Autodesk Excellence Awards 2021

Introduction

ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION

PRODUCT DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

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Reimagine possible.

Autodesk Excellence Awards

Autodesk Excellence Awards celebrate the people, projects, and technologies behind exceptional contributions to the fields of architecture, engineering, and construction; product design and manufacturing; and media and entertainment.

Architecture, Engineering & Construction

We owe it all to innovators—those that create everything from homes to high rises to highways. For the past 10 years, the AEC Excellence Awards has highlighted these innovators. Now we take the time to look back and thank you for a decade of innovation, excellence, and transforming our world for the better.

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

Today’s design and manufacturing companies are pushing the boundaries of change, leading to extraordinary outcomes. The Autodesk Product Design & Manufacturing group shares a vision with these customers who are exploring bold opportunities with technology. We congratulate this inspiring collection of innovators whose transformational changes are making a lasting impact on the world.

Product Design & Manufacturing

The Autodesk Media & Entertainment team works with customers who create innovative 3D art and design across design visualization, film/TV and VFX, and games industries. We’re excited to congratulate these inspiring artists who demonstrate visionary creative approaches, produce high-caliber work and who engage in active community participation.

Media & Entertainment

Have an inspiring project of your own? Click here to submit your story.

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Infrastructure Design

Transforming infrastructure design

With a growing world population, these innovative projects and teams demonstrated new ways of advancing BIM solutions by leveraging cloud and data capabilities to meet tomorrow’s ever-increasing resource and transportation challenges. Discover 5 award-winning projects that responded stronger to ever-increasing social, economic, and environmental demands.

Image courtesy of Atkins global and Arriyadh Development Authority

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Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

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Small Project

Designing better buildings

Image courtesy of Magnolia Quality Development Corporation

These amazing projects from around the world are celebrated for their ingenuity and ability to adapt and deliver forward-thinking solutions in their time while still helping us build better futures today. Celebrate the ingenuity of 5 award-winning projects from the last decade and discover their ability to evolve data and automation for better insights and outcomes.

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

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Small Project

Constructing for better outcomes

Image courtesy of China Construction Eighth Engineering Division.Corp.Ltd

With continued technological innovation happening across construction, these projects used new concepts and capabilities to connect multidisciplinary teams across the project lifecycle to build better, faster, and more sustainably. Explore 5 award-winning projects that used technology to unify a cross-disciplinary approach to building.

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

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Amr Raafat

Vice President of VDC & Technology at Windover Construction

Meet the virtual design and construction innovator who brought a new approach to modular construction to transform the offsite design prefabrication processes.

Meet Amr

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Meet Wajdi

Wajdi Mereb

Chief Specialist at RTA

Dubai’s transportation leader is making the organization a fully intelligent and integrated provider of smart, agile solutions.

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Meet Zhibing

Zhibing Mao

Chief Engineer at China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. and President of China Construction Engineering Design Group

Championing BIM is how this innovator is driving the growth of smart cities through a focus on collaboration, and improved planning and project delivery.

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Small Project

KIA Design Center, Europe

Driving innovation as an industry leader, Kia Design Center, Europe transforms its approach with collaborative design and VR for dynamic and responsive visualization.

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Small Project

H2GO Power

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Fueled by their mission to provide clean, reliable power from renewable resources, H2GO Power aims to reduce the aviation industry’s environmental footprint.

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Small Project

Edera Safety

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Pivoting during the pandemic, Edera Safety adopts digital technologies for collaboration, innovation, and faster product development.

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Small Project

Dar

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Dar reimagines the design and manufacturing process of large civil engineering structures, resulting in an AI-enabled “smart bridge.”

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Small Project

Coral Maker

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With the world’s coral reefs in grave danger due to climate change, Coral Maker delivers an innovative, scalable approach to restoring them.

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Small Project

Cortex Design

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Cortex Design delivers an intuitive rapid COVID-19 test that is simple to operate, inexpensive to manufacture at scale, and brings the accuracy of lab-based COVID-19 tests to the home.

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Small Project

Ali Chenari

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Ali Chenari is an Art Director and 3D Illustrator based in Toronto, Canada, who’s experience in the animation industry spans over 18 years. Always a fan favorite, Ali was featured as AREA’s Artist of the Month in April of 2021 for his outstanding 3D work. His subject matter showcases whimsical characters of all shapes and sizes that underscore an unapparelled level of creativity.

AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

Small Project

Samiha Dhifaoui

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Samiha is a 3D Visualization Artist and a trailblazer in the Design Visualization community. She was featured as AREA Artist of the Month in August of 2021 and led industry talks and workshops for some of the biggest design viz events. She also takes the opportunity to give back by sharing her knowledge to emerging artists as an instructor.

Small Project

Eloi Andaluz Fullà

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Eloi is a Vancouver based FX-artist with over 15 years of experience spanning from architectural visualization, advertising, visual mappings, and VFX. He strives to give back to the community in more ways than one - he creates learning content for the community, actively engages on forums and provides feedback that pushes the boundaries of creative tools.

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

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AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

Introduction

ARCHITECTURE, ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION

PRODUCT DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

submit your Story

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

Construction

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

Infrastructure Design

Building Design

Construction

Innovator of the Year

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Meet Wajdi

Wajdi Mereb

Chief Specialist at RTA

Dubai’s transportation leader is making the organization a fully intelligent and integrated provider of smart, agile solutions.

Lorem ipsum do

Meet Amr

Amr Raafat

Vice President of VDC & Technology at Windover Construction

Meet the virtual design and construction innovator who brought a new approach to modular construction to transform the offsite design prefabrication processes.

Lorem ipsumd

Meet Zhibing

Zhibing Mao

Chief Engineer at China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. and President of China Construction Engineering Design Group

Championing BIM is how this innovator is driving the growth of smart cities through a focus on collaboration, and improved planning and project delivery.

Lorem ipsumd

Meet Wajdi

Wajdi Mereb

Chief Specialist at RTA

Dubai’s transportation leader is making the organization a fully intelligent and integrated provider of smart, agile solutions.

Lorem ipsum do

Meet Amr

Amr Raafat

Vice President of VDC & Technology at Windover Construction

Meet the virtual design and construction innovator who brought a new approach to modular construction to transform the offsite design prefabrication processes.

Lorem ipsumd

Meet Zhibing

Zhibing Mao

Chief Engineer at China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. and President of China Construction Engineering Design Group

Championing BIM is how this innovator is driving the growth of smart cities through a focus on collaboration, and improved planning and project delivery.

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Engineering the Impossible

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Digital Transformation

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Collaboration

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Making a Better World

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

Industry Disruptor

Engineering the Impossible

Digital Transformation

Industry Collaboration

Making a Better World

Designing Through Crisis

AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

Design Visualization...

AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

AREA Artist of the Year

Design Visualization Community Leader

Creative Community Leader

Empowered by:

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“Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, I haven’t been able to fly overseas. But one day’s work can mean several days of travel and adjusting to time differences. Presenting virtually means time and resources saved. And the team’s design process can flow smoothly, without significant interruption.”

Industry Disruptor

Discovering the Next Phase of Collaborative Design with VR

www.kia.com

For KIA designers every second counts. Speed, flexibility, and adaptability are huge differentiators and collaboration is no longer just an in-studio process. With the integration of virtual reality into Autodesk VRED, it’s now possible for the team to have design discussions about the model with people outside the immediate team, including overseas studios. Reviews are much more seamless and productive especially for larger VR collaborations that allow the design team and key Korea executives to be in the virtual world together. VRED allows the team to react to requested changes immediately during a presentation—and those changes can be updated on the fly. This kind of quick, on-the-spot update was not possible in other real-time presentation software before. The KIA design team is using innovative new technology to maximum effect, reveling in the magic of virtual reality and reaping its benefits.

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Gregory Guillaume, Vice President of Design, Kia Design Center, Europe

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Empowered by:

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"Striving for a net zero emission world is the direction that we need to be looking at. Hydrogen is a very important candidate that could really get us there in time to achieve our climate decarbonization targets.”

Engineering the Impossible

Hydrogen-powered Drones Propel Path to Sustainable Air Travel

www.h2gopower.com

As aviation becomes a fast-growing source of global emissions, there is an increased demand and need for the industry to reduce its environmental footprint. It’s a massive challenge, but start-up H2GO Power believes it has a solution that can accelerate the decarbonization of air travel. Working with Autodesk, H2GO developed an additively manufactured reactor and heat exchanger that can safely store and release hydrogen gas to power a drone. The team used Fusion 360 and 3ds Max to design and optimize the reactor’s geometry and surface, incorporating goals around lightweighting, durability, efficiency, and safety. A hydrogen-powered drone can fly three times longer than a traditional battery-powered one, and it can also carry heavier payloads. The company’s hope is to provide an off-the-shelf solution that expands a drone’s commercial applications. But the long-term goal is to partner with airplane manufacturers to integrate its hydrogen storage solution into small aircraft and then into larger planes to ultimately power zero-emission aircraft and help decarbonize global aviation.

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Enass Abo-Hamed, CEO, H2GO Power

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Empowered by:

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“We wanted to create a mask to help keep service workers safe and healthy, and we knew we had to move quickly. Fusion 360 enabled us to collaborate as a team despite working remotely and shortened our production times significantly. Having these digital tools helped us get to market in record time and has created new business opportunities for us.”

Digital Transformation

Innovation in a Crisis: Rethinking Design and Manufacturing Processes

www.edera-safety.com

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Edera Safety came up with an innovative, transparent mask for service workers. But they needed to get it to the market fast. Like many companies, Edera had to quickly adapt to a new way of working and collaborating in remote locations. For the design of the new mask, cloud-based collaboration tools in Fusion 360 made it possible for the team to work on the project together, despite being dispersed around the country due to pandemic lockdowns. They could also begin sharing their designs with prototyping companies and their production partner in a seamless workflow. Previously, it typically took Edera two years to take a product from concept to the market. Using Fusion 360 as a single, cloud-based platform—from design all the way to production—enabled the team to design, prototype, and begin manufacturing the new mask in just three months.

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Thomas Saier, Founder and CEO, Edera Safety

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Empowered by:

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"We strongly believe 3D printing is here to stay. Combining it with the immense potential of generative design and AI technologies is what drives our commitment to delivering this unique project, and paving the way for a new era in engineering."

Industry Collaboration

Reimagining the Design and Manufacturing Process of Large Civil Engineering Structures

www.dar.com

DAR is the biggest engineering, design and project management consultancy in the Middle East and Africa who already know how generative design and additive manufacturing processes can reduce materials and waste. But the group wanted to take a bold step forward with a vision for the future of civil engineering design and manufacturing processes, starting with a collaborative research project. The Smart Bridge project is a pioneer in “smart construction,” scaling the generative design and 3D printing manufacturing process to AEC construction. An interactive pedestrian bridge made from Fibre Reinforced Polymer (or FRP) was conceived and realized through generative design, additive manufacturing, and robotic technologies. The bridge’s health will be monitored in real-time using a combination of embedded and external sensors that collect structural and environmental measurements. This AI data will feed into a digital twin of the bridge to provide valuable insights throughout its lifespan and inform future designs of 3D-printed large-scale FRP structures.

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Charles Malek, CIO, Lead Project Sponsor, Dar

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Empowered by:

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“Coral reefs are incredibly biodiverse and important ecologically. Their structure also protects our coastlines, providing a barrier to storms and coastal erosion.”

Making a Better World

Saving Coral Reefs with Additive and Traditional Manufacturing

www.coralmaker.org

Coral Maker is an Australian company that is taking a new, accelerated approach to restoring coral reefs, which are in grave danger due to climate change. Founder Taryn Foster, a coral biologist and avid diver, began to think about how she could use her research background to actively restore reefs. She then had a lightbulb moment with her scientific experience and her family’s business in the masonry manufacturing industry. What if the machines to make limestone blocks could be used to rapidly make safe skeletons for corals to inhabit? As part of Autodesk’s Technology Impact Program and the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network, the team designed and modeled a coral component in Fusion 360. Working across four different time zones, Fusion 360’s cloud platform has enabled collaboration on the same designs and access to the same data. Using cloud-based modeling and 3D printing prototypes prior to manufacturing, Coral Maker has created a scalable process for potentially millions of coral plantings.

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Taryn Foster, Founder of Coral Maker

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Empowered by:

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“We approach product design to provide the best human experience. Our design work for C-FAST will make it possible to not only make testing easier and more effective, but also have a broader effect on the world to reduce transmissions.”

Designing through Crisis

Easy and Accurate At-home COVID-19 Testing to Reduce Transmissions

www.cortex-design.com

The extreme challenges with COVID-19 testing are evident and still exist today. Often, testing is intrusive, hard to find, and slow to obtain accurate results. Cortex Design is designing a solution. Working with the Autodesk Technology Centers Outsight Network and collaborating remotely among teams, Cortex Design rapidly ideated and prototyped C-FAST in partnership with Raytheon, a leading technology research and development company, and Purdue University. C-FAST is an intuitive rapid COVID-19 test that is simple to operate, inexpensive to manufacture at scale, and brings the accuracy of lab-based COVID-19 tests to the home. Users apply a saliva sample to a paper-based biosensor housed within a disposable test cartridge. Then they place the cartridge in a small, portable heating device that produces a color change in about 35 minutes to indicate a positive result. The ease-of-use and accessibility with C-FAST provides a hopeful bright spot for widespread testing availability.

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Dylan Horvath, President and Founder, Cortex Design

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Empowered by:

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"I love to create and I believe the world would be a better place with fantastic artwork! So, let's make good art."

AREA Artist of the year

Ali Chenari

Art Director

Ali Chenari is an Art Director and 3D Illustrator based in Toronto, Canada, who’s experience in the animation industry spans over 18 years. He started in the industry working as a 2D and 3D artist and soon made his way up as an Animation Art Director. Ali recently founded his own animation studio, Nillian Animation, where his clients include the likes of Nickelodeon, DreamWorks TV, Unity Technologies, and more. He recently wrapped up his latest project Santiago Of The Sea, with Nickelodeon. Always a fan favorite, Ali was featured as AREA’s Artist of the Month in April of 2021 for his outstanding 3D work. His subject matter showcases whimsical characters of all shapes and sizes that underscore an unapparelled level of creativity.

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Ali Chenari

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Empowered by:

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"To me, CGI is computer graphics where the “I” is for Imagination. Release your soul on it, undress each skin layer to find your mysterious hidden desire. Discover the secret of the smallest shadow which somehow contains the entire universe. Jump into this industry, unleash your imagination, and create your universe. CGI is art - make it with love and passion!"

Design Vizualisation Community Leader

Samiha Dhifaoui

3D Visualization Artist

With over 8 years of experience, Samiha Dhifaoui is a creative professional working as a freelance interior designer and online instructor of image composition and rendering in the Arch-viz sector. She has worked for companies in Tunisia, Morocco, and Qatar where she focused on 3D visualization which helped her to realize various interior architectural and immersive solutions projects. Samiha is a trailblazer in the Design Visualization community. She was featured as AREA Artist of the Month in August of 2021 and has led industry talks and workshops for some of the biggest design viz events like 24 Hours of Chaos and the D2 Conference.

Samiha Dhifaoui

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Empowered by:

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Empowered by:

01 / 03

"A huge benefit from the internet and social media has been the democratization of 3D. Its easier than ever to learn and share knowledge from excellent artists from anywhere in the world."

Creative Community Leader

Eloi Andaluz Fullà

Visual Effects Artist

Eloi is a Vancouver based FX-artist with over 15 years of experience spanning from architectural visualization, advertising, visual mappings, and VFX. When he’s not busy freelancing for companies around the world, he’s probably working on some of the most impressive shots for the big screen at Scanline VFX. Eloi strives to give back to the community in more ways than one. He creates countless videos for his YouTube channel, where he shares 3ds Max tutorials and news to his 25.5K subscribers and counting. He is involved in many forums and acts as an active beta tester to push boundaries of creative tools. Eloi also co-founded Effective TDs Studio, offering tools, courses, and forums to exchange knowledge and inspiration. His commitment to the success of those around him make the M&E space an enriching and nurturing place for all.

Eloi Andaluz Fullà

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Empowered by:

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