Students Call New Technology a Dream on Wheels

A new software package is allowing the University of Cincinnati's design students to see their automotive creations from every perspective, even from behind the wheel. The UC School of Design purchased the state-of-the-art Opticore Realizer program last spring, and it has been "pedal to the metal" for students and faculty ever since.

For the last few months, university professors have been testing the new technology, tweaking the details and discovering all its capabilities. According to Professor Gerry Michaud, once a vehicle model is built, creating it on Opticore is "almost instantaneous." Student designers are now able to view an automobile in 3-D, rotate it at all angles, even check under the hood. A fully loaded computer lab has been dedicated to housing this new magic.

Automotive design professors and students showed off their new visualization lab to Daimler-Chrysler executives on Tuesday, August 28. Chrysler representatives said they use very similar software, which allows them to look at different versions of a vehicle side-by-side. They're able to work out kinks on the screen before there is even a working model, which saves a great deal of time. UC's industrial design program largely has Chrysler to thank for its new innovative technology. Chrysler is the program's largest single corporate donor, contributing $472,000 over the past 15 years.

Though UC students have previously had the opportunity to work with programs that allow them to design vehicles on the computer, they lacked the tools necessary to formally present their innovations to fellow students and professors. According to Mark Harris, director of the computer graphics center, the new program is a visualization product that enhances what was already designed on screen before being milled in the college's Rapid Prototype Lab.

UC may be the only academic institution that offers this technology to its students. Opticore is primarily used in the automotive market. Because of this, UC students will be "set apart from their peers," says Harris. "It's what they are using in the private sector, so it gives students an added skill."

Preceding the presentation, the Chrysler representatives gathered around exhibits displaying summer quarter Design Studio creations produced with the new software. One of the students, Gary Ragle, from Cincinnati, presented the Dodge Diamondback, an idea, he said, inspired by a co-op experience in the months previous. Gary created "a truck for people who love sports cars." Sitting low to the ground, the Diamondback has a three-foot bed that can be pulled out like a drawer and extended to six feet.

The members of Chrysler were impressed with the Diamondback, saying, "This is a great little vehicle. We haven't seen anything like that." Gary says the positive feedback he received from professionals was the most rewarding part of the project. The challenge, however, was "breaking the mold and doing something truly unique."

Students currently enrolled in the transportation design studio course are working with General Motors representatives through weekly video conferences. Each of the students is designing his or her own concepts of what the Corvette for the next generation will look like. "We have direct relations and experience with real designers," said Ben Davidson, junior industrial design major. "We're directly correlated with the industry and receive a lot of feedback from the 'real deal.' No other class offers that."