#32: How Can We Empower the Engineers of Tomorrow?

Thierry Chevrot: Hi, I’m Thierry Chevrot from 3DEXPERIENCE EDU, the education department of Dassault Systèmes, and I’m supporting the teachers and students around the world on our technology.

Amy: So, I really don’t want to do this math homework. Why is math so important? Don’t we have computers to do this now?

Thierry Chevrot: Okay, Amy. Computers are very powerful, even technologies like AI — you know that. But do you know that math is even more amazing, because it’s like the secret language that makes everything smart work? Math is literally behind everything. It moves globally with science to help us build amazing structures, amazing cities, create super-smart robots and make computers that can learn and help us in so many ways. It’s like the ultimate superpower for making the world smarter and certainly cooler in the future. And something important, Amy, as with all new technology, is that it needs humans to direct it. So, you will be part of it.

Amy: Uh-oh, does that mean I’ll need to do more math?

Thierry Chevrot: You’ll definitely need math. But you will need other skills as well, from 3D modeling to sustainable engineering. 3D modeling is key; it’s the natural language of the engineer. You’re thinking, you’re dreaming on innovation that’s going to be impactful, but how can you translate what you have in mind and share it with engineers to ensure that your ideas and your concept are going to be produced in real life?

And when it’s about sustainable engineering, I’m quite sure that you want to have a meaningful impact regarding sustainability and being sure that everything you do is positively impacting the planet, okay? So, for that, our technologies are addressing this language and the grammar, if I may say, that is, sustainability at the core.

Amy: Sustainability at the core? What does that mean?

Thierry Chevrot: It means that everything you are thinking about with 3D modeling will allow you to articulate that for having a sustainability impact.

Thierry Chevrot: Products are getting more and more complex. By connecting and taking advantage of the connection of different disciplines and industry knowledge and to be able to make that possible, it’s a question of, in the virtual world, being capable to model in 3D, but also to test and innovate and try as many possibilities as possible very quickly and efficiently. It’s a question, for example, of imagining a new material that will be 100% recyclable. It’s the possibility to test new concepts of mobility, new concepts of energy, trying to have new energy sources. So, the potential is so huge.

It’s the question of ensuring that engineers – people who are innovators – can be merged in a place, what we call 3D UNIVERSES, where all this technology can be connected together to be ultra-efficient, to be ultra-reactive and to be, at the end of the day, ultra-creative.

Amy: Wow! Can today’s engineers already do this? I’ve heard there’s a skills gap.

Thierry Chevrot: Amy, this question is really critical because if we’re not addressing this skills gap, that means that the industries that are going to transfer such types of innovative concepts to real life, they won’t have the people knowledgeable with the right skills to be able to define it properly, to innovate on it, to produce them and so on. So, that means that there will be a bottleneck and you will have two populations: One with people like you — very innovative, very committed to being impactful in terms of sustainability and on the other side, having companies not being able to really transform this creativity into something concrete, something in real products or services that have an impact on the world.

So, we are there, connecting you innovators, thanks to your teacher, to connect your school with the industry reality, to be a facilitator that connects the dots and the people and ensures that this talent pipeline with the right skills is really smooth and efficient.

Thierry Chevrot: At the end of the day, we are just people who are facilitators, knowing the constraints of both worlds and ensuring that we provide everything to the academic institution, to the teacher and the student for an engaging learning experience that is as close as possible to what is expected in the industry. It’s what we call industry-realistic education experience. We provide industry inside the walls of the classroom, thanks to Education Experiences and the virtual twin — providing industry use cases that are the perfect place, the perfect playground for having kids and students to really be empowered and start to develop the right skills.

Thierry Chevrot: What we are providing is to ensure that we are always something that is more realistic. Realistic means what the industry is working on, okay?

Imagine if your experience is really focused on theory – theory in math, theory in physics – and on the other side, the industry is expected to really innovate. That means that all these ideas, these concepts, these theoretical stuff, have to be applied, have to be modeled, have to be assessed in the virtual world to ensure that the innovation will have an impact. So, it’s putting it in the hands of the teacher when it’s about supporting academic transformation, but it’s also the same when we’re supporting students in the student competition. It’s providing them the know-how of the industry that has been adapted to the audience to ensure that it respects their constraints and it respects that it will be seamless, because what we want is an innovator, a student, a teacher that is motivated to really empower their students. They have no obstacles, no hurdles. It’s ultra-smooth to transform creativity into something that’s a project that can be transferred to the real world.
 

Thierry Chevrot: Let’s take the example of FIRST Robotics. It’s a robotics competition that addresses high school pupils. And they’re really addressing complex topics, because a robot is a mechatronic system, meaning that it’s a combination of mechanics, electronics, coding and other stuff. And they’re able to design it in 3D to test in the virtual world and produce it, because very often I said that curiosity is important, but the maker spirit is also important — being able sometimes to tinker and produce what you have dreamed with 3D.

Amy: Sounds like a lot of fun! I bet it’s super exciting to be on the winning team.

Thierry Chevrot: You can see the smile and the sparkle in the eyes of those pupils and that demonstrates that we win with this. We win with this because at the end of the day, this is not only a simple robot; this is something that conveys all the positivity and energy to create tomorrow’s innovator.

Amy: And then? What’s next?

Thierry Chevrot: And when you go to higher education, at the end of the day, you’re closer to industrial employability. So, the challenge has to be more challenging, if I may say that.

Amy: I know this!

Thierry Chevrot: With the Formula Student competition, they play exactly the same as a Formula 1 team, producing a 1-1 scale e-formula with very strong requirements and they play as a team with all the collaboration spirit, with all the discipline, knowledge and skills that are exactly the same as expected by the industry, and the competition is really amazing. And to make the connection and to ensure that we are addressing and we are able to onboard, if I may say that, any student around the world, we have created AAKRUTI.

Amy: AAKRUTI?

Thierry Chevrot: AAKRUTI is a design competition with drivers that align with the sustainability goals. So, for that, that’s something that’s scalable and replicable everywhere in the world. And we are ensuring that each single innovator from a school – because they’re motivated, because they’re curious to challenge themselves – they’re able to play the game, they’re able to demonstrate that their concepts are really interesting and impactful. So, this is, with this third approach, something that allows us at the end of the day to ensure that students – whether they’re part of an academic institution or whether they’re working within a club with a team of friends – they’re able to deploy their creativity in 3D with our solution and start to become and be recognized as innovators for the future.

Amy: Wow, this sounds so fun! It makes me want to start innovating right now. Thanks for showing me what’s out there.

Thierry Chevrot: You’re welcome, Amy. And I really believe in your generation. And it was really a pleasure to speak to you when I see how you’re engaged in sustainability and how you want to impact the world.

Amy: Back to you, Yani!

Narrator: Thank you, Amy and Thierry, for sharing such inspiring perspectives. Want to hear more? Tune in to Disruptors Unleashed to hear from other Infrastructors on the biggest challenges impacting our infrastructure and cities. ‘Til next time!

Disruptors Unleashed is produced by Dassault Systèmes. For more episodes, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, or your nearest audio streaming platform. To learn more about Dassault Systèmes, visit us at 3ds.com.