Welcome to the Autodesk University 2016 (AU2016) short blog in Las Vegas. While preparations for the HUAWEI Sonnenwagen Day are in full swing in Germany, our team member Sebastian has traveled to Las Vegas. On site and he reports here in the next five days about his experiences in Las Vegas and at the AU2016. Be curious about first-hand reports. In addition to his reports here on the blog, he will also share his experiences with all interested parties on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under #SonnenwagenGoesAU2016. Be part of one of the biggest innovation fairs in the world. The title of this year's AU2016 is "Design the future" for a reason!

Meanwhile in Las Vegas – Day 1, Monday 14.11.2016

I'm Sebastian from the Aerodynamics team and I have the honor of attending Autodesk University 2016 this year from 11/15 to 11/17, as a member of Autodesk's Student Expert program. Everyone knows the saying, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." But not this time! With my reports, I want to take you along on the journey to Las Vegas and Autodesk University 2016, and for the next five days, I will keep you updated on AU2016! Las Vegas, the city of dreams, promises and superlatives, where the impossible seems within reach. I was lucky enough to reach Las Vegas last night by plane. In the black desert, you can recognize it from a great distance, long before the airport is announced by the captain. Dozens of casino hotels rise from the ground like lighthouses, announcing to seekers the destination of their journey and exerting a magical attraction on everything and everyone.

Dream big, aim high

AU2016 will take place at the Venetian Hotel, right on Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as the famous "Strip". During my stay, I'll be staying directly across the Strip at the Treasure Island Hotel, a glowing pyramid and the Eiffel Tower in small directly in sight. Although already late at night, life is humming when I arrive. Time seems to play no role here. Everywhere it flashes, rings and cheers, people crowd around gaming tables and gambling machines. You can feel the enthusiasm of the people, the energy, the fun. After half a day in this metropolis of superlatives, I realize that everything, the casinos, the people, the attractions, even the breakfast, follows a motto: "Dream big, aim high!"Anything is possible when you have a dream and set big goals. From a desert oasis in Nevada, a city emerges that is second to none. One dollar can become a million. If you have a dream and a goal, anything is possible. That's what Las Vegas stands for.That reminds me of our team. 40 students are building a solar race car to cross a continent and advance the idea of electric mobility. In the beginning, it was an idea, a dream, but now we're halfway to the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (WSC) 2017. The task remains immense, our goals ambitious, but by no means unattainable. Like a jackpot in a casino. Aachen and Las Vegas have a few things in common.This afternoon I will meet the other students from our Student Expert group before AU2016 starts tomorrow!

See you soon!

Sebastian

The drive for innovation is palpable in its presentation. Science fiction becomes reality, inevitably. Immediately after the keynote, the expert sessions continue, including topics such as designing, modeling and rendering. After the sessions are over, it's off to the exhibition hall and the show computers, where I show the other Student Experts a sample of our solar car. Suddenly a hand is on my shoulder and an interested face is examining our car. Carl Bass: "Very interesting, what's that? "Me, puzzled: "That's our solar racing car. "Carl Bass: "Wow, good luck with that! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!"Me, even more puzzled: "Thanks!"-pause-I, slowly realizing: "Would you take a picture with the car and me? "Carl Bass, grinning broadly: "I'd love to!"Jackpot!Tomorrow we'll continue here with the Innovation Keynote! I'm very curious to see what new things will be dug out of the magic box!

Meanwhile in Vegas – Day 3, 16.11.2016

Innovation is the order of the day today! I'm sitting in the Innovation Keynote and I'm excited to see what will be pulled out of the magic box today. Among them is Fusion 360, our home software at Sonnenwagen, for which several promising updates are announced. Included: nonlinear and plastic material simulation, buckling failure, and even topology optimization, and all in the cloud!If you readers don't have an engineering background, you may be surprised, but everyone else - including me - will be salivating at the thought of the new possibilities!The best examples here on site are an ultralightweight partition from an airplane and the BAC Supercar (pictured), which features components optimized with Fusion! In this series fits super also a solar car...

„Embrace disruption!“ - Carl Bass, once more

Carl Bass hits the nail on the head once again. You have to break new ground and radically question and change things if you want to be successful. Only innovation brings you forward! And that's exactly where we want to go with our HUAWEI Sonnenwagen - forward with innovation and show the other teams in Australia what Aachen is capable of.

Meanwhile in Vegas – Day 4, 17.11.2016

“The future of making things“

This is the motto of AU2016 and there is a reason for that. As abstract as this sentence may seem at first, it seems so apt when you explore the exhibition hall. No matter what you want to create and build, everything can be divided into design and manufacturing. These two areas are universal, always and everywhere. And a revolution is coming in both! All exhibitors agree on one thing: Virtual Reality is the future! Be it for viewing an architectural project, a construction site or even for modeling an entire car. I was allowed to try my hand at a sports car myself and give it a completely new exterior shape. No clicking around on the computer, a hand controller with a button is enough! And to my amazement, it's child's play. I almost feel like a kindergarten child again, given a big block of modeling clay and all the freedom in the world.

But that's only one side of the coin. The perfect model is no use if you can't get it out of the digital and into the material world. So far, the production of various components is an enormous effort! Anyone with their own small workshop knows what I mean. For every step, there is a special tool with a staggering price tag to go with it. Here, the revolution is called 3D printing. For everything. For anyone. Out of any material. Steel, aluminum, titanium, elastic and rock-hard plastic, and even carbon fiber plastics! From a printer! You can find it all here.Something is created from nothing. And that can be anything, all imaginable things. There are no more limits. This is the future of making things.And that's almost the end of my journey. AU2016 comes to an end tonight. Tomorrow there will be the last blog here with impressions of the Closing Keynote.

Meanwhile in Vegas… and Germany – Day 5, 18.11.2016

It's done! Autodesk University is over, crowned with a Closing Keynote of a special kind. Andrew Anagnost, CMO, and Rob Corddry, actor, comedian and self-proclaimed future and technology expert, offer a spectacle of a special kind.

„We have come from science-fiction to science-facts.“Andrew Anagnost, CMO Autodesk

Dreaming becomes reality. And I have to agree; some things that were dismissed as futuristic crackpotry just a few years ago have become reality.A recyclable, self-landing rocket? Check. A 3D printer that prints entire bridges in one piece on site? Check. Software that can design an entire car on its own with just a few specifications? Check.But the most important ingredient is missing from the recipe for the future, as Anagnost points out. Every change and transformation needs an idea; a vision of a better world. The tools of the future are there, now they want to be fed by all of us; by you, by me.

- Jump to Germany -

I am back home, Germany has me back. On the flight back, I had to think a lot about the words of the farewell event. An idea, as crazy as it may seem at first, can become the beginning of something great. You just need someone with the willingness to put it into action.There was also an idea in Aachen in the summer of 2015. A vision of a better world, the HUAWEI Sonnenwagen as a symbol of mobility change. Exactly today, as I write this post, the idea takes another step towards reality, the HUAWEI Sonnenwagen is unveiled in Aachen at the HUAWEI Sonnenwagen Day. Half time on our way to the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2017.After my visit to Autodesk University, I am even more firmly convinced that we will make it, that our vision will become real. With the new tools we can make our solar race car even more innovative, simply better.Sonnenwagen for a better world.