artificial heart and surgical robotics development to discuss how we tackle complexity in engineering - managing subsystems, identifying unknowns, using simulation and prototyping effectively, and reducing risk in parallel rather than sequentially.

The real highlight for me, though, was the number of people who came up afterward to share their own work and challenges or just say they enjoyed the session. Thank you to everyone who took the time - those conversations are why these conferences matter.

A Personal Highlight - Visiting Houston Space Center

On a personal note, visiting Houston Space Center was something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid.

There are two periods in an engineer’s life:

before seeing the Saturn V rocket in person, and after.

I’m happy to report I’ve now entered the second phase!

Standing under the actual Saturn V, seeing the real lectern and speech notes Kennedy stood behind when he challenged the nation to go to the moon, and walking through that history - all while drinking a beer with fellow engineers after conference hours - felt surreal. A genuine lifelong bucket list moment.

Grateful to everyone who made that experience possible.

Conference Highlights

A few other memorable moments:

• Seeing AI tools begin integrating directly into engineering workflows in practical ways.

• Shaking hands with a robotic prosthetic hand delivering real haptic feedback and already helping amputees today.

• Being reminded that an enormous portion of the built world has been designed using Dassault tools like CATIA and SOLIDWORKS.

• And most importantly, reconnecting with the global engineering community.

Events like this remind me how lucky we are to work in a field where we get to build real things that matter.

Already looking forward to next year!