In episode 66 of the podcast, the topic is: Bridging the Physical-Digital Divide in Industrial Tech. Our guest is Rony Kubat (@kubat), CTO and co-founder, Tulip

In this conversation, we talk about the complexity of the shop floor and programming a physical-digital environment. What does Digital Lean mean to you? What is augmentation? What's next in industrial tech?

Augmented is a podcast for industrial leaders, process engineers and shop floor operators, hosted by futurist Trond Arne Undheim (@trondau), presented by Tulip (@tulipinterfaces), the frontline operations platform.

Trond's takeaway:
The physical-digital environment is no joke. When you speak with a real technologist who not only has imagined what the future would look like, but who is involved in building it, integrating software and hardware on the factory floor, you realize how difficult it will be to transform industrial work. It is not just about industrial tech, it is about people. It is not just about neat software, or fancy hardware. It all has to work together. And, more importantly, it has to fit into the overall context of what people are already doing.

Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, subscribe at Augmentedpodcast.co or in your preferred podcast player, and rate us with five stars. If you liked this episode, you might also like episode 44, No-code for IoT in the Cloud, episode 47, Industrial Machine Learning or episode 29, The Automated Microfactory.

The Augmented podcast is created in association with Tulip, connected frontline operations platform that connects the people, machines, devices, and the systems used in a production or logistics process in a physical location. Tulip is democratizing technology and empowering those closest to operations to solve problems. Tulip is also hiring. You can find Tulip at Tulip.co.

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Augmented--industrial conversations that matter. See you next time.

Special Guest: Rony Kubat.

What do a floating barge the size of four aircraft carriers, a Shell refinery, and the future of energy resilience have in common? They all depend on knowing, with precision, how much life is left in the steel.

In this episode of Augmented Ops, host Natan Linder sits down with Thomas Leurent, CEO and co-founder of Akselos, to unpack the often-overlooked world of structural performance management and why it might be the most important form of physical AI you've never heard of.

Thomas shares how Akselos helped Shell unlock over half a billion dollars in value on a single FPSO by using physics-based digital twins to skip a costly dry dock. He explains the technology behind it: a proprietary approach that runs structural simulations 100,000x faster than traditional finite element analysis by blending machine learning with physics, built over 20+ years since the technology was pulled out of MIT.

The conversation goes deep on what physical AI actually means in industrial settings, why hallucination is simply not an option in high-stakes environments, the role of humans in process industries (especially in emergency scenarios like what's unfolding in the GCC), and how data sharing — or the lack of it — is holding back offshore wind and the broader energy transition.

Thomas also shares a bold prediction: just as algorithmic efficiency transformed mechanical simulation, it will do the same to AI, making large language models far cheaper to run, potentially leading to an overcapacity of computing infrastructure in the years ahead.

If you think "structural performance management" sounds dry, wait until you hear what a $500M dry-dock skip, 52,000 workers with zero casualties, and the future of energy supply chains have to say about it.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cmhRmhyrU-Y

Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone who cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip, the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast or by following the show on LinkedIn.

Special Guest: Thomas Leurent.

Modernizing the U.S. industrial base is no longer a long-term goal. Between geopolitical competition, workforce constraints, and rising cybersecurity demands, manufacturers are under pressure to rethink how production systems are built and operated.

Clark Dressen, CTO of MxD, joins the show to explain how this transformation is taking shape across the defense industrial base and broader manufacturing ecosystem. As a public-private partnership funded in part by the Department of Defense, MxD works to connect emerging technologies with real-world production environments.

The conversation focuses on what modernization actually requires. Not digital transformation for its own sake, but applying technology to solve specific operational problems around quality, productivity, and consistency. Clark shares how tools like sensors, digital twins, and AI are being introduced into legacy environments to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge and create more repeatable processes.

The episode also explores the structure of the industrial base, where small and mid-sized suppliers make up the majority of the defense supply chain but often lack the resources to meet growing cybersecurity and compliance requirements. As workforce transitions accelerate, the focus shifts toward capturing expertise, improving how work is executed, and building more resilient production systems.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T2bkZvyK5kU

Augmented Ops is a podcast for industrial leaders, citizen developers, shop floor operators, and anyone who cares about what the future of frontline operations will look like across industries. This show is presented by Tulip, the Frontline Operations Platform. You can find more from us at Tulip.co/podcast or by following the show on LinkedIn.

Special Guest: Clark Dressen.