Colin Austin (born 1940) is an Australian award-winning researcher, engineer, and inventor of

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquartered ...

product Moldflow Plastics design software.

Biography

Colin graduated from

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

in 1963. He worked as an R & D Manager for Johns Hydraulics then worked as lecturer for

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering cla ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia. In 1978 Colin Austin founded company Moldflow (currently a subsidiary of Autodesk) devoted to simulation of

injection molding Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...

. Colin developed Moldflow Plastics design software that transformed the international design of plastics moulds using scientific principles rather than 'gut feel'. After many years he became the most successful exporters of technical software in Australia, and more than 48 countries in the world used his software. In 1997 Colin Austin founded a company named Waterright devoted to simulation of

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been dev ...

and producing soil sensors and software to fix common irrigation problems.

Award

He received numerous awards, including: *1980: John Derham Award for Technical Innovation *1982: National Small Business Award *1983: Governor of Victoria, Export Award *1984: Governor of Victoria, Export Award *1984: Dept of Trade in Association with Confederation of Australian Industry's Export Award for outstanding achievement. *1993: AITA Exporter of the year award *1997: Fred O.Conley Award for outstanding achievement in plastics engineering &technology *2002: Triannual Plastics Industry Award for contributions to the plastics industry *2002: SPE Environmental Award *2002: SaveWater award winner agricultural section *2003: SaveWater award Regional Sustainability

Books

* * *

References

1940 births Living people Australian engineers Australian chairpersons of corporations {{Australia-business-bio-stub