Walk into the 3DEXPERIENCE Fab Lab on Dassault Systèmes’ Boston campus on any given day, and you’ll probably run into Sal Lama.
The lab isn’t actually his office; that’s in another building on campus. Nevertheless, as a mentor, he spends plenty of time there and has since it opened in 2017. Back then, to inaugurate the new space, Dassault Systèmes hosted a weeklong intensive course for employees to learn all about the space and the machinery it’s outfitted with.
“I was, of course, traveling that week,” said Lama, the director of product definition at SOLIDWORKS.
But shortly after, the company hosted an iteration of the well-known Fab Academy course. The 20-week program, which was spawned from the famous How to Make Almost Anything class at nearby MIT, was a pivotal moment for Lama. Because of it, he became a mentor in the lab, a role he fills with an incredible amount of enthusiasm.
Today, he uses the skills he garnered in that course – and in his 25-year career with the company – to empower others. He gets really excited talking about the projects people have asked for his help with, large and small. While most people in search of mentorship go through the lab’s chain of command by reaching out to one of the official 3DEXPERIENCE Lab staff members, Lama often simply gets approached by people who wander in looking for help. And unlike mentors in the various 3DEXPERIENCE labs around the world, Lama works primarily with individuals, not start-ups.
The nature of the work is stimulating, and he lights up seeing how people appreciate the work he can help them produce. One of the most pivotal experiences in his mentorship journey so far has been his work with the Magic Wheelchair program.
Since 2018, Magic Wheelchair has teamed up with SOLIDWORKS to create customized costumes for children in wheelchairs. Lama has been a part of the program since the beginning.
In the first year of the project, he and his team worked together to build a wheelchair for a boy named Jonah.
“We built the coolest magic wheelchair costume of a giant monster truck, and if that wasn’t enough, we gave it to him at a monster truck rally. And it was just crazy to see, watching him light up and tear around the parking lot,” Lama said.
“It was just epic, the act of just making something for someone else,” he added.
Looking back on the work he’s done so far and the achievements he’s helped others make, he credits a lot of it to the culture at Dassault Systèmes.
“I’ve always found that the company supports employees who want to do these kinds of whack job things,” Lama said.
The environment of the fab lab is extremely conducive to making those “whack job things” that Lama is talking about. Stroll through the space, and you’ll see the latest Magic Wheelchair that Lama and his team are working on, materials from some of the start-ups being incubated in the lab, and even a 3D-printed squirrel that Lama himself helped this writer make.
Coming from a family of educators, you could say that his inclination to help and teach others is simply in his DNA. But he doesn’t just want to assist—he hopes to encourage others to do the same.
“I’d love to see a day when we have 50 mentors,” he told me. And he’s got ideas on how to make that happen.
Lama loves being a mentor, and he’s on a mission to share his enjoyment of teaching with his lifelong appreciation of CAD software. In addition to his work in the lab and with SOLIDWORKS, he’s also spent the last two years creating a Youtube channel called Our Next Make. The videos he produces with his wife and SOLIDWORKS co-worker, Chin-loo Lama, aim to inspire the next generation of makers by showcasing how different tools can be leveraged to create almost anything under the sun.
Through his work on social media, in the lab, and even on college campuses where he often presents to students, he’s drumming up excitement for the next generation of makers.
“If we can inspire the next generation to continue to use our software, that’s good for everyone,” Lama said.
Sal Lama is part of a cohort of Dassault Systèmes employees lending their knowledge to ground-breaking start-ups and innovators. Check out how some of his other colleagues are driving progress.
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