INDUSTRIAL DESIGN COMPUTING TECHNICIAN / DEMONSTRATOR

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN DIVISION
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Edmonton, Canada

As the computer lab tech in Industrial Design, my duties included demonstrating and assisting with various design software (primarily Rhinoceros 3D and the Adobe Creative Suite) and operating and maintaining the CNC panel router, CNC plasma cutter, and 3D printers within the Industrial Design Division.

My instructional responsibilities at the U of A included:

• CAD modeling / rendering / technical drawing
• CNC machining, including CNC panel routing and CNC plasma cutting
• Digital graphics in both Corel and Adobe Suites
• Digital photography, for use in project development documentation and project promotion
• 3D printing
• Prototyping, using CNC machined parts, 3D printed parts, traditional hand and power tools, and good old-fashioned know how
• Design aesthetics
• Presentation

The U of A’s Industrial Design program is very hands-on; students are expected to do a great deal of prototyping, in various fields such as product design, furniture design, and display design, and I spent a large portion of my work days helping students first conceptualize and then create many ambitious and varied objects, in a vast array of materials using every and any fabrication method available.

It was at the U of A that I developed my machining skills, on the 3-axis, 5’ x 10’ CNC panel router. I did a vast amount of prototyping and experimentation, for students, for staff within the department, for student groups on campus, for the university population in general, and for myself.

I was expected to develop my own skills, and I often found that students hit stumbling blocks on their own projects that I had previously encountered and figured out for myself on my own projects. They thought I was a genius; I had just been there before.

See below for a sampling of the work I did while I was a technician at the U of A.
(All designs shown are my own unless otherwise specified.)