Ping Fu - Inspiring Entrepreneurship
|
|
ICMR HOME | Case Studies Collection
Case Details:
Case Code : LDEN038
Case Length : 15 Pages
Period : 1996-2006
Pub Date : 2006
Teaching Note : Available
Organization : Raindrop Geomagic
Industry : IT, Manufacturing
Countries : USA
To download Ping Fu - Inspiring Entrepreneurship case study
(Case Code: LDEN038) click on the button below, and select the case from the list of available cases:
Price:
For delivery in electronic format: Rs. 300;
For delivery through courier (within India): Rs. 300 + Shipping & Handling Charges extra
»
Leadership and Entrepreneurship Case Studies
» Case Studies Collection
» ICMR HOME
» Short Case Studies
» View Detailed Pricing Info
» How To Order This Case
» Business Case Studies
» Area Specific Case Studies
» Industry Wise Case Studies
» Company Wise Case Studies
Please note:
This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.
Chat with us
Please leave your feedback
|
|
<< Previous
"Ping Fu represents the quintessential story of someone
coming to this country and using brains, ingenuity, and vision to overcome
adversity and make her company a success."1
- Dan Davies, Publisher of Business Leader Magazine, in
2005.
"She has an amazing ability to engage people's
imagination. It's almost hypnotic how she manages to engage people in her
vision."2
- Jon Fjeld, Executive Director, Duke University's Center
for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in 2005.
"When we first started, none of us knew how to run a
company. Ping has really grown at each stage. She always sees through to the
root of problems. It's easy for her to talk with both technical people and
business people - I think she has a real skill. Personally I enjoy talking with
her because she helps me clarify whatever I'm thinking about, she's a great
leader that way."3
- Mike Facello, Director of Research and Development,
Raindrop Geomagic, in 2005.
Shaping the Next Revolution
|
When small pieces of foam insulation broke free from the Discovery space
shuttle's external fuel tank during its launch,4
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)5 experts
immediately decided to carry out detailed assessment studies of the possible
damage to the protective tiles of the space shuttle. The tile damage seemed
minimal, but with the Columbia disaster6 preying on their minds, NASA
did not want to take any chances. The optical scanned images of the shuttle's
underside were sent to Houston7 where software, designed by a company
called Raindrop Geomagic (Geomagic), was used to create three-dimensional (3D)
models of the damaged tiles. An analysis of these models revealed that the
damage was not significant enough for repair.
|
|
If required, NASA could have used this software to recreate the exact nature of
damage on test tiles and evaluate their capacity to withstand the intense
heat and stress of shuttle re-entry. Robert Black, a senior engineer with
Geomagic, said, "They (NASA) evaluated several tools and said ours was the
fastest and most accurate. The driving factor was the speed we could do it
at."8
|
|
Thus Geomagic's software helped NASA quickly evaluate the extent of damage
and take suitable measures to ensure the safety of the crew. Ping Fu (Ping),
Chairperson, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Geomagic, was one of
the main drivers of Geomagic's success. Ping co-founded Geomagic along with
her husband, Dr. Herbert Edelsbrunner (Edelsbrunner), an expert in
computational geometry and algorithms. The company designed software that
helped users to automatically transform products from their scanned physical
form into a digital model. This technology, also known as Digital Shape
Sampling and Processing (DSSP), was believed to be the next killer
application with great potential for the future (Refer to Exhibit I for a
note on DSSP). |
Ping Fu - Inspiring Entrepreneurship - Next Page>>
|
|
