Dr. Rafael Fietzek (on the left) and Dr. Stéphane Foulard (on the right) are the co-founders and managing directors of Compredict. Rafael studied business engineering in Erlangen and has a PhD in mechatronics from the Technical University of Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt). Stéphane has a diploma in general engineering from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon (ECL), a master in mechanical and process engineering of the TU Darmstadt and a double PhD in mechatronics from the TU Darmstadt and the ECL. Compredict is a SaaS company based in Darmstadt (Germany) with a strong expertise in car engineering and dynamics, in signal processing and in machine learning. Compredict proposes an AI-based platform which digitalizes durability engineering by the use of virtual sensors. This enables to calculate precise load histories and usage profiles for the most important components of a vehicle. The approach aims at addressing three major topics: design optimization by the identification of lightweight potential, predictive maintenance by health prediction and end-of-life forecasting, and the value rating of used cars for second use and second-hand market. Compredict was already awarded several times and is part of the major startup accelerators worldwide.
Dr. Przemysław Kołakowski has been the CEO of Adaptronica since 2008. He graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology in 1994 and completed his Ph.D. in the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in structural mechanics in 1998. His research was on smart structures at the time, evolving towards applications in mechanical and transport engineering since he co-founded Adaptronica in 2008. Dr. Kołakowski has participated in numerous European and national R&D projects including one Marie Skłodowska Curie initiative already. Since 2013, he has also been involved in developments for space engineering, carried out by Adaptronica within contracts from the European Space Agency.
Powerflex is a company that collaborates with and supply industry (main aerospace and defence companies in Italy and Leonardo Group companies), research centres for systems and products design, realization and certification and testing phases. Main activities are related to development, production and qualification of special containers provided with shock and vibration isolating systems. Environmental qualification and testing engineering is its second core business for its own products and third parties.
The VibraTec group is an engineering, consulting, and research company, specializing in structural dynamics, vibrations and acoustics in various industrial fields. VibraTec’s know how is based both on experimental and simulation techniques, from large scale, multi-physics finite element modelling to experimental modal analysis and acoustic imaging. Its consulting activity is shared between diagnosis and troubleshooting, mechanical design, training and research. A large part of this activity is performed on the customer’s premises, making on-site measurements and diagnosis. The company’s size allows it to dispatch high-level, versatile experts to respond quickly to customer’s request. VibraTec’s customers are the R&D and maintenance services of many different industries such as railway, automotive, oil and gas, aeronautics, defence, mechatronics, energy… Assistance is provided at product’s design, development, and testing, as well as its integration in larger systems and along its life cycle. VibraTec’s staff is made of PhDs and engineers with a high level expertise in various fields related to dynamics, vibrations, and acoustics. Most of those men and women combine skills in measurements and simulation. The VibraTec group invests 20% of its turnover in R&D activities in form of internal development or taking part in collaborative research projects of various scale. VibraTec has the title “research company” delivered by the French Government (BPI), and regularly publishes results in peer-reviewed papers and conferences.
Dr. Jessica Neufond graduated in mechanical engineering from the Institute of Automotive and Transport Engineering (ISAT) in Nevers (France) in 2016, and recently completed her PhD with Ecole Centrale de Lyon (ECL) and the society Vibratec (France). She is specialized in gear noise and vibration, especially concerning planetary gear dynamic vibroacoustic behavior. During her PhD, she worked on an overall method to predict the whining noise of planetary gears, from the internal excitation generated by the meshing process to the vibratory state of the housing. The method used is based on the spectral iterative method, based on Joël Perret-Liaudet works (who take part on her thesis supervision). The numerical model developed was validate thanks to an experimental set-up on planetary gears set. She is currently working as a Simulation Dr-Ing at Vibratec.
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