Industrial Applications and Impact

Ever since, Neural Concept's technology has found applications across diverse industries, with customers in aerospace, automotive, architecture, critical infrastructure, and more using their platform Neural Concept Space (or NCS for short.). The platform has been used for things like battery cooling plates, ventilation systems, suspension arms, lightning systems, electric engines, chassis, and, of course, for the external design of the car. It is the automotive sector that, at this stage, is currently leading the adoption of Neural Concept's technology. Despite the company only being founded in 2018, it already counts tier-one automotive supplier Plastic Omnium as a customer, in addition to automotive lightweight supplier Mubea, several automotive manufacturing giants in Japan, USA, and EU – and remarkably, four out of ten Formula One racing teams.

Other sectors where Neural Concept'sConcept's technology is used include:

In the aerospace sector, to design planes and satellites.
In the consumer electronic sector, to design mobile phones or headsets.
In the energy sector, to design turbines for efficient energy generation, such as hydraulic turbines.

"We have started working with the medical sector, where simulations are increasingly used. I would like to have more customers in the field of energy transition and decarbonization. Neural Concept could work with wind-turbine manufacturers to make wind farms more efficient or work with energy companies to improve direct carbon capture systems", adds Baqué. "One exciting new field for us is motorsports. We project that the first vehicles designed with our tool will hit the circuits next year. I am really looking forward to seeing what the results are."

The journey goes on

The fact that Switzerland is a small country forced Neural Concept to think internationally from day one. Thus, the young company started working with customers in France, Germany, the USA, Korea, and Japan from an early stage. "I think that the trajectory would have been different if we were founded in Germany or France," says Baqué. "Also, the EPFL ecosystem is precious and with amazing engineers who have joined our mission."

At the same time, team growth is anticipated to be one of the next big challenges. Currently, the company has around 40 employees, and that's expected to rise to 80 team members in the near term. It's well known that as companies scale, the challenge to maintain the original culture of the startup company likewise increases. But with their awareness of the importance of company purpose and their innovative Neural Concept, they will no doubt master this next evolution, too. The collaboration with SEF.Growth will also play a part, notably the excellent inputs from their top-notch experts that will be transformed into actions.

Neural Concept SA

Neural Concept: bringing artificial intelligence to engineering-led design