Amar Hanspal, Sr. VP, Platform Solutions and Emerging Business, at Autodesk spoke at Fusion ‘07 today about the 25-year history of computer-aided simulation. iRise looks to companies like Autodesk as paving the way for the market and need for simulation prior to any type of development (i.e. hardware, software, architecture).

Listen to Amar’s entire presentation at the iRise conference (Time: 32 minutes).

Hanspal walked a little through the history of computer-aided modeling and admits that most people who know his company, Autodesk, immediately label it a CAD or computer-aided design company. But Hanspal does not view his company as a CAD company, but rather a company that allows for computer-aided innovation.

Hanspal says Autodesk’s mission is more than just design, but rather to to create digital models that not only look like the real world object but also behave like the real world object. It’s not just the look, the feel, but the behavior to outside stimuli is what’s important to their customers. Autodesk lets you start creating “What if?” scenarios. Once you begin that line of real world questioning is when you get true innovation.