CDFAM Barcelona, April 8-9 - Program Preview
Limited Discount Registration Still Available
CDFAM Barcelona is a two-day technical symposium bringing together designers, engineers, architects, and software developers working at the intersection of computational design, AI, and machine learning.
The event is now just over a month away, April 8-9, at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park on the Mediterranean waterfront.
The program is largely set. What follows is a section-by-section overview of what to expect you can see the current schedule, subject to minor changes.
The organizing idea behind this year’s program is one that runs through CDFAM as a series: computational design as a discipline of building systems to solve design problems.
The Barcelona program is structured to bridge systems-level engineering and decisions made at the part and material scale.
Full program and speaker details are at cdfam.com/barcelona-2026.
Breaks are on the outdoor deck at the PRBB, directly on the Mediterranean waterfront. The food is good. The views help.
Tickets are available at cdfam.com/register. Capacity is limited and the event historically sells out before the date, so if you are planning to attend, now is a great time to secure a spot.
Program Overview
AI AND MACHINE LEARNING
A significant portion of the program addresses AI and machine learning from multiple angles - not just what the models can do, but how they are built, what data they require, and what it takes to deploy them in real engineering workflows.
PhysicsX will present their work moving from task-specific surrogate models toward Large Physics Models for production aerodynamics workflows. BeyondMath will argue for a different approach entirely - foundational physics AI trained on self-generated, first-principles data rather than customer simulation data, with case studies from motorsport and energy. EMMI AI will present NeuralMould, their commercially deployed Large Engineering Model for injection moulding, consolidating geometry processing, physics prediction, and post-processing into a unified interface. ARENA.AI will discuss foundation model development for electromagnetism, targeting electronic hardware design across semiconductor, aerospace, and automotive sectors. Pasteur Labs will present their perspective on simulation intelligence and where the field is heading.
DATA, SYSTEMS, AND WORKFLOWS
Getting AI into engineering practice requires more than models - it requires systems, data infrastructure, and workflow integration. This section of the program addresses that directly.
Tech Soft 3D will present HOOPS AI, a framework for correlating CAD geometry with manufacturing behavior and business process information. The approach transforms CAD and manufacturing data into unified, AI-ready representations that can bridge engineering and non-engineering domains without dependence on native CAD kernels or proprietary data models - enabling AI systems to reason across design, manufacturing outcomes, and operational drivers within a single coherent architecture. Istari will address the infrastructure problem from a different angle: secure, decentralized access to engineering data, enabling teams to work live from source data and collaborate in real time without surrendering data control. Quix will present their platform for automating R&D data analysis - consolidating test data into a single repository, enabling custom analysis tooling, automated report generation, and sequential test execution, removing the manual overhead that slows engineering teams between simulation and decision. Synera will present their work on Body-in-White development using Synera MAS, demonstrating how computational design workflows can modernize and accelerate automotive engineering processes in collaboration with SEAT-CUPRA.
ARCHITECTURE, ENVIRONMENT, AND BUILT SYSTEMS
Augmenta will present their work on functional AI for 3D design automation in the built environment - from pathfinding to generative modeling for building construction, including the first buildings with electrical systems delivered by AI-powered generative design. McNeel Europe’s Verena Vogler will introduce Rhino.Ecologic, a new ecological simulation framework for Rhino and Grasshopper that integrates location- and time-specific species distribution, biomass, and biodiversity modeling into computational design workflows. AiA Life Designers will address environmental performance simulation at the earliest stages of architectural design, where decisions carry the greatest impact but feedback is typically absent. Claudia Valverde from the University of Stuttgart’s IntCDC will present research on architected porous structures designed around real-world climatic and ecological data, with working prototypes installed on actual buildings and monitored under outdoor conditions.
PRODUCT, PERCEPTION, AND HUMAN FACTORS
Not all of the program sits at the deep engineering end. Yuan Mu from Nike will address computational fabrication applied to textile design, embedding athlete motion data into parametric workflows for footwear and apparel. Palace will discuss colour perception within a computational design context. Gravity Sketch will address spatial interaction and spatial computing as a design interface. David Burpee will present the Sequence Dynamic Insole Generator - an automated Houdini-based toolchain that generates variable density infill toolpaths directly from biomechanics data, with custom pathfinding algorithms embedding print constraints into G-code to produce gradient compressibility profiles tuned to individual kinematics. Saxion University of Applied Sciences will present complementary work on personalized CPAP mask design, using 3D scan data, postural analysis, and pressure mapping to drive computational mask generation and silicone 3D printing at regional hospital scale.
Full program and speaker details are at cdfam.com/barcelona-2026.
Breaks are on the outdoor deck at the PRBB, directly on the Mediterranean waterfront. The food is good. The views help.
Tickets are available at cdfam.com/register. Capacity is limited and the event historically sells out before the date.
