This case study explores how two educators have created girl-focused STEM events to support and empower our next generation. In order to help close the gender gap in their engineering classes, they created programs that pairs young students with high school students and professionals in industry. Maker Girl Mania, a STEM event created in 2015, uses a variety of hands-on activities at over 25 stations for students K-7th grade to explore, problem-solve, build, and tinker with different facets of engineering. Over 100 high school volunteers and industry partners help the young makers at each of the 25 stations to be successful in their explorations. Tech Girls, an annual event that pairs middle school girls with high school girls, introduces young students to the classes and careers available in STEM including Engineering, Design, Architecture, and Automotive.

This session will show you how to use Autodesk products for the complete electromechanical design workflow of a maker project. You'll learn how to use Autodesk Fusion 360 software for the structural and mechanical design, AutoCAD Electrical software for the electrical design, and Inventor software to combine the two into a full electromechanical workflow and wiring harness design.

Using Autodesk Fusion software for rapid PCB design, the E-Tech team at Ford Design is creating modular system components to streamline development and reduce wiring complexity. By embracing PCB basics, design rules, and community resources, we're building reusable libraries and integrating program-specific features in our experiential properties around the globe. This approach enables faster prototyping, repeatable builds, and enhanced system continuity—with ESP32-based modules featuring Ethernet for server communication. We're focused on adaptable form factors and making PCB design accessible for makers and rapid iteration.

There are numerous intellectual property, products liability, regulatory, insurance, and contractual issues that 3D printing and additive manufacturing (3DP/AM) create. This will be a panel discussion between actual manufacturers, designers, lawyers, and consumers coming together to discuss the process, the issues, the new chain of commerce, the benefits, and the concerns presented by the new world of 3DP/AM.

Difficult and costly importation of equipment. Lack of customized parts. Unavailable spare parts, especially in the remote areas where supply chains may be disrupted. These are some of the daily challenges faced by the staff of MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières—Doctors Without Borders). The 3D Printing for All project aims to democratize access to 3D printing and solve some of those challenges by getting 3D printing in MSF's projects, and developing procedures and guidelines on how to use it safely and efficiently. Describing design needs, context, and technical parameters for a CAD expert to make a design is critical to the production of the products that solve problems in the field. For the most part, the people who have the problems to solve do not have engineering backgrounds—and yet they have to provide precise information. Throughout the implementation of the project, we've experienced this communication gap, learned valuable lessons on how to minimize the number of iterations, and saved material and time involved in putting a product in use.

This workshop will demonstrate how to use ElumTools (an add-on for Revit software from the makers of AGi32) in Revit software to achieve daylight modeling with point-by-point calculation by utilizing the architectural model and lighting families.

Autodesk CAM for Educators, Students, Classrooms, Student Clubs, Maker Spaces, Non Profits, Learn about Autodesk’s learning resources, and how you can take advantage of the free integrated CAD/CAM software.

Back by popular demand, this is part two of the award-winning presentation, "Maker Girl Mania: Inspiring Future STEM Leaders." This year we'll explore how the vital connection between industry and STEM education can inspire girls. This presentation briefly highlights two programs (Maker Girl Mania and Tech Girls) and the transformative impact they have in fostering creativity, problem-solving skills, and innovation for females. We'll explore how industry collaboration can enhance STEM learning experiences, encouraging more girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Participants will gain insights into best practices when connecting with schools and other existing programs. Our goal is to help industry partners engage and help create supportive environments for girls to excel in STEM fields. Join us in unlocking the potential of the next generation of female innovators!

The digital transformation of industry requires not just a shift in tools and processes, but also a shift in mindset. Join Autodesk CTO Raji Arasu as she explains Autodesk’s vision for the future and explores how designers, engineers, and makers from every industry can achieve greater productivity, more agility, and better outcomes for their companies, their customers, and the global community.

Join us for the first-ever “Research Reveals!” Design & Make game show. It's the designers versus the makers: architects versus engineers; product designers versus manufacturers; creatives versus producers. Based on the classic game show “Family Feud,” this fast-paced theater session brings industry experts together to test their knowledge of the latest State of Design & Make report. They’ll need to be fast on the buzzer to compete. Who will win this ultimate, live throwdown? Find out when we play “Research Reveals!”

When the COVID-19 outbreak began, makers across the globe came together to help fill the shortfall in supply chains and provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers by harnessing the power of a localized collective factory of 3D printers. At Warwick University we also sprang into action to help fight the virus. Large-scale additive manufacturing (LSAM) is a technology similar to that used in hobbyist desktop 3D printers. However, it generally has much bigger build platforms, larger nozzle diameters, and higher volumetric flow rates. This means it can be used as a rapid-response bridge manufacturing from 3D printing to injection molding. Using Fusion 360 software’s parameter tables, the speaker was able to generate a design that could be easily changed based on the printer setup, and be optimized for the faster printing times. In just three design iterations we went from 10 minutes to just 3.5 minutes.

We are entering an era in which the consumer is both the designer and the manufacturer: DIY creations on Kickstarter; 3D printers in your home; increasingly affordable computing and components; membership-based workshops filled with digital fabrication tools; and open-source electronics, combined with design techniques that create new, unique—and often highly creative—inventions and applications. The democratization of technology and the rise of the maker subculture are changing who does the work of design, and how they conceive, explore, and fabricate things. Are we all designers now? Or is this more hype, similar to the promise of the Jetsons™ and the paperless office? Join us to hear more from speakers—from an array of disciplines—who will share their stories, talk about how the “make-it-yourself” mindset is driving innovation, and discuss where this DIY movement is really heading. This session features Eric Wilhelm, founder of Instructables; David Lang, co-founder, OpenROV; Schuyler St. Leger, enthusiastic amateur maker; Jason Chua and team, SparkTruck, Stanford d.School; Ben Kaufmann, CEO, Quirky.com; and Anne Filson and Gary Rorhbacher, partners at Filson and Rohrbacher and co-founders of AtFAB.

Explore how technology is enabling new ways to design products in this AU Innovation Forum. Fresh thinkers with new tools are challenging the status quo. A new generation of designers and makers are using technology to create and produce faster than ever, harnessing the power of the cloud, crowdsourcing, collaborators across the globe, and even algorithms to find the best, most interesting ideas and results. In this forum, we’ll showcase examples of the best innovators and thinkers who’ve gone way beyond file sharing and 3D printers and into the future of making things.

Whether you’re a small firm or a big Hollywood studio, you’ll want the fastest rendering power available to bring your visions to life with reliable and flexible cloud access directly from your design environment. Join Intel and Chaos group, the makers of V-Ray - the world’s most popular renderer for architectural visualization – to explore how you can scale your rendering speed with your own systems at your location, or in the cloud. You will also learn how you can make use of this service for free through the end of the year, so you can start saying yes to crazy deadlines right away.

This year, Autodesk is expanding its impact. We’ve made significant progress toward our own internal sustainability goals, achieving net-zero emissions across our business and value chain, pledging a 50% reduction in our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2031, and investing in change makers through the Autodesk Foundation. However, we know that the real change happens when our customers shift their businesses to sustainability. Our new Sustainability Consulting Practice is designed to do just that. We’ve assembled a small and nimble team of sustainability experts across the globe to help solve our customers' most pressing issues related to energy, materials, health, resilience, work, and prosperity. In this session, you’ll learn about this new team, how they will work with customers, and how their expertise will position your company to be a leader in key impact areas.

The complexities of managing a production can be a challenge to any production team, particularly when dealing with substantial amounts of data across various tools. Centralizing data tracking plays an essential part in optimizing the production process—a necessary strategy in any dynamic, client-centered industry where production teams need to be agile and capable of making swift adjustments to schedules and priorities. In this introductory session, we'll look at how to use Autodesk Flow Production Tracking software's cloud-based data management capabilities, demonstrated in the context of a simple games workflow. We'll explore the interface, explain the structure of data within Flow Production Tracking, and demonstrate how to use pages to track data and provide insights that decision makers can use to inform the success of their productions.

There is no single way to design a new product. The design principles needed to manufacture a coffee maker will be different from those needed for an electric vehicle. So, why can’t today’s software tools adapt to meet designers' needs? Generative AI may offer a path forward to enabling product designers to adopt agile and adaptive design workflows and support the design of complex assemblies. In this interactive session, we’ll take an in-depth look at an early-stage software prototype for AI-assisted assembly design, developed by Autodesk Research. Participants will gain insights into how the researchers used large language models (LLMs), multimodal data, and system modeling to design products from 1D to 3D. Join us if you’re a product designer, software engineer, or UX designer interested in advancing your understanding of assembly design and learning how this new innovative technology can shape the future of Design and Make industries.

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." Autodesk Generative Design (formerly Dreamcatcher) is Autodesk's amazing and innovative standalone application for generative design. With this revolutionary software, we can design products with the influence of nature and the power of computing. These generated designs are something you could only dream about. This instructional demo will cover basics of the Autodesk Generative Design software. We will demonstrate the steps needed to get your data loaded, constraints added and objectives set. After that, we will then show what definitions are required to process the information and how easy and informative it is to view the computed results. Sample parts will be used for the demo and shown for reference. Other topics will include subscription information, technical specifications and more. Only released Autodesk software made available to the public will be demonstrated.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we design and deliver construction projects. But real innovation begins with data. This session will offer a strategic and technical road map to scaling AI-driven design pipelines for outcome-based BIM, using tools like Autodesk Platform Services. We’ll explore how structured data pipelines, intelligent agents, and modular architectures enable the generation, enrichment, and validation of intelligent models by integrating geometry, constraints, and regulatory metadata. You’ll gain a practical framework for implementing secure, transparent, and scalable workflows that support real-time consistency checks, compliance tracking, and iterative refinement. We’ll also examine how AI impacts productivity, costs, and timelines, while addressing the legal, regulatory, and ethical implications of automating design. Aimed at decision makers, this session will show how AI can augment human expertise, with outcomes driving the model, to support business-aligned innovation in design and construction.

Are you ready to explore a new era of Design & Make? With Autodesk Fusion, we're digitally transforming beyond the disjointed, single-purpose applications of the past, creating a more cohesive workflow. Autodesk Fusion is bringing designers and makers closer together through data, driving effortless collaboration. In this insightful panel discussion, we will explore the capabilities of Autodesk Fusion and its impact on the way we work. This vision will be seen through the eyes of firsthand users both within Autodesk and customers. Explore data interoperability between solutions, API extensibilities, as well as advanced design and make workflows. Discover how Autodesk Technology Centers are championing change in the world of manufacturing with cutting edge systems. Understand how customers are leverage API solutions to achieve complex automated workflows. Join us as we discuss how Autodesk Fusion can unify Design and Make.