Episode Transcript
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0:00
hi and welcome to the Neil Ashton podcast.
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In each episode, we explained some of the fascinating ways that science and engineering
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are changing the world around us. We talk to leading engineers from elite level sports like cycling and Formula One
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to some of the world's top academics. To understand how fluid dynamics, machine learning supercomputing
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are bringing in a new era at Skibbereen, we also hear some of their life stories, their career advice
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and lessons they've learned on the way that I hope will be helpful to you two.
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So sit back and enjoy this episode
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in this first episode or precursor episode. I guess you call it.
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I wanted to really explain a little bit why I'm doing this podcast. What?
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The podcast is about the sort of people that I'll be talking to, the sort of topics,
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Um, who I am a bit of my background
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and yeah, just hopefully to set the the the scene a bit. Really. Um,
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you know, I I've always enjoyed
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doing public dissemination, you know, talking about science,
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and I and I really do think it's an important thing
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to spread the word about what people have done.
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What people are doing and and to motivate
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a new generation of of scientists and engineers. And and that's really one of my main
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aims of the podcast is hopefully you'll find some of the the content interesting.
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And it may motivate you either in your your current job just to
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continue what you're doing. And maybe if you're
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a student to to sort of motivate those final study time,
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maybe if you're even in school, it's It's an idea of what you could
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go on to achieve, so it's it's got some broad aims in that sense, but I'm hoping,
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really that this is interesting and entertaining,
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and this will be a long form podcast in the sense that most of these discussions
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are more than an hour long.
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So I fully appreciate that you may not be able to digest it all in one in one sitting. But
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I found it hard to sometimes edit these things because a lot of
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the people I've been speaking to have had such a long career that
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I wanted to give them the time that they deserve.
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So what is this podcast really about? Well,
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I first of all, I love
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sports um, I love Formula One. I love cycling,
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and I love how engineering
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has such an impact on those sports.
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So one of the key topics that I'll be covering in this podcast
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is to talk with people from Formula One.
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In fact, in this first season we have Pat Simmons,
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who's the current CTO of of Formula One and has a very illustrious
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career through, you know, Benetton
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Renault, Uh, before and after that and obviously
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Williams and Formula One itself now
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talking to him. I also talked to Tony Pannell,
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who has crossed both of those worlds with cycling in Formula One,
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somebody who led the British team to many success. Gold medals.
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He's also a professor at Cambridge University.
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Uh, but maybe what people don't know as much as he was the one
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who actually was in Formula One with with Jaguar,
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he was the sort of precursor to the Red Bull, and so has a lot of interesting
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discussions around that, and, uh, and also the FI A.
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He worked at the FI A during the time of Bernie Eccleston and Max Mosley
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also talked to people
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far more within Pacific Scientific domains, so I think one of the unique,
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but also maybe a little bit odd things about this
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podcast is it is gonna cover quite a broad area.
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So whilst there will be discussions with,
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you know, people at the top level of a sport or a certain type of, um,
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field like Tony or Pat and then it's going to be more sort of high level, I guess.
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But I also wanted to play true to my sort of community and origins, which is
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in computational fluid dynamics and aerodynamics,
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uh, and also high performance computing and to have deep dive discussions with those people. And
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whenever there's an episode like that And in fact, the first episode,
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um is is one of those with Doctor Floria, Mentor
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I, I, uh, I'll give a little bit of an upfront warning that, um,
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it is gonna get quite specific into into that area.
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Uh, and so that may be an episode.
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That's really only for people who have a particular passion or interest in
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in fluid dynamics or computational fluid dynamics.
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So it's gonna be a little bit of a a
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mixture between the two. So how how about me?
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So, uh, what's my brief background for people, Uh,
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and maybe why I'm talking in these areas.
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So maybe working backwards. So I I currently work for for Amazon Web services.
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Although I should say that this podcast is in, uh,
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does not represent their views and is done completely independently.
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So it's it's not associated with with AD BS or Amazon,
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but I But I work there now. And so I had the
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sort of very interesting of being from a cloud computing and tech,
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um, tech side I. I see a lot of what's going on around
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the world in in different organisations of different sizes.
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Uh, and I'm the worldwide tech lead for computer aided engineering
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so essentially trying to help both customers, but also internal people within AD,
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BS and Amazon to to understand
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and and use CFD and simulation methods combined with
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machine learning and HPC to solve really big problems.
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But I also am very active in in academia and before AWS
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I was at Oxford University and
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before that Manchester University, where I did a PhD in in tubs
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modelling, and I've tried very much to straddle between the industry and academia
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and and a as much as I can to try and, um,
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bring the two a little bit closer or to or to bridge the gaps.
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My background is very much in turbt modelling and, uh, external aerodynamics. I guess you would call it with with CFD.
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I spent some time working at, uh at NASA and NASA Ames
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and have the pleasure to still collaborate with a lot of folks from the
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aerospace side at NASA and Boeing and and and DLR and many of these other
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sort of organisations. Um, but but still have a a passion for for
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Formula One and and all things cars and and motorsport. And you'll see that theme
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come through in terms of, you know, the people that, uh, that that we'll speak to.
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So it's gonna be a little bit of a journey, Um, in anything that's, uh, a new endeavour.
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Um, I'll I'll take the feedback that I get from people and adapt.
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So this first season may be a little bit chaotic in places
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both from, uh, people that I interview, but also from a technology point of view
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microphones. It's all you know, a new world for me. And so I
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apologise upfront if, um, some of the episodes are maybe not as good quality as
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I would like them to be. You'll notice they've been recorded at different points in time this year.
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So there's a little bit of, uh, disjoint to the continuity of you know,
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what I'm wearing and how I'm doing these intros may be a bit different.
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These are gonna go out, uh, audio only through the normal podcast channels,
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but will also be the V. The full length video will be on YouTube as well.
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So if you prefer to watch, you can go to the YouTube channel.
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I think if you look for Doctor Neil Ashton, it will. It will come up in there.
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Or if you just want to listen to audio, you can do it through.
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Probably how you're getting it now, some Spotify or
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or apple and yeah, leave me comments. Let me let me know what you think. Um,
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keen to know the sort of people you'd like me to speak to, the sort of format
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that you like or dislike about this. And hopefully together we can
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yeah, create something that has some interesting conversations with people and also
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expand our knowledge. When I speak to these people, I actually learn a lot. Um, it's
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partly selfish. Some of the people I'm interviewing, I genuinely admire and like
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and I'm equally fascinated by what? What they're telling me.
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And I hope that comes across to you listening or or watching. So,
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yeah, they're gonna come out, um, every 1 to 2 weeks,
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this first season will be relatively short
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five or six episodes, and that's really just to see what you like, what you dislike.
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Uh, And then if if there is a positive reaction,
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then we'll we'll go forward and move into a
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the next one with hopefully, you know,
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even better technology wise and and and more interesting guests. So
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please enjoy these first episodes and, uh,
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look forward to maybe hearing some of your your feedback and reactions.
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Thanks very much. OK,
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