 Boom, what's up everyone? Welcome to Simulation. I'm your host, Alan Sokian. Very excited. We are still doing interviews at COFA as the Congress on the future of engineering software for our second annual partnership with them. We are now sitting down with Linda Locke. Hello. Hello. Thank you for coming on to our show. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. Yay! We are very excited to have Linda on our show. She has 30 years in engineering software experience. She's now the VP of Product Management at PTC. She's very focused on generative design. We're gonna be talking about this digital transformation for competitive advantage and so much more. Linda, before we get there, let's talk about you. How did you even get involved in engineering software? How did this get picked up in your life, just about it? Well, you know, I didn't start out expecting to be in engineering at all. I originally started just with a passion for languages and at a certain point, some teacher, my calculus teacher, basically said, you just have a natural aptitude for math and science. You should do something with it. And he got me introduced into a summer program for electrical and computer engineering. And I hated the electrical, but I loved the computer engineering aspects. And so that was the aha moment to say, I need to go to school and, you know, focus on the computer, ultimately computer science aspects. And, you know, great, great time. I actually worked under a professor who came out of IBM Research, out of the Kipsey Lab, and really took me under his wing. And I happened into this thing called CAD at the time. And, you know, my first job was to work with a Russian mathematician named Pavel Rabinke. He couldn't write code, but he could produce these amazing algorithms for wire harness bending. And it was my job to work with him to basically translate it into something real. And he was great to work with. And what really got me hooked into the engineering space was I was, besides the wire harness, I also worked in graphics. And I actually got a defect from General Motors for a car design, which was about five years before you'd see it in the market. And I just loved the body style. And it was just so exciting to go. I can work in a space where I get to make a difference and work with people who design these really cool things. That was kind of the beginning of getting into the industry. Shout out to your calculus teacher, because that is a big deal to have that tiny bit of mentor help push. I see you have good skills here. If you thought about this, go to the summer camp, take these. Those little pushes from mentors can open so many doors for a powerful career. It's so fascinating how important that is. Then it's also cool how you had these moments of working with the Russian mathematician and just being able to really see that you wanted to be a part of building things into the world, designing things into the world. And so then what about these milestones that came in your journey, these aha moments of, okay, I'm looking at CAD, I'm looking at picking up some of these new skill sets in engineering software. Where did you kind of see things trending towards and what were you achieving in that process? It was an interesting journey along the way, because it was a transformational time going from that initial opportunity with Computer Vision to my first startup company, which was PTC or at the time it was Parametric Technology Corporation. And to actually go there, that the industry was transforming in terms of the actual computer technology. Of course, PTC is known for revolutionizing the CAD industry with parametric based modeling. At the time, I won't be so wise as to say I understood what we were doing and how transformational it was going to be, but to just be part of a team, to be able to do that, the company IPO'd. And through that I was in the R&D group. And teach us about parametric based modeling. So being able to define features and to control those features with parameters, so if you have a height and now you can just change the height and the model readjusts. Readjusts, interesting. All the other variables will follow suit. Appropriately. And to expand it to features, it gives me pause because it's so part of what computer-aided design is today that I really have to stop and say what's parametric? Because the whole industry has adopted parametric based design. But you can think about, you know, you create drafts and cuts and slots and all the terminology that is used in the industry and how to represent those features and control the features where prior to that you were talking about cones and spheres and boom and operations. So a true advancement for sure. Yeah, yeah. Okay. And then the IPO happened. The IPO happened. And, you know, at the time of PTC continued growth, you know, very successful. At the time, in addition to the CAD system, what was then called PDM, product data management, was also coming to the fore because you create all of these models. How do you manage change control and such? And so it's the precursor to what we know as PLM today. And while all of those transitions were happening, I got to a point where there was the realization of more technology change in the hardware, in the operating systems. So at that point, what was it called? I can't remember. Windows came out with their platform. I forget what it was. But basically there was a transformation moving from all these Unix-based systems to the Windows platform. And with that, some of us saw that there was an opportunity to have a lower cost solution fully capable of what CAD systems were capable of at the time, but at a much lower price point. At that time, the price points were probably $70,000 per unit or higher until you bought your hardware, licensed the software, and depending on kind of the extent of software. So very high priced systems. And, you know, it was a difficult time for PTC because how could you, would you transition from, you know, 70,000 or 100,000 dollar system to basically we're proposing, how do you do something sub $10,000? And then the answer ultimately was I left there to join the next startup, which was SolidWorks. And, you know, I was employee number 10 at SolidWorks working with John Herschdick and, you know, Mike Paine and company to build a parametric based system. It wasn't revolutionary. It was really evolutionary because the underlying technology allowed you to build the system and sell it for $5,000 per seat. And it took a few years until the capabilities were advanced enough to substantially start replacing some of the larger players. And the target really was small, medium-sized companies. In the course of doing that, of course, we were acquired by Desso system. You know, that was a big shift for the industry because, of course, they had Katia. So, you know, how to, how to manage two systems. And, you know, they did a very good job about segmenting to position Katia for that high end. You know, when you think of aerospace and some of the high demands and, you know, automotive, those cars that I love, the body designs and, you know, very advanced requirements. And SolidWorks was focused small to medium-sized businesses. So, you know, a good positioning, you know, across time. Probably my favorite part of SolidWorks was I had the opportunity to move to Cambridge, England to basically build what was initially planned to be a new R&D facility for the team. I was given keys to a house and told go, go build it. So, it's that startup sort of environment with the protection of the umbrella of, you know, the parent company SolidWorks. And a new beautiful place in the world. It was awesome. Cambridge was such a wonderful experience and, you know, to go, it literally started that startup environment. I had a house, I had people before I had an office. So, the guys would come to the, to my kitchen table and they would work there every day. I can imagine what my neighbors thought, you know, because, you know, I hadn't really met them and there are these these men coming in and out of my house every day and, you know, brought my family over. You're throwing ragers all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, good fun. Good fun. Hey, neighbors, we've started a technology company in our neighborhood. Right, right. You know, these, these vans that come up and drop, you know, big boxes of monitors and that sort of thing. So, you know, very quickly found, found an office for, for the team in Cambridge and spent two years really building up the team, focused on the R&D aspects, and then ultimately helping out the, the European group. I'll call it secondary, like marketing support and such, so that we could be a focal point and then distribute things and out to, to the rest of Europe. So, fabulous, fabulous opportunity, you know, to, to just grow a team. Yeah. And then the team was, was very good, very productive. And that tie back to Pavel, where I started, a big part of the responsibility was routed systems, cabling, wire harnessing, piping systems. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, in a sense, she came full circle. So, so that was awesome. So, you were actually a big expander of solid works into Europe, then that location was kind of a funnel of getting solid works into more locations in Europe. From, the primary focus was, was R&D. I mean, there, there was a whole separate group, you know, of course, sales and, and marketing and such. So, you know, we were supports, because R&D of like the Cambridge intellect into, into what solid works knew how to do. Right. Okay. You know, part of, part of the reason to, to actually go to Cambridge is not, and some of the, the skills that we were looking for, they weren't always easy to find anywhere in the world. And not everybody, believe it or not, not everybody wanted to move to the Boston area. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And you add on top of that the whole visa issue and, you know, and trying to work through, I mean, the visa issue has only gotten worse. Easier for you to set up shop there than for them to come to. Exactly. Exactly. Interesting. And, you know, so, you know, different requirements, much easier for, for Europeans to, to be moving around, you know, the flexibility at the EU. Yeah, yeah, sure. So you don't have to have visa requirements. And, you know, we had teams from India and they, they could stay longer on, you know, just a normal entrance visa as opposed to having to get the equivalent of like an H1B here in the U.S. So, you know, we had an Indian group and they would come spend time to ramp up and learn the systems and such. And we could do that in the UK easier than trying to get everybody to Boston. So it was really a need to go find talent. And of course, Cambridge is the other place that, you know, it depends on who you talk to, where, where CAD actually started. Did it start in Boston or did it start in Cambridge? So if you talk to the people in Cambridge, they will say it, it was founded in, in Cambridge. If you talk to people in Boston, it was founded there. So. Interesting. If you talk to people in, in Cambridge, they say that Silicon Valley is the West Coast Cambridge. And if you talk to people in Silicon Valley, we say that Cambridge is the East Coast Silicon Valley. Yes, there's this, this is funny jokes because they're both very, very powerful centers of, of strong, of technology development. So, so what was, what was that, what was that about? I haven't heard of the Boston versus Cambridge debate between where CAD. Wow. Yeah. Now this predates me. So I just know more of the stories. There are people, you know, still around in the industry who actually lived those times. But there was a place in Cambridge called the CAD Center. And I believe it was an offshoot from Cambridge University. But you know, don't take that as fact. And, you know, so they would do research around these mechanical type challenges. And the other aspect is around the geometric modeling. So PTC, at the time, we had built our own geometry engine. The other geometry engine really came out of Cambridge at the time. So now if you think of Siemens, Siemens has a geometry engine called Parasolid, came out of Cambridge, England. There was also ASUS, which was created later than Parasolid, but I think fundamentally the same, same core resources available in Cambridge. So ASUS, which is actually a Colorado based company called Spatial, which was acquired by Deso. They had, they had their origins in Cambridge, England as well. So when you think of, you know, really the geometry engine is the heart of a CAD system. You had, you know, what's now called Granite, part of PTC, was built in Boston, but precursors to that were built in Cambridge. So this knowledge, this technology, you know, on the Boston side there, there was Computer Vision, Prime Technology. You know, they were, you know, the companies that started in Boston about the same time as the CAD Center was happening in the UK, hence the competing years. But those all predate me. This is, this is always, it's always an interesting thinking about which areas of the world are, are innovating concurrently on similar edge science or technology and who's, and who's bringing it forth, who claims, kind of like CRISPR-Cas9 to a little bit of like, you know, there's always interesting things like that. All right, now what about post-solid works up until PTC most recently? So post-solid works, I had worked for a company at the time that was called Raindrop Geomagic, more commonly known as Geomagic, Ping Fu, who was well known in the industry, had headed up that company. So I had worked with Ping in North Carolina for a while, and from there I had actually moved to Spatial Technology, which is component-based software, selling software components and of course selling ASUS, which is why I know ASUS so well. And that's what moved me to Colorado because that's where the company was based. And I came with the Dassault acquisition of Spatial, so Dassault had recruited me back to, it was actually a shift for me because up until that point, my primary function was always R&D. With Spatial, I actually transitioned over into sales and marketing. And a lot of people go, well, why did you make the jump? And what was easy and natural was because it was software components that we're selling, so who are we selling to? We're selling to heads of R&D to help them solve their problems. So I can speak their language, I understand their problems, and having been at SolidWorks, licensing Parasolid, I was a consumer of component technology. So I just flipped sides in the conversation, so it was very easy to transition. That's another one of the reoccurring themes of the conversations from the interviews that we've had is to be able to have both a technical understanding and a business understanding on how to build rapport and how to get into technical details. That's such an important melding. I mean it was a great learning ground, especially the sales aspects, because there's creativity in software, there's a different creativity in sales. And to learn the standard phrase out of the box thinking. We encourage everybody to think out of the box. It's kind of an old phrase now, but I found I was trying to put the sales people back in the box. Help me think. So it was great learning, great opportunity. I actually left the industry for a while and branched out. You were just surfing somewhere. Not quite, but I can honestly say at that point I was still a startup junkie. Spatial, while I was there the first time around, I was at Spatial twice. The first time around it was about taking the company back to profitability, and stabilizing ASIS because the company was struggling, which allowed the opportunity for the acquisition. So to do the culture change, the technology, writing it, holding on to the customers while you're going through that transition, fascinating challenges, definitely the hardest job I've ever had. Startups like SolidWorks, so rewarding, hard work, but when you're trying to change culture, it's one of the hardest jobs I've ever had. Most rewarding. Yes, when you see this, when you can see people recognize that they're successful. Thanks to your real hardcore hustle along with so many other people of building out tools and getting them out to the right people and them smiling when they use it. This is very important. So how about this massive digital transformation for competitive advantage? This is PTC's tagline, and I mean there is a massive digital transformation happening with engineering software, but it is in many ways it does end up giving the ones that take on these the engineering software tools that are at the edge, that are at the newest, that are the ones that are providing the most value, they're the ones that then gain the advantage over in terms of how fast they can iterate on creativity, how well their design's function in the world. So teach us about what it's been like being a part of the culture that is PTC. So to be fair, I haven't been back at PTC for very long, so in terms of the culture so far I love what I'm experiencing, very high energy and to see the breadth of the portfolio, being traditionally more in that CAD, PLM sort of space, with Spatial I used to see a wide variety of technology offerings, but to see PTC really taking it with VRAR and IoT and I'll say stretching and being able to provide solutions on the edge while still having that core based in the CAD PLM space. It's as I'm learning more about how all the systems are connected. It's fascinating and I'm so impressed with what they've been able to accomplish because I'll just leave it at that. I'm learning about what especially the IoT is an area that I'm very interested in relative to generative design because of course my coming to PTC is through the frustum acquisition and so for us generative design is a paradigm shift for the industry. We're still in its infancy, there's still a long way to go to get to the full value for engineers, but I can see the potential as you look at the information that's going to be available from be it IoT or as the PLM systems are capturing data and part of generative is how can we leverage AI or machine learning trying to get clarity of what would be the opportunities and the specific technologies that we need to use to be able to leverage all of that information in order to better inform your designs. Yes, it's almost as though the human capability to run all of the permutations on what would be the optimal function given a certain amount of specifications is just nowhere near the capacity of AI's ability to do that. So to now be able to leverage generative design just to run all of the possibilities given the parameters that we have, what is the optimal function and what does it look like and then what would it be like to manufacture that where we need to source the materials from it's just it ends up being a very interesting part of the future generative design out of manufacturing it just seems like a general intelligence constantly being able to iterate on itself which is exciting in many ways. I'm ready for Star Trek. I'm very ready. But the one thing to keep in mind is it's not just about things like additive manufacturing and you know this is it's applicable for the manufacturing processes and the traditional ones casting forging you know milling all of those so that the generative process can provide that the options the key part which I think you said is optimal solutions because it's great the technology is out there now so you have the compute resources you know you have the storage resources all of that sort of stuff it's becoming less and less expensive to leverage all of that but in the end what you need are the optimal designs so there's little value to throw 10,000 options at an engineer and say which ones would you like and the other challenge is as you set up the problems and to we still have to answer how to properly set up the problem because you can solve it'll solve successfully but if you didn't set it up properly your your system is going to fail as as you tested further downstream so you know that's why I say there's still there's still a lot to learn and a key part as as we look at it is we need to make sure that the human is still the driver in the process so it's great we have some autonomous computations happening but the feedback is hugely important to say is it headed where I expect it to go can I change in the midst of this you know in order to refine my solution and so on and of course as we go through the whole generative process you get to you know offer up here's your three four six ten optimal solutions now what do you do with that and you know that's that's where if I look at PTC's portfolio especially around the CAD space and their partnership with with the ANSIS to to take the information and then take it back into the workflow so that they can be looking at the simulation live and do that validation and ultimately final analysis type validation and you know to to say yes yes our our optimal choices are meeting all of the criteria so generative gets you there faster but you can't skip those steps it's still hugely important yeah and to follow all of those those other steps so teach us about the order of of operations here so does the do the do we get the 10 generative designs first and then we go through the ANSIS simulation live and then we get validated is that the order right okay so then the simulation live tests the 10 generative designs right for functionality for like forces sure yeah okay it's ability to perform as it yeah as we hope right and then you may choose just to have one versus the ten and you know that's where we leave it up to the engineer what and they they do initial exploration in in the generative process and ultimately they're they're they're they're trying to drive to the one solution so I mean would I expect them to take 10 maybe not you know maybe two or three into the simulation live and you know to continue with their validation and go downstream from there so this is so interesting because if the if the if the how does how does the generative designs how do they get entered into the ANSIS simulation live like I'm very interested in how it kind of like ports over and how it you know runs that simulation how does it like how does it compute that so I mean that's that's a big part of what we're working through right now if you look at generative systems today and this includes frustum you know at at the point of the acquisition we were all independent tools and and one of the barriers to adoption is how do you plug back into the ecosystem on the front end and the back end right so how do you take your your CAD model be it a part or an assembly sub assembly whatever bring it into the system that first part is is fairly straightforward you know and the CAD systems and the industry kind of has that figured out and we can figure out how to bring all of that information in you know so now when you do your design space exploration and you're setting up your loads and constraints and and so on you solve and you have something which is not not geometrically compatible with any of the traditional CAD systems so part of the challenge is for for us to figure out how to have then the generative representation it's it's more than coexist but how to integrate it back into the workflows and you know and it's it is one of those barriers to adoption and you know one of them that you know of course we have to to work with the the rest of the team and within ptc to to solve that problem because ideally you don't want to have to take the model if we solve the geometry parts which is a complex problem and you still want to be able to not have to set up your problem all over again as you take it into discovery life right so how can we make it an a seamless experience for for for the user and you know while while that's the the view as as I see it of of what we need to accomplish inside of ptc for any system to to be successful they have to be able to to solve that compatibility problem and you know it's no different than um well even um even external systems um you know you have to develop that integration so if if you're a uh an on-shape how how does on-shape plug into a downstream analysis there's some sort of integration that that has to happen and the more seamless you can make that the better the experience for the user yeah yeah yeah the the more frictionless the user experiences and the more it enables maximal creativity for engineering that this is going to be on leak a lot unlocking a lot of creative potential who are the most common users right now because we know a lot of like first robotics kids are using ptc um who are the most who are the most common um use cases right now for um for both the generative design as well as the ANSAS simulation live which um I mean I I can't really say for the ANSAS simulation live uh you know because this goes to um you know my my knowledge coming into you know into the group but uh from from a generative perspective there's there's actually been a challenge for generative because um if you look at the industry they're they're um just go look at a set of of websites and um various companies will have this what is generative design and the definitions are all over the map and you know generative design is topology optimization generative design is genetic algorithms generative design is fully autonomous um so you know the first question is what is generative design and um you know it's it's still something that needs clarification there's and I look at it as there's there's generations or steps to generative design where you have something like topology optimization it's a tool that generative um utilizes in order to provide results um you know there are people who think generative is only for additive because of course uh that the lattice structures and even with your topology optimization you can get those those star track kind of shapes you know the space future shapes um and or the whole lattice structure so by uh by associativity people think that's what generative is for and additive is just one possible manufacturing process that you know generative can provide solutions for it comes back to you can do the casting milling um forging and and so on um so if if I look at you know pre-acquisition who the early adopters were primary interest was around lattice structures and it's the research groups in engineering organizations who are trying to figure out how did they get lighter weight the material science right okay and so how it's it's the research organizations to try and learn and understand what can they do um you know be it with the the new materials uh you know you think of uh like an Airbus for example Airbus GE they're the the companies that are at the forefront in the news uh around additive and so they they do rely on generative in order to help provide solutions for them but we come back to we have uh other opportunities where it's basic they have a manufacturing problem they need to solve so um you know an interesting aspect is to think about say costing you know I need to to build my widget whatever that widget is uh and you know I have different material options um I may have only certain uh you know machine options so those are are variables that I want to take a look at to figure out how do I get the most cost effective and okay maybe I want then I want to use the least amount of material um so what are those constraints that you want to put into the system in order to to produce the optimal design so generative and this is why it's so transformational as as we work through um this whole variety of use cases it will allow um the the user to again figure out optimal designs based on what they what they have what they know uh so it's not just about the the loads that you put on it it long term as as generative comes to um it's it's more mature state and you can then say um I only have these materials you know I want the lowest cost uh and and so on so yeah it it's part of the design process right yeah it's it's important that that the way that you're you know identifying that it's such an early time in in in the in the definitions that we are a little all over the place and that soon it it'll maybe all of them will kind of all the definitions will kind of bundle together into into a one that that encompasses that but the the enhanced creative experience with um generative design and the way you're describing it it's just it's it's a me it's a massive part of engineering software now will will you um speak to where you feel as though um so much of the engineering software trends are pointing towards hmm there's various trends and you know it's being being here at cofez and and that the digital twin is um you know is that or the digital thread I should say and you know is it seems to be the all-encompassing um targets for for companies and so that would mean a digital thread would mean so the the well honestly I'll say that's that's part of the challenge yeah you know what is the definition of digital thread just like what is the definition of generative design the digital thread again it's like it's like combining everything that's being discussed at cofez into one thing and it seems that way it seems that way yeah you know so how do you how do you take that the advances that are happening and you know how do you uh as as you're going through say the entire lifecycle process um you know how how does plm evolve to relate to it and you know of course as as I look at the iot you know all of that information and you know the performance information uh how does that tie back into the the digital thread yeah um so uh yeah yeah it's in the ar right there's so many of these of these components and simulations um and then what would you say is a main principle or skill that we should have children and and adults develop into the 21st century hmm just one skill that's a fantastic question i mean i i start in our inherent nature has to to to first be um in inquisitive continuous learning and it's it's at the foundation and you know so from from there yes and you know the the sciences are are so important and you know as as my children have grown and you know they they all had the the computer programming courses and you know my daughter um she's um she does art animation and she kept saying why why do i need that there are people who who do the coding i just want to use the solution it's like no you know if you have that basic understanding imagine how you can influence control and so many of the software solutions are or your phone apps and you know you can change them if you have those basic concepts and so you don't have to be the the the power developer uh you don't have to be the power mathematician but these you know to have that firm foundation across the sciences and just helps you as you're interfacing because and if i take it out of this space we're touching digital everywhere so you know it is just part of our life it be it's um you know trying to trying to work your cell phone uh somebody trying to tune in the basketball game from from yesterday you you have to know uh and have a basic comfort with the the technologies that are there and so it just becomes foundational and it doesn't matter that you're an artist versus an engineer but a basic foundational understanding it kind of reminds me a lot of this base camp of knowledge that and that we're really aiming to try and make more common in our in our culture is to get people to the business the base camp understanding of of what's happening where we came from what you know who we are where we were planning to go how we get there how we problems to solve and then rock it out to the edge if you want which edge do you want to go through of knowledge right you know you know so so do we cover everything well do you feel like there's something else that you would like to maybe end with discussing or do we wrap pretty well no i think yeah i think we covered a lot wonderful wonderful this is great this is such a pleasure thank you so much for joining us on the show thank you it's a pleasure there's a lot to still um to understand and and i'm really grateful that you were able to to drop these these these powerful wisdoms on us about about what's going on in the industry and where we're heading thank you thank you thanks everyone for tuning in we greatly appreciate we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below let us know what you're thinking go and share these wisdoms around with your communities with your families your friends online go and share them around also check out linda's links below check out the links to cofe as below as well check out simulations links below as well support the artists and entrepreneurs that you believe in help us scale help us grow and go and build the future manifest your dreams into the world thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you soon 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