It’s the first day of our biggest annual user event, Autodesk University (AU), and what better way to kick it off than to recognize some of the most influential members of the community over the last year!  Last night we held our AU Fusion Meetup and publicly recognized these individuals.  The growing energy, passion and knowledge you each contribute is truly what makes this community so special.  Each and every one of you deserves recognition, but alas, we had to restrain to recognizing a few that really stood out.  Without further ado, we’re pleased to announce the 2015 Fusion 360 Community Award Recipients:

Online Commmunity Awards

The SOLVER (Most solutions) = Mark aka HughesTooling

If you’ve spent any time on the Fusion Design & Documentation or CAM Forums to seek help, the chances are Mark has provided a solution for you at some point. With over 100 solutions authored in the last year alone, he’s helping fellow users all day, evening, and weekends, on top of his day job!  Mark has over 30 years experience as a mould maker and currently runs his own business doing product design and tool design in-house. This is what it means to be a community all star!

The CREATIVE (Most Ideas submitted, Most voted) = Claas aka cekuhnen

Claas is a contract designer and teacher at Wayne State University in Michigan. For those that have spent any time on our Forums, he’s incredibly active and helps spread the love for Fusion 360.  But where he really stands out is on the IdeaStation.  Since the first of the year, he’s submitted over 130 ideas, and received nearly 1,000 votes for those ideas.  Get this, he’s submitted so many ideas we actually created a tag to help track and manage all of his submissions internally!

The NOT SO nOOb (Most valuable newcomer) = Jesse aka jjurban55

Jesse joined the Fusion community in the beginning of the year, and while he may be new, he’s anything but a nOOb!  Since joining he’s managed to receive the most Kudo’s and provided more solutions than any other non-Expert Elite member of the community.  Jesse is constantly learning from the help of other members, and regularly passing that knowledge along to others.  On the side, Jesse is also working on some really interesting projects to help bring CNC machining/3d printing to the masses, and along the way, help educate and train others.

Design and Innovation Awards

David Escobar (Cedars-Sinai)

While in his current role as Simulation Specialist he was given the chance to learn and bring 3D printing to the organization at Cedars-Sinai. What began as an idea 8 months ago, has grown into great opportunities to work on research studies with 3D printed models, print models from patient CT and MRI images for clinicians to review prior to a procedure, and more recently developing prototypes for new training models. We are very excited to see what David brings next to Cedars-Sinai and the 3D printing industry.

Jeff Hooper (Backhand Bikes)

Owner of Backhand Bike Co., has channeled an extensive manufacturing background towards his passion for BMX (Bicycle Moto Cross) and engineering components for the bike industry. Backhand Bike’s core concept is that through streamlined workflow using Fusion360, complex bike parts can be sold at a competitive price.  Hooper has over 16 years working with CAD/CAM in many industries including aerospace and medical.  He has also taught CNC programming and various software platforms within schools and industry. Hooper is excited about Backhand Bikes and its future plans. He shares that excitement also for the manufacturing industry as technology is constantly evolving and progressing production every day.

Student Recognition

Ari Horowitz – Virginia Tech

Ari is one of four finalists for the connected future challenge.  As part of this challenge Ari and his fellow finalists envisioned a product that would improve lives, save money, and make us healthier with a connected toothbrush.  These pitches for products were judged and the four finalists were chosen to battle it out here at AU.

Casey Cole Rogers – UC Berkeley 

Casey is one of our most experienced student experts.  His time in the program has honed his skills and you can see it when he steps behind the wheel of one of our products.  As part of an elite 3D maker club at Berkeley, Casey helped design a rotary engine that serves as the inspiration for “Design for Autodesk.” An Autodesk Education program encouraging students to jump in and learn Fusion 360

Please join me and the entire Autodesk team in extending sincere appreciation to these Fusion all-stars!