Autodesk Inventor Program Key Part of Foley Freeze Success

Students Visited Autodesk Office to Show Appreciation

By Meghan Valade

In the past ten years, the Foley Freeze has built robots that can shoot, collect, and climb. All of these robots have one thing in common, Autodesk’s Inventor program has been used to design all of them.

 Autodesk’s educational licensing, provided for free to K-12 schools has saved the team an estimated $200,000 over the decade. To show the importance of the partnership, five members of the Foley Freeze Robotics team visited the Autodesk office this month in Novi to show off their designs. 

Autodesk is a U.S.-based, global software corporation that makes software services for architecture, engineering,  manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Their headquarters are in San Rafael, California, with offices worldwide.  

Autodesk has made it a priority to support youth in STEM and to help strengthen skills such as teamwork, leadership, and engineering. Autodesk’s support has helped the Foley Freeze be successful on and off the field. Students in the Design subteam will be able to use Inventor in college and future careers. 

“We showed them (Autodesk) everything we do with their program, showed them the improvements in the past ten years we have made using their program,” says Claire Kaptur, a member of the prototype subteam, commenting on the team’s Jan. 10 visit with Autodesk.

The Foley Freeze has won many awards over the years with the help of Autodesk and the plan is to continue to use the software well into the future.