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COFES 2012 Agenda
Thursday, April 12, 2012
8:00
AM |
Registration and Badge Pick-up Opens |
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Attire for COFES is weekend casual (no suits); shirts with collars; sandals or sneakers. Shorts are okay.
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8:30
AM -
3:00
PM |
The DaS Symposium |
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The Design and Sustainability Symposium: Exploring the intersection of design, simulation, and sustainability for the built (AEC) and manufactured environment. Details here.
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1:00
PM |
Tech Soft 3D Annual Customer Meeting |
| Current and potential Tech Soft 3D customers are invited to hear about the company’s outlook and plans in the near, medium and long-term future at their annual event. As a toolkit provider, Tech Soft 3D aggregates the needs of hundreds of leading engineering companies, making it an excellent bellwether of the industry at large. |
3:00
PM
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Special Session: Current Customer Thinking |
Brad Holtz
Cyon Research |
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 Jim Brown
Tech-Clarity |
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A presentation of recent Cyon Research studies and of a joint study by Cyon Research and Tech-Clarity.
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As last year, this is an informal session. Lots of information, but also lots of interaction and discussion.
Open to all COFES Attendees and their guests. |
4:00
PM
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Special Session: International Business Update |
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Cambashi maintains quantitative market models of the global technical applications software business. Prior year revenue figures by country contain tantalizing clues and reflections of the ways different industries and regions responded to changing economic circumstances. By looking at the numbers, and relating these to developments in technology and industrial practice around the world, we can consider how general economic forecasts might translate to technical application software businesses.
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This is an informal session. Lots of information, but also lots of interaction and discussion.
Open to all COFES Attendees and their guests. |
5:00
PM
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Special Session: Vision, Risk, Systems, and Sound |
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Major technological and social advancements can be realized when a company embraces a vision and mobilizes its resources over time to achieve that vision. A true “systems approach” must be used to solve difficult design challenges where analysis of human factors, hardware, software and networking combine to deliver an optimal solution. Dr. Tetsuo Kubo has spent his career solving many challenging problems with this “systems approach”. He's held a longstanding dream of creating the most precise sound reproduction system ever conceived. We'll learn of the decision matrix he used during the achievement of this dream, and then hear what that really means—literally!
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As last year, this is an informal session. Lots of information, but also lots of interaction and discussion.
Open to all COFES Attendees and their guests. |
6:00 -
8:00
PM
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Business Reception and Technology Suite Open House |
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Spouse & Guest-only Mixer |
Opening business reception. First formal opportunity for COFES Newbies to meet their Hosts. Technology Suites have been set up for you to discuss corporate direction, business development, and potential partnerships. They are NOT demo rooms—the vendors are here to talk, not sell. This is your opportunity to sign up for appointment time slots.
Music, food and refreshments.
*Restricted to COFES 2012 Attendees. Their spouses and guests are invited to a spouse- and guest-only mixer and may join them later at the welcome reception. |
While COFES Attendees are at their business reception, their spouses and guests will be treated to a wine tasting mixer/reception before they join us in the welcome reception at 8 pm. Enjoy the food, refreshments, and music in a relaxed setting.
*Open only to badged spouses/guests of COFES 2012 attendees. |
7:45
PM
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COFES 2012 Opening Intro |
| Welcome, introductions, orientation, and schedule. |
8:00 -
10:00
PM
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Welcome Reception |
Bring your spouse and join all COFES Attendees and sponsors for this evening social.
Music, food and refreshments.
*Guests of COFES Attendees must be registered and must be wearing their badges during the event.
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Friday, April 13, 2012
7:30
AM
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Introductions and Breakfast |
Each COFES attendee from the user community is assigned a leading industry consultant who will act as their host for the event. The host's primary responsibility is to make sure that you get the most value possible out of the event and introduce you to key industry players. Plan to meet your host/introducer for breakfast.
Attire for COFES is weekend casual (no suits); shirts withcollars; sandals or sneakers. Shorts are okay.
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8:30
AM
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Kickoff: Opening Session and Call to Order |
Your hosts, Cyon Research, will set the stage for the day's activities.
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9:00
AM
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Keynote: Alan Kay on Rethinking Design, Risk, and Software |
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Alan Kay
Viewpoints Research Institute |
Our increasingly complex needs have led us to build increasing complex software. We’ve done this in an incremental fashion, building code on top of code. We writing understandable snippets of code built on programming languages we know well and then bundle them into program structures to perform complex tasks. This incremental process may seem to have low risk and the snippet level, but it leads to program structures that can be hundreds of millions of lines of code that is intractable to change, redesign, and understanding, nor in the end is it easy to design. It also leads to code with potentially unwanted emergent properties.
Today, we know how to create programs that can create programming languages. So why not write software that closely follows the problem, without a programming language, then let create the programming language to support it? If apply this to rethinking design, process suggests that if we design both problems and solutions be thought of in terms of relational structures directly drawn from the problem space which can then use the "meta-material" of the computer to make much more suitable dynamic solutions.
Here the design and risk trade-offs are completely different. New stuff has to be invented, but they are often 1000s of times smaller and better fitted to the problem so in the end are much easier to design, build, understand, change, thinking about, etc. The process allows the problems themselves to be reconsidered, and often much better notions of the problem are discovered.
The process is a much deeper synergy between the science, mathematics and engineering of computing. One of the first fruits of this "from scratch" design approach were the results of two dozen computer scientists at Xerox PARC who invented in just a few years the "big nine" technologies that created our current computer revolution -- personal computer, bit-map screen, overlapping window, pointing, iconic GUI, WYSIWYG applications, object-oriented programming, laser printing, Ethernet, client-server and peer-peer, and part of the Internet -- that has conferred on the world more than $30 Trillion dollars of new wealth to date.
Some recent experiments in reducing software size by factors of 1000 and more will be shown. |
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Alan Kay
Alan Kay, is one of the earliest pioneers of object-oriented programming, personal computing, and graphical user interfaces. His contributions have been recognized with:
- the Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering "for the vision, conception, and development of the first practical networked personal computers"
- the Alan. M. Turing Award from the Association of Computing Machinery "for pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary object-oriented programming languages, leading the team that developed Smalltalk, and for fundamental contributions to personal computing"
- the Kyoto Prize from the Inamori Foundation "for creation of the concept of modern personal computing and contribution to its realization."
He has been a Xerox Fellow, Chief Scientist of Atari, Apple Fellow, Disney Fellow, and HP Senior Fellow. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at UCLA. In 2001 he founded and is president of Viewpoints Research Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to children, learning and advanced systems research.
At Viewpoints Research Institute he and his colleagues continue to explore advanced systems and programming design by aiming for a "Moore's Law" advance in software creation of many orders of magnitude. Kay and Viewpoints are also deeply involved in the One Laptop Per Child initiative that seeks to create a Dynabook-like "$100 laptop" for every child in the world (especially in the 3rd world).
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10:15
AM -
5:30
PM
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Income Tax Extensions |
In recognition of the impending tax deadline of April 15, Cyon Research has arranged for a tax specialist to be on hand to help file an extension for those who couldn't quite get it done before COFES. We'll be set up in the Lobby on Saturday during the Briefing sessions.
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10:15
AM
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Technology Suite Briefings |
COFES 2012 Technology Suites will be announced this month.
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10:55
PM
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Break |
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11:00
AM
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Analyst and User Briefings: To be announced |
We've invited some of the brightest and most talented thinkers, analysts and users, to each lead a working discussion on an issue they view as critical. These discussions are strictly limited to no more than 24 people at a time.
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Alan Kay
Viewpoints Research Institute |
| Keynoter's Session |
An interactive discussion on the topics raised in Alan's keynote.
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We’ve heard much on the increasingly complex challenges of product design and manufacture and their effects on the tools and processes employed by businesses. More often than not these topics relate to complex product environments and solutions that map to recent advances in Systems Engineering approaches. Vendors do their best to keep abreast of these changes but many would argue that there is somewhat of a dichotomy between the directions of the ISV community and those of their customers. Is it possible to bring the two dimensions together to create a more productive environment for innovation? Is it really possible to consolidate the fragmented nature of business process (and tool chains) and the often proprietary nature of vendors? |
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Christian DeNeef
Fast Track Consulting |
| Innovation Imposes the Need for Change Management |
When we introduce the newest technologies in our clients' environment, we disrupt trusted processes, challenge established roles and responsibilities, and highlight skills shortages and resource bottlenecks. Clearly, we have a role to play in our clients' change management. What's that role, how do we tackle it, and how is change itself changing? |
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2012 may be the year the Cloud actually materializes in the domain of engineering software. How can channel partners adapt. Will customers expect instant access and low prices? What do channel partners need to do and become to take advantage of the changing landscape and power dynamic? |
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Martin Fischer
Center for Integrated Facility Engineering |
| Metrics Predict Success |
Projects offer the opportunity for continuous improvement, but project teams often just share anecdotal experiences and fail to consistently collect and analyze performance. Connecting process metrics and outcome metrics, and closing the loop between metrics to performance improvement is a critical step in getting past this. Which metrics should you track? How often? Which process metrics best predict success? What are some proven best practices? |
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From cutting rubylith for physical design of an IC to ESL (Electronic System Level), EDA design tools have moved through higher levels of abstraction. The EDA environment is dependent on rigorous use of high level design languages, integral simulation, and hardware software co-design. In the 22 nm silicon generation, parasitic issues make all designs look analog. How is this challenging our EDA tools and design processes. What does the EDA landscape look like today, and where do we go from here? |
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11:50
AM
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Analyst and User Briefings: To be announced |
Analyst and user briefings, round 2, with different analysts, different topics.
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Steve Wolfe
Cyon Research |
| The US Government Embraces Model-Based Design |
Industry has been employing 3D models to make products for more than 20 years, but US government agencies from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Department of Defense still require suppliers to submit product designs on fully detailed drawings. Current government initiatives plan to allow suppliers to submit 3D models instead. How long before 3D models become the accepted formats for technical data packages? What standards and technologies must be improved to make 3D MBE a reality in government agencies? |
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Jay will review the performance of the CAD/PLM companies and industry and their prospects for 2013 and beyond as we emerge from the downturn. Formerly a senior analyst and managing director with Merrill Lynch, Jay has recently joined Griffin Securities as senior research analyst. This will be his 11th annual review of the industry at COFES, and your only opportunity to see him in something besides a business suit. |
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For years we’ve talked about driving simulation to non-expert users and to smaller companies. But, simulation is still largely the province of expert users at large companies. Are we at a tipping point? Will always-on, almost-infinite cloud resources and mobile apps put capable simulation tools in the hands of millions? Or, will software pricing, complex user interfaces, data security concerns, and all the rest continue to frustrate us? |
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Amy Rowell
Four Winds Research |
| Driving Sustainability in Product Design |
Is the sustainability movement nearing a “tipping point?” If so, what are the implications? Research strongly suggests that taking a more sustainable approach to product design and manufacturing is not only good for the environment, it’s good for business. Yet many still remain skeptical. What will it take for sustainability to become an integral part of product design and truly go mainstream? |
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PLM tools are rapidly expanding in capabilities and now encroach on areas that others view their responsibility, such as ERP and SCM. What impact does this have on a business? Where should PLM stand alone, where should it be the centre of the universe, where should it be a peer environment, and where should it be a subservient slave to other tools? Where will PLM go next? |
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Tony Baer
Ovum |
| Big Data and the Product/Project Lifecycle |
Big Data technologies have recently emerged to make it possible to capture and analyze data in volume and variety traditionally considered out of reach. Will emergence of Big Data technologies simply complicate a frustrating situation? Or will Big Data improve the design and delivery of products, and the management of more sustainable, smarter environments? When should the product engineering world start paying attention to Big Data? What happens then? What should we expect out of Big Data? |
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Jerry Laiserin
LaiserinLetter |
| BiM to BIM: Moving from Information to Intelligence |
BiM applies intelligent software objects of design/construction/operation to what are still dumb physical objects. Someday soon, intelligent BIM software objects will link to and/or be embedded in what will become intelligent physical objects -- building systems/components and the total buildings, campuses and ecosystems that contain or consist of intelligent physical objects. How will the emergence of occupant-aware, environmentally-aware and self-aware buildings alter design/construction/operation processes? What will be the social, economic and political consequences as man-made environments evolve from passive to interactive, responsive, adaptive, predictive and—perhaps—coercive? Who will design the requisite building-human interface(s), data structures and connectivity? |
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12:40
PM
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Lunch |
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2:15
PM
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Technology Suite Briefings |
Round 2 of COFES 2012 Technology Suites will be announced this month.
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3:00
PM
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Analyst and User Briefings: To be announced |
Analyst briefings, round 3, with different analysts, different topics.
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Marc Halpern
Gartner |
| Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul (MRO), and End-of-Life |
The owners and producers of products and structures with long lifecycles such as aircraft, ships, industrial equipment, and facilities face significant technical and business challenges to keep these assets operating reliably throughout the long life spans. Marc will discuss the engineering complexities and the priorities, challenges, and software landscape across the value chain to meet the needs. |
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Ulrich Sendler
sendler\circle |
| Smarter Products Require Systems Engineering |
How can engineering IT support multidisciplinary product development processes? How can software development become an integral part of it? Not too long ago PLM vendors focused on soley on MCAD and management of product structures. Recently all of them seem to see high priority also in systems engineering. But can they close the gap between the different faculties? Or will there be new players in the field? |
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The increasing complexity of today’s products, including the involvement of multiple engineering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, and software, means there is a tremendous amount of data and data types to manage. What are the best ways to manage it all? Is having it all in a single database (Single Source of Truth - SSoT) the best approach? Where is SSoT a good fit? Where does it fall down and a federated model become more effective? |
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Modern CAE tools provide capabilities of robustness assessment of designs. These capabilities empower design engineers to generate Six Sigma quality designs early in the design process. We’ll discuss cases of Design for Six Sigma from automotive, battery and defense industries. What are currently the organizational and technical inhibitors restrict the implementation of robust design practices? What are the solution strategies to overcome them? What is the relationship between Six Sigma and risk? |
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Terry Wohlers
Wohlers Associates |
| The Future of Additive Manufacturing |
Additive manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D printing, is changing the way high-value products are manufactured. Tens of thousands of parts have been produced by AM for aerospace, medical, and dental companies. Consumers are buying jewelry, furniture, lighting designs, and many other products produced by AM. How are current limitations changing and which business models are likely to be affected as AM applications proliferate? |
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Tom Sisler
Knoll |
| Product Manufacturing Models for BIM |
The move to BIM by their clients has caused a significant challenge to manufacturers who serve the building design and construction (BDC) industry. While the BDC community stands to benefit greatly through the use of BIM-specific product representations, the need for manufacturers to deliver their designs in BIM form has been problematic. Manufactures have invested the past twenty years in the world of parametric solid modeling to server their internal needs. BIM on the other hand imposes a whole new set of hurdles for product manufacturers. Traditional 3D neutral file types fall far short of BIM users’ needs. How can we help product manufacturers provide the high value BIM product representations needed by BDC industries? |
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3:45
PM
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Break |
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4:00
PM
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First Congress: Maieutic Parataxis |
Maieutic: The midwifery of knowledge.
Parataxis: The juxtaposition of ideas, without connection or conjunction
We will be hosting a series of five-minute vignettes drawn from topics and ideas that, while perhaps not yet fully formed, are likely to impact your thinking about how we design, build, and interact with software in the future.
Take a look at http://cofes.com/mp to see the Maieutic Parataxis presentations from previous COFES!
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5:15
PM
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Free |
5:45
PM
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Buses leave The Scottsdale Plaza Resort for Evening Under the Stars |
Buses will be leaving from the main entrance of The Scottsdale Plaza Resort*
*Guests of COFES Attendees must be registered and have paid a supplemental registration fee in order to attend this event |
6:30
PM
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Evening Under the Stars at Los Cedros |
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We're headed out into truly wide-open spaces and a sweeping view of the sky once again. For 2012, we're headed back to Los Cedros, a Moroccan citadel for Arabian horses. A great western cookout, and for those who want a closer look at the magnificent Arizona sky, we have a couple of major-league telescopes. A COFES highlight!
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*Guests of COFES Attendees must be registered and have paid a supplemental registration fee in order to attend this event
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9:30
PM
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Buses Leave the Evening Event for The Scottsdale Plaza Resort |
We will return to the resort between 10:00 and 11:00 pm.
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
8:00
AM
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Breakfast |
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8:45
AM
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Morning Kickoff |
| Your hosts will set the stage for the day’s activities. |
9:00
AM
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Keynote: The Intersection of Design and Risk |
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Richard Riff
Ford Technical Fellow |
At COFES 2012, we’ll explore the role of risk in design, the impact time-horizon plays, and what actions we can (or should) take in response. Richard's keynote will extend our understanding of the role of risk in the day-to-day decisions of where and how we allocate engineering resources. We all address risk daily, each in our own way. In design, risk is a consideration in each decision we make. But how and when we think of risk needs to change. Not only do we need to pay attention to our risk horizon (which is much closer than our reward horizon), we also must look for opportunities where risk has not yet participated in the decision process, but should.
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Richard Riff
Dr. Richard Riff is the Director of Ford´s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) initiative and technical fellow for Virtual Product Creation and PLM, one of five technical fellows at Ford.
Dr. Riff joined Ford Motor Company in 1989 as a CAE technical specialist for Automotive Parts Operations Electronics Division. An internationally recognized authority in the field of computer-aided design, manufacturing, engineering (CAD-CAM-CAE) and PLM, Dr. Riff lead the team responsible for developing Ford's global PLM strategy. Formerly the Director of the C3P Project Office, Dr. Riff led the development and implementation of Ford´s C3P—CAD/CAM/CAE and PLM strategy, a global, cross-functional enabler involving major changes in Ford's processes, methods, tools, architecture and infrastructure. He received the company's most prestigious technical award, becoming a Ford fellow for his work on Ford's C3P strategy in 1998.
Before joining Ford, Dr. Riff was a Professor of Aerospace Structures at Georgia Technological University in Atlanta, Georgia, and at Technion Institute of Technology in Israel, where he received his Bachelor´s, Master´s, Doctorate and Doctorate of Science in Aeronautic and Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Riff has authored more than seventy technical publications and several books in his areas of specialization, including CAE, CAD, CAM, structural and dynamic FEA, pre and post-processors, descriptive geometry and material constitutive laws.
He is also a Director in Proficiency Ltd, Spaceclaim, Inc. and Geometric Americas, Inc.
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10:30
AM
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Break |
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10:45
AM
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Discussions and Roundtables |
Cyon Research investigates issues in engineering and design. That research forms the basis for the issue topics for these group discussions. Meeting rooms are set up in suites around the pool, each with a different issue to discuss. Also, meetings among groups with a common interest.
The actual topics for COFES 2012 will be posted two weeks prior to the start of COFES. |
12:15
PM
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Lunch |
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1:45
PM
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Discussions and Roundtables, Round 2 |
Cyon Research investigates issues in engineering and design. That research forms the basis for the issue topics for these group discussions. Meeting rooms are set up in suites around the pool, each with a different issue to discuss. Also, meetings among groups with a common interest.
The actual topics for COFES 2012 will be posted two weeks prior to the start of COFES. |
3:15
PM
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Break |
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3:30
PM
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Second Congress: The Business of Design and Engineering |
This working congress session is an open forum for examining the issues surrounding technologies expected to have an impact on design and engineering. The purpose of these discussions is to examine current issues, explore opportunities for a brighter future, consider approaches, and promote further dialogue.
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5:00
PM
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Free |
5:30
PM
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Reception |
| *Guests of COFES Attendees must be registered and have paid a supplemental registration fee in order to attend this event |
6:30-
9:00
PM
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Dinner and Awards |
Dinner and the closing session of COFES, including The CAD Society Industry Awards and the CADwire Innovator's Award.*
*Guests of COFES Attendees must be registered and have paid a supplemental registration fee in order to attend this event |
Sunday, April 15, 2012
6:30-
8:30
AM
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Early Riser's Breakfast (Cafe Cabana - Poolside) |
For golfers and those with early flights
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8:30-
10:30
AM
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Sunday Brunch |
Sunday Brunch (Cafe Cabana - Poolside)
Relax and enjoy the morning!
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10:30
AM
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Special Session: A Chat with Dick Morley |
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Dick Morley looks forward to discussing the ways of the world with individuals who have an IQ of 140+.
Dick is Cyon Research's not-so-secret intellectual weapon. A prolific inventor (the PLC, anti-lock braking, floppy-disk, nano-chocolate...) and venture capitalist, Dick has an unusual way of looking at things. We've set up this "fireside chat" with Dick to explore his past, current, and future challenges.
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All COFES Interns will take part as equal participants with the other COFES attendees. |
12:30
PM
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Insights from our Interns |
Each year at the end of COFES we sit down with the students who intern at COFES. This engaging and wide-ranging discussion has been incredibly enlightening--perhaps for them, but even more so for us. These next-generation leaders have much to contribute.
All COFES Interns will take part as equal participants with the other COFES attendees. |
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