Autodesk CEO Wins CAD Society Award

Carl Bass wins Leadership Award for his emphasis on sustainable design initiatives.

Bass has pushed for progressive environmentally friendly policies within Autodesk, bringing awareness of energy and material consumption into the software tools the company sells.

"Only three years ago, environmental decisions as part of the product design process were not even part of the discussion for projects, partly because designers did not have any easy metrics to measure energy usage, material choices, or the carbon footprints," said CAD Society president Michael McGrath. "Carl has been instrumental in taking a small trend of sustainable design and making it into a mainstream consideration for engineers of all kinds."

The CAD Society Award for Leadership is given to an individual in the CAD industry whose outstanding technical and/or business leadership over the previous year has significantly contributed to the benefit of the CAD community.

The CAD Society also announced that Evan Yares, former president of the Open Design Alliance, is the winner of the 2008 Joe Greco Community Award. The annual Joe Greco Community Award goes to one person who has distinguished him- or herself by improving communication and developing community within the CAD industry.

Additionally, the society awarded its 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award to Evolution Computing founder Mike Riddle. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to an individual who has given a lifetime of outstanding technical and business contributions to the CAD industry.

Annual CAD Society Awards are presented at the Congress for the Future of Engineering Software (COFES), a yearly industry conference that takes place this month in Scottsdale, Arizona. The theme of the 2008 conference is sustainable design.