CDFAM Computational Design Symposium

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Luis Salazar Betancourt · Tech Soft 3D

Advances in computational design and additive manufacturing have enabled increasingly complex geometry, but industrial AI adoption remains constrained by a fundamental challenge: relating CAD design data to manufacturing behavior and downstream business processes. Geometry, process data, and enterprise information are typically analyzed in isolation, making it difficult to understand how design decisions propagate across the product lifecycle.

HOOPS AI addresses this by transforming CAD and manufacturing data into unified, AI-ready representations built on the HOOPS platform. The approach focuses on extracting stable geo...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Maria Claudia Valverde Rojas · University of Stuttgart, IntCDC

This presentation introduces a design and research framework that integrates geometry generation with real-world climatic and ecological data to support more-than-human thermal comfort in the exterior of building envelopes. Over the past two years, I have developed architected porous cellular structures, periodic and non-periodic, based on adaptive density minimal surfaces (ADMS) and triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS). These structures serve as protective envelopes for nesting tubes used by cavity-nesting wild bees. The novelty of this work lies not in the digital modelling its...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Nikolas Borrel Jensen, Oliver Littlewood · Pasteur Labs

Real multiphysics necessitates coordination along multiple dimensions: one is of course the mixed physics, another is the heterogeneous data types & modeling approaches, and a third is the multidisciplinary (mis)communication. AI shoved into engineering workflows does not eliminate these gaps, rather it exacerbates them. For instance, numerical solver outputs and ML data structures are incompatible, with no shared representations to bridge them. At the human level, CAE experts, Mech/Aero/Nuclear Engineers, Systems Engineers, and AI/ML Engineers all operate in different conceptual fra...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Wasil Rezk · BeyondMath

A new generation of AI models is emerging — not just faster approximators, but intelligent systems that understand and generate physics.

This talk explores how foundational physics AI breaks from the surrogate modeling paradigm. Unlike models that rely on customer-provided simulation data or narrow datasets, BeyondMath’s models are trained on self-generated data rooted in first principles — not interpolating outcomes, but learning the physical laws and structure of the design space itself.

This approach enables something radically new: generalizable, physics-consistent predictions at near-CFD fidelity, delivered...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Shahroz Khan · Compute Maritime

Water transport, which accounts for approximately 90% of global trade, is essential to economic growth but poses a significant environmental challenge. In 2020, shipping emitted 1.4 billion tonnes of CO₂, nearly 3% of global emissions. Without decisive action, this figure could rise to 18% by 2050. To address this, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is increasing regulatory and financial pressure on industry stakeholders to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030 through the adoption of innovative technologies.

Achieving these targets requires optimising vessel performance from design through to operation. In fact, 80% of a...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Max Gaedtke, Markus Lempke · nTop, Siemens Energy

Turbine blade thermal management demands tight coupling between design exploration and high-fidelity simulation—yet traditional workflows separate these domains, limiting the design space that can be practically explored.

We present an integrated parametric optimization framework enabled by nTop’s robust implicit geometry engine. Field-driven design representation eliminates mesh regeneration between design variants, while a Lattice Boltzmann Method formulation for conjugate heat transfer removes the need for explicit fluid-solid interface handling. This architectural unity—implicit geometry paired with interface-agnostic thermal transport—permits fully autom...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Thomas Rees · ToffeeX

Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence have enormous potential as tools for generative design in engineering. However, most industry efforts remain stuck in research prototypes, brittle bespoke models, or disconnected add-ons that rarely survive real engineering workflows. In this talk, we will present an engineer’s approach to integrating machine learning directly into production-ready generative design tools, drawing on our experience building the fastest physics-driven thermo-fluid optimization platform on the market. Rather than replacing physics with opaque black boxes, our methodology uses ML only where it strengthens engineering outco...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Wesley Essink · Siemens Digital Industries Software

Engineering design is increasingly shaped by diverse sources of data (e.g. scans, images, measurements, simulation, requirements, reference geometries etc.). Traditional geometry modeling approaches often struggle to integrate these datasets in a flexible and scalable way. Implicit modeling offers a powerful alternative: a geometry representation that naturally incorporates engineering data into the modeling process as spatially varying fields capable of driving local and global design behavior.

This presentation explores how Simcenter Inspire leverages implicit modeling to create robust, data-driven design workflows. Showcasing met...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Rhushik Matroja · Cognitive Design Systems

Mechanical engineering has been limited by the capabilities of traditional CAD software, most of which are built on architectures that are more than 30 years old. How can we design the products of the next 30 years using technology created three decades ago?

AI can introduce a real paradigm shift in how we conceive and develop products, but engineers must remain at the centre of the process. As an engineer, I know that the workflow is often more important than the final result. A great res...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Jon Wilde · Simscale

Simulation is central to engineering decision-making, yet in many organizations it remains an expert-driven activity rather than a scalable capability embedded across new product introduction (NPI). As product complexity grows and timelines compress, the key challenge shifts from solver accuracy to workflow coordination: when to simulate, at what fidelity, and how results inform decisions.

This talk introduces agentic engineering workflows — AI-driven systems that guide simulation tasks, recommend appropriate model fidelity, and support interpretation while remaining grounded in validated physics. By combining Engineering AI with Physics AI, t...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Moritz Rietschel · Raven

Twenty years of community-built Grasshopper infrastructure, decades of firm knowledge, scattered documentation, and forum posts that solved your problem in 2011.

The problem has never been capability - it has been access.

Raven is a code agent for Grasshopper that works across 900+ plugins through the native API. Rather than replacing existing tools, it functions as an infrastructure layer: connecting users to what was already there.

Moritz Rietschel walks through what it actually takes to build AI that works with CAD. How do you...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Anne Pasman, Emmy Kerssen · Saxion Hogeschool

CPAP therapy is used to treat patients with sleep apnea by providing constant air pressure through a mask during sleep. For many patients (75,4%), standard masks fit poorly or require tight adjustment, causing issues such as pressure points or leakage resulting in dry eyes, skin irritation, and finally even therapy discontinuation (30%). Personalized CPAP masks can improve fit and comfort and reduce leakage.

However, early designs face challenges due to the interaction between soft facial tissue and mask materials. During sleep, facial deformation and mas...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Michele Pescatore, Carol Fanjul · AiA Life Designers

Michele Pescatore and Carol Fanjul of AiA Life Designers present a simulation-driven workflow that brings environmental analysis into the earliest stages of architectural design, where decisions have the greatest influence on a project's environmental performance but actionable feedback is usually missing.

Conventional environmental tools require detailed BIM models or expert-level parametrization, so studies become outdated as a project evolves. To close that gap, AiA Life Designers built a streamlined Revit plug-in using Rhino.Inside.Revit, Grasshopper, and the open-source Honeybee and Lad...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Verena Vogler · McNeel Europe

Verena Vogler introduces Rhino.Ecologic, an ecological simulation framework for Rhino and Grasshopper built for landscape architects and urban planners working in computational design. The plugin integrates ecological simulation into existing 3D modeling workflows to support nature-inclusive strategies at large and small scales.

The presentation covers how the tool generates location and time specific 3D species distribution maps alongside biomass and biodiversity simulations, supporting data-driven ecological decisions throughout the design process. It includes an overview of the plugin, an introduction to ecological simulation in AEC...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Mary Baker · Palace 3D

Computational geometry has advanced considerably. Color and texture in additive design have not kept pace. As multi-material hardware and capable file formats become more accessible, programming color and texture directly into the design workflow is emerging as a meaningful new capability.

Mary Baker draws on her experience building out that toolset at Palace 3D and previously at HP Inc., covering effects that traditional modeling tools cannot easily produce:

- Embedded data: hidden messages and encoded information within a part's surface

- G...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Oluwaseyi Sosanya · Gravity Sketch

Spatial computing is regularly framed as a future breakthrough. In certain workflows, it is already delivering measurable value.

Oluwaseyi Sosanya examines where immersive technologies are making a tangible impact in product development today, with particular attention to cable harnessing and automotive clay modeling. These are workflows where teams still depend on physical prototypes to evaluate critical decisions. Spatial tools enable earlier, more confident decision-making by improving spatial understanding and reducing costly physical iteration.

The talk also addresses the practical realities of building for...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Rebeka Melber · Istari Digital

AI coding tools didn't just accelerate software development — they changed who gets to build. A comparable shift is underway in hardware.

Rebeka Melber examines how AI paired with connected engineering infrastructure is lowering the barrier to hardware innovation. The argument isn't that AI replaces deep expertise. It's that it expands who can contribute meaningfully to the design process — and earlier in it. When more of the right people can engage at the right time, ideas move faster and better solutions emerge from places they otherwi...

CDFAM Computational Design Symposium — Barcelona 2026

Javier Blanco Cordero · Quix

Engineering teams have found AI useful for discrete tasks: SQL queries, graphs, summaries. Higher-value work, root cause analysis, physics-based ML, production deployment, remains out of reach. The standard diagnosis is that the models need to improve. Javier Blanco Cordero's experience points the other way: the models are already sufficient. The infrastructure surrounding them is not.

Using a real rotor balancing case involving 50,000 rotors per year, this talk walks through what it takes to move AI from task-level support to autonomous engineering investigation. With the rig...

Quercus Hernández · Emmi AI

Recorded at the CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, Barcelona 2026.

In this episode

Presentation Abstract

Engineering is entering a new paradigm where AI is no longer limited to accelerating isolated simulations, but is becoming a foundational layer of the industrial design and manufacturing stack. Across sectors such as automotive, energy, semiconductors, and aerospace, engineering workflows remain constrained by slow simulation feedback loops, fragmented CAD-to-CAE pipelines, and computational bottlenecks that limit design exploration and innovation speed.

In this talk, we present the vision of Large Engineering Models de...

Beyond Parametric: Explorable Simulation for Real Design Iterations

Presentation Abstract

Design space exploration promises engineers the ability to evaluate thousands of variants in hours. The prerequisite—rarely discussed—is building a parametric geometry model that won’t break. This front-loaded investment assumes you know your design space before exploring it. Real engineering iteration isn’t parametric. Design changes are structural and topological: fundamentally different geometries evaluated against the same performance criteria.

Setup time, not simulation time, is the real bottleneck in enabling simulation-driven exploration for real engineering teams.

At Generative Engineering, this is...

Deterministic engineering analysis assigns fixed values to loading conditions, geometry, and material properties. The approach is tractable, but it forces a choice between conservative overdesign and exposure to failure modes that fall outside assumed limits. Neither outcome is satisfying.

Greg Grigoriadis of Metisec describes a design toolkit that replaces fixed inputs with statistical distributions and runs Monte Carlo simulations across the resulting parameter space. The output is a probabilistic picture of performance: failure probabilities, sensitivity rankings, and the specific conditions that actually drive risk.

A sensor mounting bracket for a smart wearable serves as the...

Body-in-White development sits at the intersection of structural performance, manufacturability, and schedule pressure — and traditional workflows are increasingly strained by the pace of platform proliferation and regulatory demands. This episode examines how SEAT/CUPRA is modernizing BIW development through Synera’s Multi-Agent System (MAS), connecting CAD, CAE, and manufacturing processes within a unified automation framework to accelerate iteration and improve engineering traceability.

Tilman Steininger, Customer Success Manager for Agentic Engineering at Synera, and Juan De Dios Escribano Felguera, Team Lead for Body-in-White and Corrosion Development at SEAT/CUPRA, present their collaborative work digitizing structural development work...

The gap between geometric modeling and structural simulation has always been a workflow problem as much as a technical one. Every time a designer changes a shape, the mesh breaks, boundary conditions need redefining, and the simulation has to be rerun from scratch. At the scale of iterative or generative design workflows, that overhead compounds quickly.

In this episode recorded at CDFAM Barcelona 2026, Johannes Mueller-Roemer presents SubSimX, a pipeline that addresses this by treating subdivision surfaces as a native simulation medium rather than a preprocessing step. Designers work on a standard Catmull-Clark control mesh. Meshing and boundary...

Topology optimization has long been constrained by the computational cost of working at meaningful scale. For architectural and civil engineering applications — where domains span tens of meters and element counts run into the millions — that constraint has made high-fidelity structural synthesis largely impractical on standard hardware.

In this episode recorded at CDFAM Barcelona 2026, Raul C. Llamas-Sandin presents a GPU-accelerated solver that addresses this directly, reducing solve times for large-scale problems to minutes on a workstation. He covers the key technical features that make it relevant for the built environment: asymmetric tension-compression stress constraints, thermoelastic analysis, and geometric cons...

Most 3D generative AI has been built to produce things that look right. Hao (Richard) Zhang argues that for the built environment, that is the wrong objective. Buildings must function — and that means AI systems need to reason about spatial relationships, load paths, equipment routing, and regulatory constraints, not just geometry.

In this episode recorded at CDFAM Barcelona 2026, Richard introduces Functional AI as a framework for 3D design automation and walks through Augmenta’s work applying it to real building projects. The technical scope covers agentic AI for MEP path finding, generative modeling of complex stru...

Mike Frei, of ARENA Physica, joins CDFAM Barcelona 2026 to discuss the company’s AI foundation model for electromagnetism and what it means for the future of electronic hardware design.

Mike brings an unusual combination of deep physics intuition - PhD from Columbia studying geometry and electron behavior at the molecular scale - and operational experience from McKinsey and C-suite roles at Swiss aerospace and defense company RUAG. That background informs Arena’s approach to reimagining electromagnetic simulation across semiconductors, aerospace, and automotive sectors.

The conversation covers how Arena is building what they call Artificial Intuition for...

Pablo Hermoso Moreno, Senior Solutions Architect at NVIDIA, joins CDFAM Barcelona 2026 to discuss how AI is reshaping Computer-Aided Engineering workflows.

Pablo draws on his background in aerospace engineering, aerodynamics at Mercedes F1, and cloud-scale AI at AWS to frame where CAE bottlenecks actually live - and what NVIDIA is doing about them. The conversation covers AI physics and surrogate models for real-time simulation feedback, the role of digital twins, and how agentic AI built on the NVIDIA NeMo stack is automating end-to-end engineering workflows.

He also walks through the AI-Q Blueprint, a production-ready enterprise research...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:MITPresenter:Alfonso Parra RubioCrease, Fold, Transform. Presentation AbstractFolding is a fundamental process found throughout nature on multiple scales. Rather than altering the material itself, folding transforms its shape, offering a powerful means of engineering without compromising integrity.This presentation explores, from an engineering and design perspective, the unique potential of folding and discrete assembly as a design and manufacturing tool across multiple scales in engineering.From millimeter-scale bulk cellular materials to meter-scale structural corrugations and actuated robotic systems, and ultimately to...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

OrganizationPrinceton UniversityPresenter:Tuo ZhaoSuper-Modular Chiral Origami MetamaterialsPresentation AbstractMetamaterials with multimodal deformation mechanisms resemble machines, especially when endowed with autonomous functionality. A representative architected assembly, with tunable chirality, converts linear motion into rotation (1). These chiral metamaterials with a machine-like dual modality have potential use in areas such as wave manipulation, optical activity related to circular polarization and chiral active fluids. However, the dual motions are essentially coupled and cannot be independently controlled. Moreover, they are restricted to small deformation, that is, strain ≤2%, which li...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization: STILFOLD

https://www.stilfold.com/

Presenter:Julia HannuGreener by Every Fold. Strength in Every Curve. Presentation AbstractThis talk introduces STILFOLD’s innovative origami-inspired manufacturing process, where metal sheets are folded into form. The process uses both straight and curved crease folding, expanding the possibilities of how sheets can be transformed into products. This, to make curved crease folding accessible to a wider community of designers and engineers – moving it from a niche research technique into a scalable indu...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

OrganizationTetmet

https://www.tetmet.net/

Presenter:Rachel AzulayConformal Lattice Design Made Easy: A CAD-Integrated ApproachPresentation AbstractTETMET has developed an innovative process to produce large-scale lattice structures in an automated way, enabling applications across multiple industries.However, existing lattice design software has significant limitations, particularly when it comes to creating efficient, manufacturable conformal lattice structures. Most available tools were developed with general 3D printing in mind, offering only basic latticing capabilities that fail to meet the demands of more...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

OrganizationScawo3DPresenter:Philip Schneider + Timo ZollnerComputational Design for Assembly: Automating Design Workflows for 3D Concrete Printed Freeform StaircasesPresentation AbstractBuilding large freeform reinforced concrete staircases has always been a challenge. Traditional methods rely on labor-intensive wooden or EPS formwork, making many designs too expensive. This can be changed with Selective Paste Intrusion, a new 3D concrete printing technique by Scawo3D using a large particle bed, with no constraints related to print overhangs or angles.While fabrication now allows full geometric freedom, the design process...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/nTopBradley RothenbergFrom 3 Configurations to 300: Rapid Trades for Advanced Aircraft DesignPresentation AbstractAircraft development timelines have collapsed from 7 years to 18 months, but design tools still assume you have years to iterate. The result: teams freeze architecture in week 2, before they understand the design space, and spend the rest of the program managing the consequences.The core problem is going from requirements-to-design is just too slow. Serial design evaluations, manual CAD updates that fail to parametrize correctly, and expensive simulation cycles create weeks-long iteration loops.nTop solves this through...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:

Pasteur Labs

Presenter:

Alexander Lavin

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Simulation Intelligence

Presentation Abstract

Scientific rigor & engineering reliability have always been important yet contentious topics in the AI field. Recent AI trends crank up model sizes, but at what costs? Transparency and verifiability, amongst others that are core to industrial R&D—not to mention the massive spending. These costs are perhaps felt the most in physics simulation and digital engineering. Enter si...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:

ARENA-AI

Presenter:

Pratap Ranade

Artificial Intuition: Building an AI Mind for Electromagnetic Design

Presentation Abstract

Most advances in computational design focus on mechanical structure — domains we can visualize and have evolved an intuition for. But as modern hardware becomes increasingly software defined, the unseen and unintuitive world of electromagnetism is taking center stage. Conventional solvers can simulate fields, yet they cannot imagine new ones. In this talk, I’ll share how we’r...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:

University of Southern California

Presenter:

David Gerber

Digital Twining a Living Lab

Presentation Abstract

The Living Lab Project is an innovative Viterbi initiative designed to enhance academic research and provide practical learning experiences through real-time monitoring and analysis of the new Ginsburg Hall building. Leveraging sensors embedded in the building’s systems and integrating cutting-edge digital twin technology, this project captures and analyzes data on energy usage, water consumption, building health an...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:

CORE studio | Thornton Tomasetti

Presenter:

Sergey Pigach

Engineering Intelligence: Practical Applications of AI in Structural Engineering Practice

Presentation Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant future. It is actively shaping how structural engineers work, collaborate, and innovate. This session offers a practical look into how Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio is advancing AI integration within the firm, with a focus on real-world tools and workflows that enhance engineering practice. Attendees wi...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization:

NVIDIA

Presenter:

Ian Pegler

Keynote Presentation: How NVIDIA Is Accelerating Product Development

Presentation Abstract

Computational simulation and design have transformed product development by significantly reducing time and costs. However, designing complex products remains a challenging and resource-intensive process.

In this presentation, we will explore key industry challenges and demonstrate how NVIDIA is leveraging innovative solutions to address them. Specifically, we will highlight the use of accelerated computing to enable...

Recorded at CDFAM Computational Design Symposium, NYC, October 29-30, 2025https://cdfam.com/nyc-2025/

Organization

David Burpee Design

Presenter:

David Burpee

Computational Morphogenesis: Leveraging Proceduralism to Unlock Temporal Design

Presentation Abstract

Current paradigms of design and engineering operate on the premise that realized designs are static – that is once they are designed and manufactured they exist in their final state. Likewise even flexible computational systems tend to not incorporate the dimension of time as a design tool. Despite dozens or hundreds of sl...

Organization:

Harman International

Presenter:

Austin Mitchell

Acoustic-Driven Computational Design: Premium Branded Audio In The Automotive Industry

Presentation Abstract

In the evolving landscape of automotive experiences, premium audio has become a defining element of in-cabin experiences and brand identity. At Harman International, we sit at the intersection of acoustic engineering, branded storytelling, and advanced manufacturing—designing audio systems globally for over fifty automotive manufacturers. This presentation explores how computational design is central to our industrial design strategy, enabling our team to generate highly manufacturable, acoustically-performative designs that are bo...