January 23, 2008
Powerful observatory
camera model wins SolidWorks Design Contest 2008
‘One Degree Imager’
will help solve the universe’s deepest mysteries
SAN DIEGO, Jan.
23, 2008 – How did our universe form? Which stars have Earth-like
planets in orbit? How do galaxies develop? These are some of the eternal questions
that the One Degree Imager, designed in SolidWorks® 3D CAD software, will address
when it’s christened in 2009. Essentially a powerful camera that will go inside
a powerful telescope, the design captured the grand prize in the SolidWorks
Design Contest 2007 competition. The results were announced this morning at
the SolidWorks World 2008 International User Conference & Exposition.
“The One Degree Imager will deliver an
image 100 times larger than the Hubble with comparable clarity,” explained Senior
Mechanical Engineer Gary Muller, accepting the award on behalf of the WIYN Observatory
Tucson, Ariz. “It will capture everything the telescope looks at – a terabyte
of data every night – compensating for atmospheric distortion in real time.
A lot of brainpower went into this, and SolidWorks helped capture it, delivering
a truly better product.”
The WIYN Observatory is owned and operated
by the WIYN Consortium (University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University,
and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory).
“It’s a challenge to design one of the
world’s most powerful and sophisticated instruments while staying on time and
within budget,” Muller continued. “SolidWorks software’s reliability, ease of
use, visualization, and assembly capabilities – together with its integration
with COSMOSWorks® design validation software – helped us meet those goals and
execute our ambitious plans.”
Muller took home a Lenovo ThinkPad notebook
computer, part of a purse worth $75,000 distributed among the winners, who include:
MODEL CONTEST
1 st place – Naber
Plastics B.V., Buron Elementz Kitcar, Rob Wolkers, Engineer
2 nd place – Page Product
Design, Inc., Mule Industrial Lift, Matthew Page, President
3 rd place – Feature
Factory, Acoustic Ceiling Feature, Jonathan McGregor, Engineer
PHOTOREALISTIC IMAGES CONTEST
1 st place – Indian
Institute of Technology, Dehli, Steam Iron and Alloy Wheels, Ambar Bandi, Industrial
Designer
2 nd place – Gould
Studios, Reproduction of the Dorpat Telescope, Bill Gould, Owner
3 rd place – ThermoSpas,
Inc., Swim/Trainer, James Parys, Design Engineer
ANIMATIONS CONTEST
1 st place – Paper
Converting Machinery Corporation, Prolog LT Log Saw, Dan Allen, Designer
2 nd place – SchuF
Group, Delayed Coking Process Animation, Rory Stanley, Head of Marketing
3 rd place - Wakefield
High School, Out-of-the-Box Rubik’s Cube Solution, Ellis P. Kieffer, Student
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