Scott Harris

Distinguished Partner for Engineering & Entrepreneurship

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education

  • BSME, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Since the early 1980’s Mr. Scott Harris has worked in engineering and design automation software development. 

Mr. Harris's most recent project is the co-founding of a new CAD software company called Onshape. As vice president of Product Definition and User Experience for this venture-funded start-up, Mr. Harris and his team are creating an new type of CAD/PLM system.  As a Co-founder of SolidWorks Corporation and vice president the New Product Concepts Group, Scott led the team that developed products and prototypes that pushed the boundaries of user-interface, surface representations and modeling metaphors. Before SolidWorks, Mr. Harris led product definition and geometry development teams for 10 years at Computervision, an early pioneer in the CAD industry. Starting his career at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, designing analyzing and testing jet engine components, he developed innovative new computer techniques to define and evaluate aerodynamic surfaces for jet engine nacelles. Mr. Harris has published papers and articles on geometric modeling and was the 2012 recipient of the Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Mr. Harris has been involved with several startup companies in the fields of computer aided design, 3D printing, interactive 3D displays, hybrid automobiles, and Alzheimer’s patient tracking. Scott is committed to community service and devotes his time to promote education, engineering and entrepreneurism in the developing country of Rwanda, helping to establish a small company called Gasabo 3D. Using advanced CAD techniques, Gasabo 3D provides 2D to 3D translation services for companies who want to take 2D blue print drawings and create 3D CAD models. Gasabo 3D provides a career pathway for students from the ETO trade school system and the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology (KIST). Additionally, Scott is on the Technical Review Board for the Rwandan Innovation Endowment Fund (RIEF), a UN sponsored program that promotes and funds entrepreneurs through out Rwanda. Mr. Harris is a co-founder of Team SolidWorks, a cycling organization that now has 75 members and has raised over $4 Million dollars for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He is also a board member of the Central Massachusetts Search & Rescue Team, a volunteer group, aiding state and local authorities in the search for missing people in New England’s back country.