We look forward to October for a lot of reasons. Cooler weather, Halloween, cinnamon, and pumpkin spiced everything. At PADT, we love October because that is when we open our doors and celebrate all things Engineering and Manufacturing at Nerdtoberfest. This year was our biggest and best one because we had a record crowd and due to the contribution of the partners who joined us.
400+ People Can’t be Wrong?
At a time when everyone is so busy, we were humbled to have over 400 people register for the event and drive to Tempe to join us. We opened up at 4:00 p.m., and we had three students for ASU ready to get their name badges on then and there. Throughout the evening, old friends and new ones came and joined us for drinks and food, and then went inside to learn more about what we do at PADT.
Some of the most popular exhibits included:
- The PADT Demo Room – This is where we show off the latest 3D Printing Capabilities from Stratasys. It is always the most popular stop, and it was packed the entire time.
- The Product Development Lab – This is where we build and test the physical products we develop for customers. There was a robot, the Vivace Ultra skin treatment system, and some fun games and activities.
- In the Seminar Room, we had multiple tables showing Simulation, robotics programming with Ansys SCADE, scanning of various types, research from partners at ASU, and Oryx Additive.
- Back towards the manufacturing area, visitors found an exhibit on metal 3D Printing with EOS technology, our largest 3D Printer, the Stratasys F900, and an example of how you can use 3D Printing to improve your Pickleball game.
Skip down to the gallery below to see some pics we captured of the festivities.
One of PADT’s favorite food providers, AZ Barbeque Catering, was slinging wonderful sausages of various kinds till 7:00 p.m. Our hungry guests consumed 150 bratwurst, 220 Hotdogs, and 18 vegan dogs for a total of 388 meals served.
We Like to be Judged by the Company We Keep
Every year, we invite partners to join us at this open house and talk a bit more about what they are doing. The year we were pleased to be joined by:
- ASU 3DX Research Lab shared the work they are doing around bio-inspired design and 3D Printing.
- Prof Keng Hsu and Students from ASU shared their research in Additive Manufacturing.
- Oryx Additive talked about their 3D Printing Post Processing products.
- Purity Resource shared their technology used to recover and reprocess semiconductor chemicals.
- Aesthetic Biomedical demonstrated their Vivace Ultra skin treatment system developed with PADT.
- Delta Technology brought one of the robots they use to automate advanced manufacturing.
- Girl Gang Garage was able to bring the Iron Maven electrified classic Volvo.
- Both IceMOS and CMC Wireless, who are tenants in the PADT building, were also there.
That is not to mention the dozens of companies PADT works with every day who came to the event but didn’t have a display. When you get everyone in one place, it is a great time to reflect on the quality of the companies and people that PADT engages with.
This year, we were lucky enough to have an employee’s friend bring his drone and get some bird’s eye shots of what was going on.
Join Us in 2024 for Nerdtoberfest + PADT’s 30th Anniversary Open House
Everyone is always welcome at PADT. If your company or group would like to learn more or get a tour, contact us, and let’s something up.
We are already making notes for 2024 to make the event even better. And, that will also be our 30th anniversary so it will be even bigger and better. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, The PADT Pulse, to keep up with what we are doing every month, and to get details on our next event.
Here are just a few of the cool images we captured during the evening. Enjoy, and we hope to see you next year.
