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PODCAST SUMMARY: Pierre Baque of Neural Concept on leveraging AI and deep learning to accelerate product development

In a riv­et­ing episode of the eVTOL Insights pod­cast, host Jason Pritchard engages in a deep con­ver­sa­tion with Pierre Baque, Founder and CEO of Neur­al Con­cept.

The com­pa­ny, estab­lished in 2018, is mak­ing waves in the aero­space and advanced air mobil­i­ty mar­kets by lever­ag­ing AI and deep learn­ing to accel­er­ate prod­uct devel­op­ment. Here are the key insights from their dis­cus­sion:

Pier­re’s fas­ci­na­tion with tech­nol­o­gy and math­e­mat­ics took him from the Ecole Poly­tech­nique in France to con­duct­ing a PhD at EPFL in Switzer­land.

His expo­sure to the bur­geon­ing field of deep learn­ing, espe­cial­ly in com­put­er vision and three-dimen­sion­al data pro­cess­ing, served as a cat­a­lyst for found­ing Neur­al Con­cept. Bridg­ing his inter­est in engi­neer­ing opti­miza­tion and sim­u­la­tion with deep learn­ing, Pierre saw a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to rev­o­lu­tion­ize prod­uct devel­op­ment through a sym­bi­ot­ic approach to 3D data and sim­u­la­tion.

Neur­al Concept’s Mis­sion and Tech­nol­o­gy
Neur­al Con­cept aims to push the bound­aries of what tech­nol­o­gy can achieve in engi­neer­ing. Cen­tral to their mis­sion is the use of AI to auto­mate and accel­er­ate the design process.

Today, engi­neer­ing relies heav­i­ly on numer­i­cal sim­u­la­tions and com­put­er-aid­ed design (CAD), yet this process remains high­ly man­u­al. Neur­al Con­cep­t’s engi­neer­ing intel­li­gence plat­form seeks to auto­mate these process­es, allow­ing for rapid iter­a­tions and opti­miza­tions that tra­di­tion­al meth­ods can­not match.

Col­lab­o­ra­tions and Chal­lenges in the Aero­space Indus­try
A sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the dis­cus­sion revolved around Neur­al Con­cep­t’s work with aero­space giant Air­bus.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion start­ed ear­ly in Neur­al Con­cep­t’s his­to­ry and focus­es on sim­pli­fy­ing and accel­er­at­ing the air­craft design process, par­tic­u­lar­ly for sim­u­la­tions that can be time-con­sum­ing.

For instance, apply­ing AI has helped reduce the time it takes to pre­dict the pres­sure field on the exter­nal body of Air­bus air­planes, show­cas­ing how their tech­nol­o­gy can stream­line com­plex aero­dy­nam­ics sim­u­la­tions.

Address­ing Tur­bu­lence in Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty
A notable chal­lenge in aero­space is accu­rate­ly pre­dict­ing tur­bu­lence-depen­dent fea­tures.

Pierre men­tions the hybrid approach Neur­al Con­cept employs, com­bin­ing numer­i­cal sim­u­la­tions with phys­i­cal mea­sure­ments. This method lever­ages the strengths of both data-dri­ven and tra­di­tion­al sim­u­la­tion tech­niques, result­ing in faster and more reli­able pre­dic­tive mod­els.

Expand­ing Into the Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Mar­ket
Pierre high­lights that Neur­al Concept’s tech­nol­o­gy is not just lim­it­ed to large aero­space com­pa­nies. It holds sub­stan­tial poten­tial for small­er play­ers in the emerg­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM) mar­kets, such as eVTOL man­u­fac­tur­ers.

These com­pa­nies, often more dig­i­tal­ly native, are well-poised to lever­age Neur­al Con­cep­t’s AI-dri­ven opti­miza­tions. Neur­al Concept’s tools can aid in areas like aeroa­coustics for noise reduc­tion and ther­mal man­age­ment for elec­tric propul­sion sys­tems, cru­cial for the evolv­ing AAM land­scape.

Future Roadmap and Series B Fund­ing
Neur­al Con­cept recent­ly secured Series B fund­ing to bol­ster their tech­no­log­i­cal and prod­uct lead­er­ship.

This invest­ment will allow them to make strate­gic deci­sions in cus­tomer col­lab­o­ra­tions, fos­ter­ing sig­nif­i­cant part­ner­ships that can co-evolve with Neur­al Concept’s vision. Pierre empha­sizes the impor­tance of this fund­ing in main­tain­ing the company’s inno­va­tion momen­tum and expand­ing their foot­print, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the US mar­ket.

Final Thoughts and Invi­ta­tion for Col­lab­o­ra­tion
Pierre extends an invi­ta­tion for new col­lab­o­ra­tions, espe­cial­ly in the US, where Neur­al Con­cept has recent­ly estab­lished a team.

They are eager to work with part­ners who have robust data sci­ence capa­bil­i­ties and are look­ing to scale their engi­neer­ing efforts. For those inter­est­ed in explor­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties, Pierre wel­comes con­tact through email at either his address or the con­tact por­tal on Neur­al Concept’s web­site.

In sum­ming up, the con­ver­sa­tion sheds light on Neur­al Concept’s ground­break­ing work in apply­ing AI to aero­space engi­neer­ing. With their inno­v­a­tive approach­es, they are not just accel­er­at­ing the design and sim­u­la­tion process but are also set­ting a new stan­dard in the indus­try.

As they con­tin­ue to grow and expand, par­tic­u­lar­ly into advanced air mobil­i­ty mar­kets, Neur­al Con­cept seems poised to be at the fore­front of engi­neer­ing inno­va­tion.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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