SolidWorks Invites Engineers Everywhere To Contribute Ideas To New Interactive Product Design Web Show

‘Let’s Go Design’ TV Debuts Today.

CONCORD, Mass — A new interactive Web series invites engineers from all over the world to vote, tweet, and blog ideas that could turn into anything from an emergency response vehicle to a dream chair for hardcore online gamers.

“Let’s Go Design” ( www.letsgodesign.tv), sponsored by Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. (DS SolidWorks), is open to the entire engineering community. Hosted by DS SolidWorks employee and 18-year design engineering veteran Jeremy Luchini, the interactive web series asks viewers to vote on a product idea, then contribute their own ideas and suggestions to arrive at a finished product design. Viewers communicate with Luchini through social media tools while he coordinates their efforts, builds the product, and reports progress via blog. The viewer “team” will confront real product development issues such as budget, timelines, and testing on the way to building a prototype of their chosen product.

“We’re going to assemble the world’s biggest design team, ask them for an idea, then turn them loose on it,” said Luchini. “The worldwide design community has a huge pool of skills and experiences. ‘Let’s Go Design’ is a showcase for that creative energy, and a chance for all of us to do something fun while interacting with other talented product designers.”

The “Let’s Go Design” home page will display the audience’s tweets and blog comments, as well as videos of Luchini helping put viewers’ ideas together to create a finished product. Luchini, a custom vehicle enthusiast who builds hot rods and choppers in his spare time, will host the series from a new design studio at DS SolidWorks’ headquarters in Concord, Massachusetts. The audience will kick off each project by voting through the series Web site on what to design. The audience stays fully involved throughout the project, submitting ideas, opinions, and reactions through the show’s blog and by responding to Luchini’s Twitter feed. DS SolidWorks plans to sponsor as many as four “Let’s Go Design” segments this year.

“Designers and engineers everywhere are designing cool products, but typically in isolation. Since so much of the SolidWorks experience is built around the passion of the community, we wanted to give them a chance to participate in something big that they could perfect and collaborate on together,” said Christine Washburn, vice president of marketing at DS SolidWorks. “They can compare their knowledge and experiences while doing something fun, and potentially end up designing the next big thing.”