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