Hey there,
It’s Robin from CFD Engine & with September in the rear view mirror, I thought I’d take 3 minutes to reflect on the office hours calls that I’ve just finished.
Back in July I suggested that every day, throughout September, I’d be available for a one-to-one call with anyone who wanted to chat about something CFD-related. I opened the bookings at the tail end of August & now we’re all done 👏
I thought I’d share how it went, plus a few observations from chatting to a bunch of interesting CFD folk…
The Stats
There were 22 working days in September & they were all booked. I had 1 cancellation & 3 no-shows (I should’ve sent reminders) & so, 18 calls in total.
Of the 18, most were with individuals (although there were a couple of companies) & they ranged across 12 countries & 5 continents.
Booking was via Calendly (on their free tier) & the meetings were via Google Meet – both of which were solid, 5-⭐, would recommend.
Observations
First off, it was a joy to hear about what you’re doing with CFD, so many interesting topics, from racing rowing boats, to dams in Africa, via Pike’s Peak supercars & eVTOL rotors.
I was also taken aback at the complexity of some of the problems you lot had decided to tackle on your first OpenFOAM adventure – “ambitious” doesn’t cover it for some of you 👏
So, despite the small sample set, here are a few things that stood out from my notes over the last month…
The Olden Days
There was much reminiscing about “the olden days”, including some disappointment that things haven’t changed more. We’ve got more cores & more RAM now, but it’s broadly the same process as it was 20 years ago.
That said, that was plenty of gratitude for new tools – it turns out no-one really misses nudging individual nodes around in TGrid.
Ansys
Speaking of TGrid, there wasn’t much love for Ansys.
There was still a fondness for Fluent, but not for what Ansys have done with them since their acquisition (particularly when it comes to deprecating older codes).
I didn’t hear any similar stories about CD-adapco post-acquisition 🤔
There were however, several good stories about the computers which must not, under any circumstances, connect to the internet otherwise they’ll do an update & break the trusty old code that you bought a perpetual for 😬
Booming
I’m going to have to phrase this one carefully…
I got to speak to several experienced engineers, nearing the end of their conventional careers, who are “retiring” but with plans for a comeback.
They’re combining new OpenFOAM skills, with cheap compute & a lifetime’s domain expertise, to return as highly-specialised independent consultants.
Let’s hope they take up golf instead, otherwise the rest of us are in big trouble 😜
Early career
At the opposite end of the spectrum, it sounds like it’s pretty difficult to find your spot in the CFD job market at the moment.
I didn’t have any meaningful advice for someone currently looking for opportunities, but I listened to their stories.
My takeaways: getting your first CFD job is tricky, but subsequently switching industries is even harder (unless you can afford to take an internship).
My only (obvious) piece of advice was to start cultivating your network as early as possible. The CFD family is pretty small (especially within sectors/industries) & when it comes to landing new opportunities, it’s more often about who you know 🤷♂️
Again?
So, how was doing a call every day in September? I loved it 💛 I got the chance to talk to a bunch of smart people, all doing interesting stuff with CFD & geek out a bit.
I’d definitely do it again, maybe not everyday for a month, but something on a regular schedule would be great.
It might even be an interesting way to revive my old podcast, I certainly learned something new on every call, maybe others would too 🤔
Thanks for indulging me on this one, we’ll get back to the OpenFOAM-stuff next week.
Until then, stay safe,
