Rafael Contreras

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to participate with a presentation in a workshop at Harvard University, which revolved around new trends in aeronautics. Together with representatives of Airbus, MIT, Harvard, I presented the challenges of a Sustainable Mobility and address it in a holistic way, not partially. Having these kinds of reflections in centers like Harvard University is an inspiration. In some way, going back to the Cambridge campus is closing a circle. In 2013-14, Ivan and I did an executive at MIT, 2km from Harvard, which served as a definitive boost to our Mobility Ecosystem design. Both at Harvard and at MIT, the approach to work is the constant establishment of new paradigms, how to innovate in products, processes, models. Being able to give a lecture based on the experience of these years, and sharing the lines of work that are being developed right now, is to return to the place of the theory,  bringing the feedback of the praxis, to continue reflecting.

I leave here a video in which I summarize the content of the debates, and the general lines that I broke down in my speech.

This week a milestone has been completed throughout the year. Last Monday, It took place the official recognition of the birth of AIRTIFICIAL with the traditional opening bell ringing at the Madrid Stock Exchange. I did it with AIBELL, a collaborative robot, being the first time in history that a robot rang the bell on the Stock Exchange. Here I leave the speech I offered for employees, investors, friends and family who attended the event to share this moment. Thank you all.

 AIRTIFICIAL OPENING BELL RINGING

Dear shareholders, President of the Stock Exchange, employees of AIRTIFICIAL, friends … AIBELL (the robot), thank you very much for being here today sharing this moment. With this collaborative robotic opening  bell we officially certify the birth of AIRTIFICIAL. Right in this Palace of the Stock Exchange, where tradition merges with innovation.

Using market terms, today we gather in one single act an opening and a closing. The opening of a technology company, which since its inception has already started with a position of global leadership in collaborative robotics and intelligent structures. And that leadership is real thanks to that closure, that transformation we are talking about, of the two companies whose merger arose AIRTIFICIAL: Carbures and Inypsa. Decades of international experience guarantee and enable AIRTIFICIAL to be born in the best of life. With the strength of youth, and the knowledge of adulthood.

AIRTIFICIAL emerges to offer solutions. The Artificial Intelligence developments of the company are applied transversally to the products of the sectors in which we operate: robotics, aerospace, defense, civil engineering, automotive, renewable, energy efficiency and the respective developments in applied engineering. And when I say that AIRTIFICIAL arises at the precise moment, it is because at present there is a focus about the relationship between man and robots: what it will be like, what dangers or opportunities the developments will bring. There is a whole academic and social debate about it.

Darwin spoke of a selective pressure on the species. Those that adapted to aggressive external elements were those that survived. Today, the potentially hostile element has been created by the species itself, Technology. And that’s where AIRTIFICIAL plays a crucial role with a direct impact on society. As specialists in Artificial Intelligence and collaborative robotics we are born with a mission: to help human beings to integrate with emerging technologies. TECHNOLOGY AT THE SERVICE OF PEOPLE.

Personally, it’s the second time I rang that bell. The first time was with CARBURES 6 years ago. Today I do it as the President of AIRTIFICIAL. And in that opening and closing that I commented at the beginning, I can say that it is a satisfaction to close this period in Carbures having been leader of the Alternative Stock Market, and having become 18 years of a journey from an spin off of the University of Cádiz, to become a global leader in structures of composites, reference for giants of mobility. Regarding Inypsa, I want to congratulate those who have brought it here, an example of a company that promotes sustainability in society through its engineering works, transforming and impacting environments through infrastructures, renewable parks, efficiency energy, among others, in Latin America and Europe.

Today we are AIRTIFICIAL, which means increasing our operational capacity, knowledge, technologies to put them at the service of our customers, at the service of society. The creation of Airtificial allows us to multiply the generation of business opportunities through the 1200 people who work in the 20 locations, 13 countries and 3 continents where the company is present and provides pioneering technological solutions for current challenges.

Undoubtedly, today marks a business milestone of maximum relevance for us and it is a day of celebration. The fact of two consolidated companies join together, in a sum in which one plus one does not result in two but in much more, and converge under a single identity, AIRTIFICIAL, has been an objective in itself, because we are really convinced of the potential of growth of the Company and its capacity to generate value.

I want to mention the main partners of Carbures and Inypsa, who  have shown that clarity of vision and willingness to overcome the process followed and that culminated today with the arrival of Airtificial from the beginning.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the team of the integration committee that have operationally materialized and solved each requirement that the four external consultants, the three independent auditors and the regulatory body, demanded to ensure the scrupulousness and transparency of this merger.

So that from tomorrow, after the emotional hangover of today’s euphoria, we can work as AIRTIFICIAL from the beginning, and feel and understand each other as one company, there is a whole team of people who have been working for that integration. The comment that they made me about it is that employees from all over the world were excited and very motivated to enter this new stage. To all of them, congratulations for today.

Every time we achieve a milestone of this magnitude, in which an extraordinary effort is needed, we must thank those who are closest to us on a personal level. Fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, children, other relatives, friends … To all of you, THANK YOU, because without you, we certainly would not have gotten here.

In the organizations and companies in which I have participated, I have always had a motto, a thought that has governed my career, which is: “We did it because we did not know it was impossible”.

Chief Executive Officer Borja Martínez-Laredo, employees and members of AIRTIFICIAL present here, and those who are folowing this event via streaming web from all around the world, I ask that, starting tomorrow, you continue working as you have done so far. And when clouds darken the mood, remember that phrase, that engine: “Let’s make the impossible possible”. Let’s put technology at the service of people.

In this moment of closure of the speech, and the opening of a long road that we have before us, is when I would like the main partners of this company to come up, and together we give applause for the first of many successes that are to come: Lalo Azcona , Ramón Betolaza, Leonardo Sánchez, thank you very much, and congratulations.

Two videos about Hyperloop and AIRTIFICIAL have just been published. 2 videos that compress time. Processes that last for months can be experienced in an accelerated way, and never better said, in a little more than two minutes. Or, an event full of suspense, knowledge, emotion, as it was the worldwide presentation of the first real-size capsule, is summarized in four minutes.

If you have five minutes, I invite you to watch both videos, and thus get a closer idea of what it means for the world of mobility technology, and intelligent structures, the work done by the entire AIRTIFICIAL team. Enjoy them.

VIDEO ABOUT HYPERLOOP CAPSULE PRESENTATION

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Not even a week ago,  I was running the countdown that gave way to a new challenge. A milestone more achieved in this path of constant innovation that I undertook together with colleagues, there present, more than 15 years ago. When the 40-meter-wide curtain came down, the first life-size Hyperloop capsule in the world was discovered in our facility at El Puerto de Santa Maria (Cadiz-Spain). Completely made by AIRTIFICIAL, and with Spanish talent, Andalusian. When I addressed some words to the guests, I could not avoid, nor did I wanted, the emotion to accompany me on stage. I only understand work with passion, with commitment, with dedication. And in addition to the objective fact of inaugurating what has become a revolution in the world of transport, there were people there with whom I have sweated, and I have shared the worst moments, and also the best, as I spoke about there.

Here I leave the words I said not even seven days ago. Here I leave you part of my thoughts and my emotions at such an important moment. Here I leave my involvement with all those who have made possible, and continue to do so, that so far with CARBURES, and henceforth with AIRTIFICIAL, we continue to meet goals. Hyperloop, a new challenge, a milestone. Continue Reading →