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We talk with Gary Bertoline about graphics communication, computer-aided design, credentials, and competency-based degree programs in this episode of The Engineering Commons.

• Adam is less stressed now that he’s earned his professional engineer (PE) license.
• Our guest for this episode is Gary Bertoline, Dean of Purdue University’s College of Technology. In addition to his administrative work, Dean Bertoline has authored a number of books on graphics communication and computer-aided design (CAD).
• Graphics is a communication medium, just like language or mathematics.
• Mental manipulation of figures and objects in three-dimensional space is known as spatial visualization.
• Jeff is old enough to have taken a drafting course in college that required T-squares, compasses, and triangular scales.
• Carmen expresses his desire that electrical engineers possess better drafting skills.
• According to Dean Bertoline, computer gaming can help improve visualization skills. So now you have an excuse!
• Ancestor to today’s CAD software, Sketchpad was a computer graphics program written in 1963 by Ivan Sutherland. (A YouTube video shows the software in action.)
• Autodesk and Dassault Systems are large companies that have survived in the competitive computer-aided drafting (CAD) industry.
• Many modern CAD packages include modules designed to assist with product lifecycle management (PLM).
• Brian mentions the use of a STEP file, which is an industry standard (ISO 10303) for exchanging 3D model information. The acronym stands for “Standard for the Exchange of Product model data.”
• HFSS is a commercial finite-element model solver for electromagnetic structures (owned by Ansys). Carmen isn’t sure of the acronym’s meaning, but Wikipedia tell us that it originally stood for “High Frequency Structural Simulator.”
• Carmen’s “E&M” reference refers to “electricity and magnetism.”
• Digital models can be made to behave as physical objects through the use of a physics engine, which is software that constrains the models to conform with “real-world” physical phenomena.
• Professional credentials might take the form of academic degrees, academic certificates, professional certificates, digital badges, or physical artifacts.
• Gary heads up Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute, which seeks to radically transform the undergraduate educational experience.
• Purdue is one of 108 United States institutions listed by the Carnegie Foundation as being a very high research activity university.
• Purdue University’s College of Technology was chartered in 1964, and it currently offers 30 undergraduate degree options across its seven academic departments.
• The first Polytechnic was École Polytechnique, founded in 1794 and located in Palaiseau, France.
• One can better understand the development and adoption of innovative technologies using the S Curve Framework.
• Our guest walks us thorough some of his organization’s early experiences in establishing a competency-based degree program.
• Jeff inquires whether competency badges might lead to employers defining their own unique sets of required competencies for potential employees.
• Gary tells us that T-shaped professionals are being sought out by industrial firms.
• Our guest mentions “Generation on a Tightrope,” a book that argues today’s students need a very different education from the one that their parents received.
• Also mentioned is “Creating Innovators,” a book that explores how the educational process must change to encourage young people to become innovators.
• Listeners will find additional information online about Purdue’s College of Technology, and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
• Dean Bertoline can be reached via email at: bertoline -=+ at +=- purdue.edu.

Thanks to Jim Kelly for the photo titled “My Diploma.” Podcast theme music by Paul Stevenson.