By Stéphane Attal, CEO
Sentient Science has undergone some exceptional changes over the past couple of years. We’ve explored a variety of partnership opportunities, obtain 1 patent, filed 2 applications and provisionally filed 3 additional ones in the DigitalClone space, and in 2020 I joined as the new CEO.
I joined Sentient in January 2020 with over 30 years of experience operating and running high-technology companies. Most recently, I served as the CEO of EMSCAN Corporation, the world leader in EMC and RF testing based on very-near-magnetic field. I spent eight years at EMSCAN until its acquisition. Prior to that, I spent a decade founding, growing and preparing high-tech B2B companies for acquisition.
When I was asked to join Sentient, I was excited by the opportunity to lead a team that is dedicated to developing DigitalClone®, an innovative Digital Twin software platform that is ahead of the curve. According to a report on the digital twin market, “the digital twin market is estimated to grow from $3.8 billion in 2019 to $35.8 billion by 2025.” DigitalClones are the future of the mechanical systems industry, and Sentient has both the technology and people to lead that growth.
DigitalClone® was developed and validated with 10+ years of work and $32M+ of U.S. federal Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants with partners such as NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense.
As we continue to develop Sentient Science, we are funneling a significant portion of our resources into three main areas. The first being our DigitalClone for Rail (DC-RM) business unit. In 2019, Sentient deployed DC-RM to leading Class 1 rail companies and Transit Authorities who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on rail replacement and maintenance, but struggle to quantify how investments in Precision Maintenance positively impacts rail replacement. DC-RM has given them the first tool that allows them to quantify, maximize, and show their return on investment. It’s been rewarding to see the success between our DC-R solution and the rail industry.
The second is to continue to develop our DigitalClone Additive Manufacturing offerings, DC-AM and DC-IM.
DC-AM is important as it allows users to computationally assess build quality and part performance. Although we are still in development mode, the feedback on prototypes has been strong. In November of 2019, we entered a challenge sponsored by America Makes and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), to predict the internal structure and resultant performance of metallic components produced by additive manufacturing. Our DC-AM response submitted to this challenge recently placed second. With all that being said, we are excited to announce more on DC-AM at the end of 2020.
DC-IM is a hardware and software solution add-on to original Additive Manufacturing equipment to provide In-situ Defect Detection and Correction during the part build process.
The third is to push the boundaries on what is currently possible with DigitalClones and continue to file patents to protect our intellectual property. Some of our best work has happened when collaborating with organizations on a similar mission; and our joint patent applications with ACCIONA Energia are no exception. We partnered with ACCIONA, a global operator in renewable energies, to create and file two patents. The technology behind both pending patents deliver improved predictions for asset health and life expectancy of wind turbines.
The results? The ability to further lower operation and maintenance costs by identifying assets running with damage. Through combining the concepts within the patents with our existing intellectual property and ACCIONA’s extensive data sets, we’ve been able to demonstrate improved prediction results.
Since Sentient’s inception in 2001, we have been on a mission to solve business problems with science and I am thrilled to play my part in helping Sentient live up to their mission. If you have any questions on Sentient’s journey feel free to reach me at sattal@sentientscience.com.