Suc­cess­ful CAESES User Con­fer­ence 2024

Firstly, we would like to thank all atten­dees of the CAESES User Con­fer­ence 2024 (Sep­tem­ber 9 – 11) for joining us at the Mercure Hotel in Potsdam, Germany, and for making this event such a great success! Everyone on the FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS team truly enjoyed meeting up and chatting with you. As always, your con­tri­bu­tions and feedback were invaluable.

Work­shops

On the first day, before relaxing over drinks at the welcome recep­tion, atten­dees had the option to join modular CAESES® workshop sessions within one of three streams on work­flows, modeling, and advanced feature pro­gram­ming and opti­miza­tion methods. The goal was to help new users get started with CAESES®, while also show­cas­ing advanced modeling tech­niques, useful tips and tricks, and some of the new func­tion­al­i­ties intro­duced in CAESES® 5.3.

Con­fer­ence

All of the pre­sen­ters did a fan­tas­tic job! The user con­fer­ence kicked off with a keynote by Prof. Hanno Gottschalk, Chair for Math­e­mat­i­cal Modeling of Indus­trial Life Cycles at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­sity of Berlin, on ​“Gen­er­a­tive AI and Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing” and con­cluded with Thomas Hilder­brandt from NUMECA Inge­nieur­büro dis­cussing ​“Trends and Chal­lenges in Tur­bo­ma­chin­ery CFD – and the Dif­fer­ences to Marine Simulations.”

CAESES® users from all over the world shared their insights on how to create the most effi­cient design processes and com­pet­i­tive products on the market. The pre­sen­ta­tions offered exclu­sive and fas­ci­nat­ing insights into sim­u­la­tion-driven design for tur­bocharg­ers, pumps, ship hulls, racing yachts, marine pro­pellers, and the broader field of aero- and hydro­dy­namic optimization.

The audience gained a com­pre­hen­sive overview of where and how CAESES® is applied, while also getting a sense of the chal­lenges involved in these diverse appli­ca­tions, includ­ing complex design con­straints and tight timelines.

You can find all pre­sen­ta­tions for download on this page.

A pre­sen­ta­tion was also held by FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS’ Heinrich von Zadow, pre­view­ing the release news for CAESES® 5.3, which launched in December 2024. We also shared our general progress on the various R&D projects we are working on, as well as the roadmap that FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS will follow for upcoming devel­op­ments. Over the years, Sim­u­la­tion-Driven Design has been our focus, but the growth of AI is leading us closer to Data-Driven Design.

Addi­tion­ally, breakout sessions were held to meet our team and gain more insights into the people behind FRIEND­SHIP SYSTEMS.

Exhi­bi­tion

Software vendors in the field of CFD meshing, solver and post-pro­cess­ing shared their exper­tise and solu­tions with the atten­dees, taking the oppor­tu­nity to discuss current chal­lenges and trends in the CAE sector.

A selec­tion of pro­peller models involved in dif­fer­ent projects we have worked on were also pre­sented, includ­ing both 3D-printed and real models. Advanced Wing Systems show­cased a 1:7 scale model of their Flexible Wing Sail, which isn’t just an attrac­tive model, but also a real­is­tic pro­to­type for the future full-scale device. It serves as a test model for the inte­gra­tion of wind assisted propul­sion into com­mer­cial ships, a promis­ing solution for the maritime industry to reduce green­house gas emis­sions. This is part of the R&D project we are col­lab­o­rat­ing on with the RETROFIT55 consortium.

Right after the con­fer­ence sessions and just around the corner, atten­dees had a unique oppor­tu­nity to take a close look at and even test ride the Q30 by Q‑Yachts – an easy to use and ultra silent electric day cruiser.

Social Event

After a delight­ful Mediter­ranean dinner by the river at the restau­rant El Puerto, we enjoyed fan­tas­tic live music by the band ​“Die Guten”. A big thank you to everyone who brought energy to the dance floor! 😉

More Impres­sions

Take a look at this picture gallery for more impres­sions from this great event.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

Not to forget — many thanks once again to our sponsors for coming to Potsdam and actively sup­port­ing this event. It was won­der­ful to have you with us!