Grossly paraphrasing, Mr. Kross, but here are a few blips that I jotted down.

“Digital Prototyping is Innovation…”

“..if you make a physical prototype, you are limiting innovation…”

“..much more design choices can be made if Digital Prototyping is used…”

This was echoed by an awesome presentation by Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites. His presentation was really interesting. Paraphrasing a bit, but a big take away for me in regards to design engineering in a troubled economy.

“…breakthroughs occur when we are threatened, during the bad times, not the good times…”

He gave a reflection of the 1960w when we put a man on the moon. It was a fragile time- fear of the cold war, Cuban missile crisis, unpopular Vietnam war etc, yet INNOVATION still occurred.

So, yes, times are tough. But, there is plenty of opportunity out there to come out on top and fix what is broken. The tools are there, we as engineers need to use them smartly and get back to the basics and innovate. Lead the charge and show the world what we are all about.