Podcast With Frank Mill of University of Edinburgh

Nearly five years ago when I was researching this thing called “social media”, I came across a Solid Edge network on Ning for students at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Today I got to chat live with the man behind it. Meet Frank Mill, a senior lecturer, who is presenting on building successful collaborations between academia and industry at Solid Edge University next week. He’s a long time Solid Edge user since version 2.





Listen to our podcast.

In the podcast, Frank talks CAD, academia-industry collaboration, shape optimization research, technology in the classroom, and what he looks forward to at Solid Edge University next week.

Frank took a break from academia to work for a Solid Edge reseller years ago. He says that experience taught him a lot about successful collaborations. With his PhD in shape optimization, Frank is also a director of ShapeSpace.

The only time I’ve visited Edinburgh was in 2000 – the same year Frank earned his doctorate. I told Frank one fond memory I have was a Scottish band playing Johnny Cash for us. It was their tribute to the Americans in the crowd. Turns out Cash has some Scottish royal descent in his family tree. Frank says they would be delighted to claim Cash as Scottish. Frank’s son is a bit jealous of him visiting Nashville next week. His son plays quite a bit of Cash in his band.

Frank’s favorite Cash song is one of mine too – “One Piece At a Time.” I imagine that song is even funnier for a guy with a passion for shape optimization since the man in the story was trying to optimize and build a car from 20 years of car parts ;-).

Maybe I can talk Frank into singing a Cash karaoke in Nashville. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, let me know what questions you have about shape optimization or Solid Edge in the classroom that I can ask Frank in person next week.

– Dora