Hello friends!
We are back in St. Petersburg and talk about the use of
digital production in real business and education. We will do this on the basis of a single institution - St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.
When I saw what the Polytech was doing, I was just shocked. This is the present future of digital production in Russia. Today they carry out orders of such companies as Porsche, Airbus, General Electric, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Tesla. These are real customers CompMechLab - engineering center, which is part of the structure of the Polytechnic.
In addition, the Polytechnic has a higher education on the subject of digital production.
We are in the engineering center CompMechLab, with us Yevgeny Belosludtsev, deputy director of the engineering center.
- Thank you so much for inviting me. First question: please tell me, how did you manage to conclude so many contracts with such well-known brands, while practically nobody knows about you?
- A bit of history - we have been working for 30 years, and it all began in 1987, when the Laboratory of Computational Mechanics was created, then the Engineering Center, the Institute of Advanced Technologies and now here is the Competence Center at the big Polytech. How did you - on the basis of competence. Here there is a volume and heavy detail. This is a classic bracket designed for classic machining -
milling . It can be optimized and under the same load, under which was created here so - light and compact. It will withstand the same load.
These are the advanced competencies of topological optimization. For all these 30 years we have worked on the frontier. As a university unit, we tried to use new technologies that are just emerging. For large companies, it is difficult to run after new technologies. And we have the opportunity to take the trial version, see what it is, students can experiment in this direction, in order to further integrate into the process faster. This is how we overtake other large companies.
- If you specify, the basis of your competence is
topological optimization ?
- The main thing is digital design and
modeling , one of which is topological optimization. We carry out calculations and, as they say, we create digital twins, taking into account thermal, electromagnetic fields, all types of mechanical loads, and so on.
The digital twin is a set of mathematical models that fully describe an object, for example, a car. They describe it at the moment when the car leaves the factory and they also accompany it throughout the entire life cycle.
A good example: robotization of production is when a designer constructs and an intelligent assistant works who suggests working moments.
- And if you talk about specific projects, can you share the most outstanding works that you have done for foreign companies?
- I'll tell you about the company, whose names are known. The first company is Boeing. In 2006, employees of the engineering center completed work for Boeing on the project Dreamliner. During the year they worked for the Moscow Boeing Design Center. Then it was nice to see how when you fly in an airplane, look at the wings and know that your calculations were also used in the calculation of the composite wings of this aircraft.
The second big project is Iter. The international project has been going on since 1985 - the development of a fusion reactor. Our experts are involved in calculations that relate to thermal and electromagnetic fields and calculations of strength. What is important is that there are several different types of fields, so there is a very high complexity of modeling. Just imagine how much confidence the team should have, since we were involved in this project and we are still participating in it, connecting at various stages of production.
- You did something for Tesla too - can we talk about it openly?
- We work not directly with Tesla. We worked through one of our customers who perform work for both Tesla, BMW, and Bugatti. We really did the work for these car companies.
- I know that you have a certain term that you entered. It sounds like “Special Forces Engineering” - I personally like it very much. Please tell us what you mean by this term?
- First I will tell you how this term appeared. It is known that the Russian education produces engineers more than demanded by industry. Our task, we still call this concept education 4.0, when the university prepares students so that they know more at the time of graduation, they can solve some kind of task that the company cannot solve. In this we see what universities are for. When a student knows advanced technology that can already be applied in work.
- And how can a person who thinks about the career of a modern engineer get to you as an entrant?
- We work like all universities. Now everything is moving in the direction of the 2 + 2 + 2 program, we have opened a set of magistracy. Therefore, of course, you can get to us according to the general scheme. Also, we are interested in all students who already participate in competitions, has ready projects.
- If the engineer has already received a degree in another university and wanted to get to you - is this real?
- We focus on competence. What a person can do, what experience he has, what projects, how he can work. As far as he understands what he is doing.
“Engineering Special Forces” are those who understand how software works, understands the requirements, special, key places. Regardless of whether they finished Polytech or not.
Friends, today I literally touched the future of digital production, what Polytech does and, in particular, CompMechLab is amazing. If you want to build a career in digital manufacturing, you know where to turn.