At the end of 1999, two high technology companies announced the forthcoming release of software that would allow (for the first time in history), truly collaborative, affordable three dimensional modeling via the Internet. To anticipate this inevitable marriage of 3D modelers with the Internet, six technology students enrolled in an independent study at IUPUI in the spring of 2000. They aggressively investigated the validity of these Application Service Providers (ASPs) by collaboratively modeling with their software [1]. Due to the fact that three-dimensional solid modeling is one of the most computational intensive applications, sending this data over existing Internet pipelines proved to be the weak link as summarized by the participating students final reports. Despite the potential benefits of the ASP method, most representatives from "traditional" CAD companies fall into the "not now but maybe someday" camp. The Web may not be ready to host such an interactive application as solid modeling. "Highly interactive applications are more sensitive to running over the Internet than is an application where you submit a basic query and the software shows the results," says Craig Lozofsky, manager of marketing and business development at Engineering-e.com. "Some of the things you do with CAD depend on a quick response. When you rotate a CAD model, for instance, you want to see it move smoothly and quickly." Perhaps those with fast Internet connections can get that kind of response over the Web. But for those who can't, the modeling experience would probably be frustrating [2]. Clearly, these are the early days of collaborative computing in 3D. It seems a good bet that this mode of working will become prevalent in the industrial design field and spread from there to other areas of 3D graphics [3].
With seed funding from a Purdue School of Engineering and Technology Distributed Learning Award, the PI of this proposal and a student intern attended the inaugural Congress on the Future of Engineering Software (COFES 2000) and negotiated with these ASP's a no-charge agreement for unlimited and indefinite use of their pioneering softwares both for our educational institution at IUPUI and participating corporations.
Thus, the primary goal of this project is to optimally utilize these evolving technologies to formulate an educational model whereas students will collaboratively and interactively participate with industry to create real-world products and processes. In doing so, the students will in essence be taking part in a digital "apprenticeship", giving them and the participating corporations an opportunity to bridge the education-to-industry gap.