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Hi and welcome to the Neil Ashton podcast.

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In each episode,

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we explain some of the fascinating ways that science and engineering

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are changing the world around us.

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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.

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To understand how fluid dynamics, machine learning and supercomputing

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are bringing in a new era of discovery,

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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 too.

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So sit back and enjoy this episode

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in this first episode

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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

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the scene a bit. Really. Um,

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you know, I

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I've always enjoyed

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doing

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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

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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

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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

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more than an hour long.

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So I fully appreciate that

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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

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that they deserve.

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So what is this podcast really about? Well,

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I

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first of all, I love

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sports

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um,

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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 Symonds,

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who's the current CTO of of Formula One and has a very illustrious

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career through,

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you know, Benetton

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Renault,

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Uh, before and after that and obviously

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Williams and Formula One itself now

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talking to him.

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I also talked to Tony Purnell,

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who has crossed both of those worlds with cycling and 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 FIA.

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He worked at the FIA during the time of Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley

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also talked to

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people

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in far more specific 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

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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 Dr Florian Menter

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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.

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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

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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 AWS 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.

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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

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the worldwide tech lead for computer-aided engineering

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so essentially trying to help both customers, but also internal people within AWS,

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and Amazon, to

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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 turbulence

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modelling,

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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 turbulence

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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

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it's gonna be a little bit of a journey, Um, in anything that's, uh, a new endeavour.

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Um,

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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.

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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.

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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 Podcasts 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

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about this. And hopefully together we can

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yeah,

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create something that has some interesting conversations with people and also

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expand

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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

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to you listening or or watching. So,

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yeah,

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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

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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.

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OK,